Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/649

 10* s. ii. DEC. si, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

537

'had ever learnt by heart, and he believed it would be the last he should forget. Hardy- knute and the Stewart who had command of a portion of the Scottish army at the battle of Largs are supposed by some students to be one and the same individual. The castle referred to in the second stanza is by tradition, if not in other ways, said to be 'Glengarnock, about two miles from Kilbirnie, and its ruins standing on a ridge overhanging the river Garnock, accessible on one side only, show that it must have been a place of .great strength. 'Hardyknute' "revived" in modern days the battle of Largs.

With the exception, perhaps, of a couple of lines, the following stanza, referring to the slaughter of the Danes, is exceedingly ^beautiful and pathetic :

On Norway's coast the widow'd dame May wash the rocks with tears

May lang look o'er the shipless seas Before her mate appears.

Cease, Emma, cease to hope in vain, Thy lord lies in the clay :

The valiant Scots nae reivers thole To carry life away.

It is a rather strange coincidence that, in connexion with the first four lines, Malcolm Laing, in his 'History of Scotland' (vol. ii. .p. 424, London ed., 1800), while discussing the authenticity of Ossian's poems, says the apostrophe to the Maid of Inistore, " Weep on thy rock of roaring winds, O Maid of Inistore ; bend thy fair head over the waves : the is fallen Thy youth is low, pale beneath the sword of Cuchulin," is borrowed from 4 Hardyknute.'

The barony of Glengarnock extends to about 1,400 acres, and originally belonged to a family named Riddell. The second son of Sir Edward Conynham, of Kilmaurs, married Jonet Riddell about 1292. Thus the estate came to the Cunninghams.

ALFRED CHAS. JONAS.

Thornton Heath.

GRIEVANCE OFFICE : JOHN LE KEUX (10 th S ii. 207, 374, 413). I was in the Civil Service from 1834 to 1888, and often heard of the 'Grievance Office. I do not think it was ever applied to any particular department, but was generally used when the officials urged itheir claims for increased remuneration which was not by any means unfrequent, in consequence of the slowness of promotion before the compulsory retirement on account of age. EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

"JES80" (10 th S. ii. 288). I think that " Jesso'' is probably the name of the pattern of the vessels, and of the design with which


 * hey are decorated. I should imagine that

one or both of these may aim at being Fapanese, and that " Jesso " is reminiscent of Yesso or Yezo. ST. SWITHIN.

See 9 th S. v. 88, 191.

H. J. B.

BARGA, ITALY (10 th S. ii. 449). Barga is the name of a commune in Tuscany, in the province of Lucca, and consists of the towns of Barga, Albiano, Campo, Castelvecchio, Loppia, Somocologna, and Tiglio. The popu- lation, according to the census of 1862, was 7,215, or 108'07 to the square kilometer. The principal productions are cereals, fruit, and plants adapted for weaving. There is a full description of Barga, both topographic and historical, in Amati's * Dizionario Corografico dell' Italia,' which is on the shelves of the Reading Room of the British Museum (2060 d), vol. i. 613-14. JOHN HEBB.

COCKADE (10 th S. ii. 407). For an answer to this query, or any other possible ques- tion which can arise on this subject, consult l ifc S. x., xi. ; 2 nd S. vii., viii., ix. ; 3 rd S. vii. ; 4 th S. iv., vi. ; 8 th S. xii. ; 9 th S. iv.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

There is a valuable article on cockades, which, I think, has not been noted, in the Genealogical Magazine for May, 1899 April, 1900, pp. 59-63.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

JORDANGATE (10 th S. ii. 448). Mr. James Croston, F.S.A., in * Local Gleanings/ vol. i. pp. 2-3, describing an early deed relating to Upton, near Prestbury, co. Chester, says :

"The first witness named in the deed is Jordan de Macclesfield, bailiff, of Macclesfield. At the time the conveyance was executed (1329) Maccles- field, which was comprised within the Earldom of Chester, was an enclosed or fortified town, and tradition affirms thatoneof the principal approaches to the town, the Jordan Gate a name still pre- served received its designation from the Jordan de Macclesfield named above, the representative of a family holding lands in Hurdsfield and Shrigley, and who was also Lord of Stavely or (Stayley, on the northern confines of the county."

A. H. ARKLE.

ISABELLINE AS A COLOUR (10 th S. i. 487 ;

ii. 75, 253, 375, 477). The reply at the last reference is more confusing than ever. The writer says he "certainly did not mean to say that / was a French prefix," and he still talks about zehelah and zibellino as if they had something to do with the matter, when there is no more connexion between them and ItdheUa than there is between isochro- nous and Socrates.