Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/191

 10 s. XIL AUG. 21, im] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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FABNESE ARMS (10 S. xii. 87). In Mrs. Bury Palliser' s ' Historic Devices, Badges, and War - Cries,' 1870, p. 100, is the following foot-note : " The Farnese arms are Or, six flenrs de lis azure, three, two, and one." This note concerns a descrip- tion of one of the devices of Cardinal Ales- sandro Farnese (died 1589), grandson of Paul III. This device was an arrow pierc- ing the centre of a target with the motto BaAA. ovrw5, throw or shoot thus (Homer, ' Iliad,' viii. 282).

" As all eyes were turned upon him, he meant to show that he should have one mark or end in view, and pursue it with a steady aim, neither diverting from his course nor acting by chance."

On p. 101 is a figure of the device a round target fixed on the face of a round tower, which stands on a rock. An arrow, about twice as long as the tower is high, has its point in the centre of the target ; in the background are water, land, and sky ; in the right-hand top corner the motto BaAA. ovrws in capital letters, of course without accents, &c. Mrs. Palliser adds (p. 100) :

"Cardinal Farnese also saying that in the first year of his cardinalate fortune had been propitious to him, even in his most secret wishes, Giovio gave him for device a blank paper, with the motto, Votis subscribent fata secundis, ' The fates will promote fortunate vows,' which device the Cardinal had embroidered upon his portitre." Giovio stands, I think, for Paolo Giovio, Vescovo di Nocera, author of ' Dialogo delle Imprese Militari ed Amorose,' Lyon, 1555 and 1559 (see ibid., p. 3, and Brunet's
 * Manuel').

Mrs. Palliser gives also the devices of Alessandro Farnese, Pope Paul III. ; Ales- sandro Farnese, third Duke of Parma ; Bertoldo Farnese ; Orazio Farnese, Duke of Castro ; and Ottavio Farnese, second Duke of Parma. ROBERT PIERPOINT.

The arms of Farnese are not those ques- tioned by MR. ROSENTHAL. They are Or, six fleurs-de-lis azure.

ST. CLAIR BADDELEY.

Dr. Woodward in his treatise on ' Ecclesi- astical Heraldry,' published in 1894, de- scribes the Farnese arms as Or, six fleurs- de-lis azure, 3, 2, 1. (This coat- has a bordure on the monument in the church of the Ara Coeli.) CHARLES GORDON.

Cambridge.

CHAUCER : " STROTHIR " IN * THE REEVE'S TALE' (10 S. xii. 90). Surely Wright's assertion is merely a bad guess. By " Strothir " I suppose that Strother is really meant, and not Langstrothdale at all. Being from home, I cannot quote my note

upon the line ; but I do not understand upon what principle that note is to be disregarded as being non-existent. I expressly discuss the dialect. WALTER W. SKEAT.

Mr. Gollancz has pointed out that the Strother family of Northumberland, famous in the fourteenth century, was a branch of the Strothers of Castle Strother in Glendale, to the west of Wooler, and that the chief member of this northern branch seems to have been Alan the younger, who died in 1381, and was father of a John de Strother. In the tale scholar John swears appro- priately by St. Cuthbert. A. R. BAYLEY.

HOLLOW LOAF FORETELLING DEATH (10 S. xii. 88). The notion regarding the hollow loaf which obtains in Pembrokeshire is precisely the reverse of that already men- tioned under this heading. Down there they say it foretells a birth. More than that, they say, "Mrs. Baker is going to have a child." ST. CLAIR BADDELEY,

Pains wick, Glos.

Some years ago an old lady, a native of Penshurst, Kent, explained to me that a " very big hole " in a loaf of bread signified that the owner would shortly lose by death a near relative ; but that if the hole were but a " medium-sized " one, the relative would be a distant one. This is the only occasion that I have heard anything similar to the superstition mentioned by MR. JENNINGS. There is, however, a superstition in this part of Kent that to buy a hollow loaf brings bad luck.

R. VAUGHAN GOWER.

Ferndale Lodge, Tunbridge Wells.

In Yorkshire and Lincolnshire a hollow in a loaf is called a grave, and is held to signify death. It is unlucky to place a loaf upon the table upside down. H. A.

I have met with this superstition in South Notts and on the Derbyshire border.

C. C. B.

GAINSBOROUGH, ARCHITECT, c. 1300 (10 S. xi. 449 ; xii. 18,. 93). The following passage occurs in Adam Stark's 'History of Gains- burgh,' London, 1817, p. 140 :

"Richard de Gaynisburgh. It is probable he is the same person, although then stiled Richard de Stow, with whom the Dean and Chapter ot Lincoln, in 1306, contracted 'to attend to, and employ other masons under him, for the new work ; at which time, the new additional east-end, as well as the upper parts of the great tower and the transepts, were done. He contracted to do the plain work by measure, and the fine carved work and image by the day.'"

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