Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/319

 10 s. VIIL OCT. 5, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

261

LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1907.

CONTENTS.-NO. 197.

NOTES : The Sword of Bruce, 261 The Wardlaw Family, 262 Thackeray and Cudworth's Sermon Hodgson's, 266 Joseph Knight on the Lanreateship, 267 Lord Mayor of London The "Chops of the Channel" Master of the Horse The Eleventh Commandment, 268.

-QUERIES : " Morellianism " Lych Gates Hume's Papers " Two-Tooth ": "Two-Teeth," 268 Authors of Quotations Wanted Orange Toast Churchwardens' Accounts ' The Melton Breakfast 'Legislation against Profanity " Dry," a_s applied to Spiritous Liquors, 269 Motto: "In God is all" "Stake "in Racing Bronte =Prunty Chrisom, Baptismal Kobe Petoun Goat's Blood and Diamonds, 270 Goldsborough Shield Kay, Clerk of the Green Cloth Kilmarnock Document of 1547 Eleanor, Lady Drake, 271.

REPLIES : London Remains, 271 Constant's Memoirs- Sheep Fair on an Ancient Earthwork Medicinal Waters Lord Treasurer Godolphin Authors of Quotations Wanted, 272 " Incached," 273 "Nose of Wax" Jamaica Records The Racial Problem of Europe, 274 Tombstones and Inscriptions Greensted Church : Oak v. Chestnut, 275 Silk first mentioned in the Bible E. A. Lutyens, Painter, 276 Nonjurors : Rev. Ben- jamin Way Hayley and Blake Swift's Works : Anno- tated Editions St. Anthony's Bread' Old Tarlton's Song 'Mrs. Quentin Legless Spirits, 277 Ordinaries of Newgate, 278.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Lost Tudor Plays The Legends of the Saints.

Booksellers' Catalogues. Notices to Correspondents.

THE SWORD OF BRUCE.

No blade of steel that ever existed could possess in the eyes of Scotsmen a value so precious as a sword of their king who over- threw his enemies on the field of Bannock- Taurn. The symbol of victory, what a cherished token of freedom it should have become to the nation it carved anew from the ruin of the nation the great warrior-king and his crown-competing forbears had -themselves brought about ! For we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that had it not been for the stubborn and improper claim of the Bruces, the circumstances would not liave arisen which called for an arbiter, and made inevitable a period of distress and disgrace which only a Bannockburn could relieve. At the door of the Bruces must be laid the charge of causing Plantagenet supremacy in a land indisputably a Baliol inheritance. The disloyalty of the Bruces i,o their natural king and near kinsman effected a catastrophe that only some exceptional glory could cast back, and for the immortal honour of their name and memory one of them achieved redeeming

glory of a nature which has fallen to the lot of few men in the world. The fate of his country was hanging in the balance, and Robert Bruce decided it by the sword. No weapon that had been handled by such a war-lord could be aught but precious in the eyes of his countrymen, and the regret must therefore be that any (or all) such was not constituted a national heirloom. A sword well authenticated as having belonged to the hero is traced till the end of the seventeenth century, and not improbably is still in existence ; but not before organized search is set on foot will there be likelihood of discovering it.

In Ireland. The sword was examined and described in 1696 by an Ulster gentle- man, the descendant of one of King James's planters or undertakers from Scotland ; and had it not been for this antiquary's happy taste for chronicling, there would remain no testimony regarding the interesting weapon. In that year William Montgomery of Rosemount, county Down, writer of the Montgomery MSS., paid a visit to his kinsman Capt. Hugh Montgomery of Derry- gonelly, about ten miles from Enniskillen, in the county Fermanagh, which Hugh, he remarks, was " marry ed to a beutifull granddaughter and heiress to Sr Jo: Dum- barr," to whom Derrygonelly had belonged. These Montgomerys were descended from the family of Braidstane, Beith, an Ayr- shire parish, which until the middle of the seventeenth century consisted of two divi- sions, known as the lordship of Braidstane and the lordship of Giffen ; but in 1649 about 500 acres were annexed to Beith from an adjoining parish, to suit certain pres- byterial arrangements adopted by the Synod of Glasgow.

Mr. Montgomery stayed three nights at Derrygonelly, and relates :

" I saw a rarity at that house, to witt a two- edged sword of excellent metall (w ch this Hugh never caused to be made) but had it (I have forgott what he told mee thereof) in 36 late warr about Enniskillen. I am of y' opinion there is no smith in Ireland can forge so good a blade : for I saw it severly tryed."

The sword, he then states, was inscribed on the right-hand side of the blade thus :

Robertus Bruschius \ ioin Scotorum Rex / *

and on the reverse side :

( pro christo ) -n IT \ etPatria / D -^ K

He adds :

" There are some obliterated, or worn-out words supposed to be y e cutler's name, the Letters being