Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/614

 508 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io» s. iv. DKC. 23, majority of queer surnames under "Dutchy " or " Frenchy." That clever creature Miss Tarbell, in her voluminous, quite ferocious biography of Mr. Rockefeller, pretends to have traced his will-o'-the-wisp grandfather to a natal spot in Western Massachusetts called Mud Creek. No such spot exists. Moreover, no early trace of the surname is found in any of the New England States. Except when " raised " out in the Far West, the New Englander seldom uses the word "creek" to denote a brook. Now it is begin- ning to be whispered that the first Rocke- feller to illuminate the American continent (labelled Rockafellow) was none other than an indigent, untitled, hard-headed, hard- working, seventeenth - century immigrant yeoman, emitting the rough irregular " early fSaxon English " peculiar to one " raised " in Scotland. In view of this whispering I shall be glad to be favoured with examples of Rockefeller either as a British place-name or full-fledged British surname of late or early days. J. G. C. Boston, Massachusetts. Qutriez. 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. 4 KING NUTCRACKER.' — There is a little Christmas book of which the title-page runs: " King Nutcracker and the Poor Boy Rein- hold, a Christmas Story with Pictures. Rendered into English Verse, from the cele- brated German Work of Heinricn Hoffman, by A. H. Published by W. S. Orr & Co. 1854." Who was A. H. ? The verses are unequal, but; are rather cleverly turned, as, for example, the fol- lowing :— The King makes sign ; and prodigy ! Comes the whole Struwelpeterie, With Struwelpeter at their head. And next to him the cruel Fred. Young Suck-a-thumb is sucking still, And ndgetting conies fidget Phil; The cloth is o er his shoulders thrown, Which Hans, of course, soon treads upon, As with his usual vacant stare He comes along with head in air. Robert with umbrella walks, And Kaspar's ghost behind him stalks ; The inky boys come last in view, Completing this most motley crew. I am inclined to think that Struwelpeterie is an interpolation of the translator A. H. The illustrations to the book appear to have been designed by Alfred Crowquill, and are probably taken from a German original. The book has long been out of print, and it might be worth while for some publisher to reissue it. JOHN HEBB. QUEEN ELIZABETH'S PORTRAIT IN HOLT- ROOD.—In the Palace of Holyrood there is a portrait of Queen Elizabeth, traditionally reported to have been a birthday gift from her to Queen Mary. This is doubtful, as the painting is considered to belong to the school of Gheeraedts, a painter who did not come to England till 1580, when Queen Mary was a prisoner far from Holyrood. Lately, a version of this picture has been discovered at Siena, supposed to have been a present to the Grand Duke about 1588. This painting differs from the other only in the back- ground. The Queen holds in her left hand a colander, inscribed in both paintings with the following legend: A TERRA IL BEN—IL MAL DIMORA IN SELLA ; which may be inter- preted " The good [falls] to the ground ; the evil remains in the saddle." At first sight I was inclined to suspect that this inscription upon the Holyrood por- trait had been added sarcastically by some devoted adherent of Queen Mary ; but its repetition on the Siena painting puts this out of the question. It is evidently a reference to the sifting action of the colander, allowing the good material to fall through, and retaining the bad. I should feel grateful were anybody well acquainted with Italian literature able to recognize the sentence as a quotation or proverbial saying. HERBERT MAXWELL. TOBY'S DOG.—Can you give me any explana- tion of the following extract from ' Domestic State Papers,' vol. xlvii., at the Record Office? "1640, Feb. 22. John Ash ton, prisoner in the Fleet, was fined 2001. for making a preachment on Toby's dog." R. O. ASSHETON. The Gable House, Bilton, Rugby. HERALDIC.—Can any of your readers kindly say whose the following arms were ?—Argent, a chevron sable charged with a bezant or, between three mullets of the third. SADI. MAIDLOAV.—Will some reader kindly explain the etymology of the name Maidlow 1 Was the name known before the year 1800 ? W. " PASSIVE RESISTER."—Is there any literary history for this phrase? Who is the coiner of the current term ? In Edersheim's 'Life and Times of Jesns the Messiah," chap. v. p. 67 (first published October, 1883), occurs the following reference