Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/281

 10* 8. V. MARCH 24, 1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

229

the Marquess of Salisbury's arms are noi registered at the College of Arras ; also that there are many other good old families in a similar position with regard to their arms Can any correspondent inform me if this is the case with regard to Lord Salisbury, anc give me the names of any other old families whose arms are not registered ? A reference to the statement in The Ancestor would also oblige. G. S. PARRY, Lieut.-Col.

18, Hyde Gardens, Eastbourne.

FEMALE VIOLINISTS. I shall be extremely glad if any musical reader of 'N. & Q.' wil give me information as to the earliest known female violinist nationality, name, and the period in which she lived, and where any account of her may be found.

BERTHA HARRISON.

Burlington House, Piccadilly.

ROBERT BARKER : "!F I IT LOSE," &c. In an old Bible in my possession is written on a blank page " Robert Barker, 1626," and on another blank page :

I Robert Barker prest dyd wryt thys

Si the Byble Bybele the 2nd (?) daye of february and y me I Robert Barker Christ Church (??) In the Feramants (?) yf I yt lose and you yt fynd 1 pray you for to be so kynd as for to let me have my boke Agane and ye shall have no wurse But a penni to put in youre purse.

On the first-mentioned page is a further in- scription, part of which reads "Robert Barker prest B A " ; where the st of prest has been whimsically made identical in shape with the black-letter capital A, so that the letters may be read " pre A B A."

Who was Robert Barker? Are the lines "If I it lose, and you it find," &c., original, or a tag 1 If the latter, can they be traced earlier than Mr. Barker 1 ?

I may add that the handwriting is most outrageous. At first I positively tried to decipher it as Hebrew.

R. JOHNSON WALKER. Little Holland House, Kensington.

WARDLE. I should be obliged if any of your readers could furnish me with informa- tion about a gentleman of this name an artist, I think who lived in Bloomfield Terrace, Pimlico, in 1861. The name is a North- Country one, and it is probable he belonged to the neighbourhood of Newcastle- on-Tyne. I should like to know where he lived subsequently to the year named ; whether he was married and had any family ; and, if dead, where and when he died.

W. SANDFORD. 13, Ferudale Road, Clapham, S.W.

PANCAKES IN THE FOWL- PEN. It may be worth noting, as it certainly is interesting to know, that in many places in the Midlands the first pancake made is thrown hot from the pan amongst the fowls in the hen-pens for luck at the present time. At a place hard by here this was done last Shrove Tuesday, when the first three cakes made were tossed to the fowls. How might this particular form of tossing arise, and when ? THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

WINCH FAMILY. The coat of arms of Winch, of Berks and Essex, according to the Heralds' Visitations of those counties, is charged with a canton azure semee of fleurs- de-lis, which was, as is well known, the ancient coat of the kings of France. I am informed on good authority that this is evidently a case of honourable augmentation, granted probably for some French service in Plantagenet times. The coat of Lane, for example, of King's Bromley, who assisted Charles II. after Worcester fight, was aug- mented by Charles, who gave him a canton of England in recognition of his services and to perpetuate the memory of his assistance. Can any one say under what circumstances the Winch canton was acquired ? The Visita- tions are silent on the point.

GEORGE F. T. SHERWOOD. 50, Beecroft Road, Brockley, 8.E.

ASTRONOMY IN FICTION. Would any of your correspondents kindly give me a few references for astronomy in fiction 1 I should be glad to know also if the sun is meant by "Sirius " in many poetical pieces.

HEUGHER.

[Among such novels is Mr. Hardy's * Two on a Tower.']

44 ROSE OF JERICHO." This well-known ' Resurrection " plant perhaps received its name from being supposed to answer to the rose plants in Jericho" (Ecclus. xxiv. 14). What is the earliest known occurrence of f rose of Jericho" in literature?

C. S. WARD.

' THE NATIONAL INSTRUCTOR/ Who was

he editor of this periodical ? and how long

did it exist? It was published in weekly

penny numbers, and I have seen a volume


 * ontaining Nos. 1-32, commencing 25 May,

850. It was issued in the interests of the

Jhartist agitation, and each of the thirty-

wo numbers contains chapters of the * Life

and Adventures of Feargus O'Connor, Esq.,

M.P., with a Sketch of the Persecutions of

lis Family,' which have probably not been