Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/139

 10* s. m. FEB. 11. loos.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

Ill

Although old leaden fonts are by no means rare, I know of no ancient brazen one in this county, nor does Paley ('Illustrations of Baptismal Fonts,' 1844) refer to the existence of any. I have, however, seen bronze ones abroad. HARRY HEMS.

Fair Park, Exeter.

On the occasion of my first pilgrimage to Edinburgh, many years ago, I purchased in the course of my rambles in Holyrood Palace a little book of 192 pages, entitled "History of Holyrood, with Descriptive Guide and Cata- logue of Portraits and Paintings. Edinburgh: lloberfc M'Bean, Keeper of the Chapel-Royal "; and the following excerpt therefrom may perhaps interest Q. W. V. :

'The successor of Archibald Crawford, who died in 1483, as Abbot of Holyrood, was Robert Bellenden, an ecclesiastic distinguished by his humanity to the poor and his liberality to the Abbey, which he covered with lead. Among his munificent gifts were the 'great bells,' the 'great brass font,' and a ' chalice of fine gold.' The font is probably the one which Sir Richard Lea, Captain of Pioneers in the Hertford invasion, carried off ' in the tumult of the conflagation,' and which he presented to the church of St. Albans, with the magniloquent inscription engraved on it which Cam den has preserved. The Scottish font is made most unpatriotically to say (luckily in Latin) :

' ' When Leith, a town of good account in Scot- land, and Edinburgh, the principal city of that nation, were on tire, Sir Richard Lea, Knyght, saved me out of the flames, and brought me to England. In gratitude for his kindness, I, who heretofore served only at the baptism of kings, do now most willingly render the same service even to the meanest of the English nation. Lea the con- queror hath so commanded ! Adieu. The year of man's salvation, 1543-4, in the thirty-sixth year of King Henry VIII.'

4i This font was afterwards conquered by the Roundheads, and sold as old metal." See p. 24. HENRY GERALD HOPE.

119, Elms Road, Clapham, S.W.

[MR. ANDREW OLIVER also refers to Mr. Gallo- way's paper.]

TORPEDOES, SUBMARINES, AND RIFLED CANNON (10 th S. iii. 89). Every history of the submarine and many have come out lately mentions the offer of them by an inventor to the Governments of the United States,France, and the United Kingdom. They were tried and rejected by Pitt, and tried and for a time adopted by Napoleon. Considering the difficulties of the original invention, the development of the submarine a century ago was most remarkable. D.

" THE HUNGRY FORTIES " (10 th S. iii. 87). The origin of the title, as far as I am aware, is to be found in a letter addressed to an anti- bread tax meeting at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, about eighteen months ago, by

my wife. I believe this is the first time it was used, and by Mrs. Unwin. My wish is to fix the origin of the title once and for all ; it has now become a phrase in literature, and I hear it everywhere quite apart from the book. Mr. Chamberlain himself has used it more than once. T. FISHER UNWIN.

HERALDIC MOTTOES (10 th S. iii. 49, 92). MR. LLEWELYN LLOYD will find a list of punning mottoes at 7 th S. v. 401.

PI. K. H.

SoTHEPvN's LONDON RESIDENCE (10 th S. iii. 88). Sothern lived for many years at a beautiful house, with a garden in front and in the rear, called The Cedars, South Ken- sington. I stayed with him there often between 1865 and 1872. H. A. STRONG.

A curious slip has occurred in the note to my short communication. Kensington should, of course, stand for " Hampstead. :> We have Lanes in this delightful suburb, but not a Wright's Lane that I am aware of.

CECIL CLARKE.

[The slip is ours. We dined more than once with Sothern in Wright's Lane, Kensington.]

CON- CONTRACTION (10 th S. ii. 427). Qui- RINUS asks whether the letter C was ever known as "the horn." It is so referred to in ' Love's Labour 's Lost,' where we have " What is AB spelt backward with the horn on his head ? "

AB spelt backward is BA

and the words " horn J represent .f C^

The words quoted occur in the 33rd line of I their page in the First Folio, and 33 is the sum of the position-numbers, in the twenty-four- letter alphabet in use in 1623, of the five letters given above, thus :

2 1 3 14 13=33 B A C X.

A. J. WILLIAMS.

JOHN WESLEY AND GARDENS (10 th S. i. 349). James Gordon, the " eminent " nurseryman of Mile End, is mentioned frequently by botanical writers. Peter Coliinson (Lysons's 'Environs of London,' supplement, p. 447), writing in 1764, describes him as "most celebrated." Lysons (p. 147) says he first introduced the Sophora, japonica into Eng- land ; and (p. 492) that he had his grounds. in the parish of Stratford, Bow, and St. Leonard's, Bromley. He was "well known for his extensive culture of exotic plants." According to the ' Annual Register ' he gave his name to the well-known order of plants called Gordonia, about 1776. He is men- tioned in Richard Wesfcon'a ' Critical Remarks