Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/231

 io s. xii. SEPT. 4, im] NOTES AND QUERIES.

187

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

JEANNE D'ARC'S ARMOUR. On 8 June, 1907 (10 S. vii. 447), I called the attention of your readers to a forgotten votive slab bearing the effigy of the heroine, in the crypt of the Abbey of St. Denis. Since then the slab has been painted and gilded, and placed under the bust of Jeanne de Bourbon ; and I published a drawing of it in Le Magasin Pittoresque, April, 1909, and in a volume, ' Jeanne d' Arc, Heroine and Healei : Docu- mentary Evidences,' Dulau and Williams & Norgate, 1909.

But I have just examined the armour formerly attributed to Jeanne at the Musee des Invalides, and I find that it is the very image of the effigy on the St. Denis slab, though not appearing to be quite so ancient. Can any one trace the pedigree of the armour in Paris ? It seems a replica or a copy, but after which model ? It is easy to say, as many do, that, not being of the very time of Jeanne, it has no authenticity ; but why do the two images resemble each other so closely. The slab at St. Denis had been ignored and forgotten long before the steel armour at the Invalides Museum was in full favour. CHARLES ROESSLER.

30, Rue Lemarois, Auteuil.

PROVINS, SEINE-ET-MARNE. The Comite d'Initiative de Provins (Seine-et-Marne) want to know dates and details when Provins was in the possession of the English, and where archival manuscripts relating to it may be consulted. (Mile.) A. THIRION.

35, Paul ton's Square, Chelsea, S.W.

1 BROWNING AS A PREACHER.' Can you tell me who is the author of an article upon Robert Browning entitled ' Browning as a Preacher ' ? The copy I have is marked " A Fragment." It is also marked in pencil " Printed for private circulation, Dublin, 1871."

I find virtually the same article, beginning " L'Art pour 1'Art," in The Living Age, November, 1871, taken, as is said, from Dark Blue, but without the author's name. The changes in the article are merely verbal. I should like to know where the article was first printed and the name of the author.

S. J. PARSONS. Los Angeles, California.

CARNAC. Where can I get the fullest details and plans of Carnac in South Brit- tany ? Kindly send replies direct to

COL. CLEATHER. Rickmansworth.

SCAWTON CHURCH, YORKS. Where can an illustrated account be seen of the little Norman church at Scawton, which lies between the Abbeys of Rievaulx and By- land ? T. CANN HUGHES, M.A., F.S.A.

ABBEY LANTERN-SLIDES. On 26 Nov., 1890, Mr. J. Grimshire lectured before the St. Paul's Ecclesiological Society on ' The Abbey Churches of England, both Perfect and Ruinous, with Suggestions as to the Treatment of the Latter.' This was illus- trated by "a very fine series of limelight views." Can any one say where the slides are now ? T. CANN HUGHES, M.A., F.S.A.

Lancaster.

BARONESS DE Ros : HER ARMS. I should be glad of information respecting the arms of Baroness de Ros. Why does Debrett give these as Arg., a saltire gu. (FitzGerald) ? When the specimen sheet was submitted to the present Baroness, she corrected the arms borne by her father, the late Baron, which were : Quarterly, 1 and 4, Gules, three water bougets arg. (for De Ros) ; 2 and 3, Arg., a saltire gu. (for FitzGerald), as she wished for the De Ros arms alone, as borne by her great-grandmother, Charlotte, Baroness de Ros, in a lozenge, with two falcons as supporters. Debrett omits the latter. KATHLEEN WARD.

Castle Ward, Downpatrick.

CAPT. MAHAN ON IRELAND'S STRATEGIC POSITION. Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' give the reference to a passage in Capt. Mahan's works where he speaks of the effects upon England's sea-power that the occupa- tion of Ireland by a foreign army would produce ? KOM OMBO.

VIRGIN MARY'S NUT. W. C. Hazlitt in ' Faiths and Folk-lore,' 1905, vol. i. p. 217,

says :

"The same author [Martin], speaking in the last century of the Isle of Harris, says : ' There is a variety of nuts, called molluska beans, some of which are used as amulets against witchcraft or an evil eye, particularly the white one ; and upon this account they are worn about children's necks, and if any evil is intended to them, they say the nut

changes into a black colour Malcolm Campbell,

steward of Harris, told me that some weeks before my arrival there, all his cows gave blood instead of milk for several days together : one of the neigh- bours told his wife that this must be witchcraft,