Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/87

 ii s. xi JAN. 23, 1915 j NOTES AND QUERIES.

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a squadron in the field " (' Oth.,' I. i.). And in both of those plays, in the scenes just referred to, the " bookish theoric " of war is satirized. Parolles's comparison of Du- main with the drummer that preceded a company of strolling players was probably due to his knowledge of the importance of the soldier that carried the drum, with his smatter of languages, and what appeared a ridiculous imitation of military custom..

The military disliked the players marching to the beats of a drum, and sometimes, when the players entered a town where soldiers were quartered, a fight ensued, often ending in a riot. This explanation may supply the point to Parolles's remark. In III. vi. Parolles's vexation at the loss of his drum is not clear from the text, so it is necessary to add that the colours were attached to that instrument in those times.

TOM JONES.

' THE SLANG DICTIONARY,' BY JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN (11 S. x. 488 ; xi. 30). I quite think that Mr. Hotten was the virtual author of this, whatever assistance he may have had from contributors. I offered him In 1865, some remarks on his first edition and he was pleased to write that " amongst the many communications " he had received concerning his publication there were few more suggestive than mine, which in a future edition would certainly be laid under contribution, and he intimated that any other notes on the subject would be received with thanks.

In a subsequent letter to me Mr. Hotten told me that he had " just finished my seven years' labour on a ' History of Signboards.' " This was in July, 1866. ST. SWITHIN.

EOBINSONS OF HlNTON ABBEY, BATH

<11 S. x. 410, 491). The following pedigree shows the descent of my grandmother, Mrs. Eliza Barnard Dryden, from Admiral Mark Robinson, who died at Bath in 1799.

Mrs. Dryden, who was born in 1809, and Avho died in 1903, often spoke of visits paid by her, when young, to Hinton Abbey, to her cousin Harold Brooke, and I have numerous letters to and from her brothers containing references to the family resident there. Mrs. Dryden spent much of her early life in Bath and at Freshford, where her grandfather had a country house.

I cannot discover the relationship between the Skottowes or Robinsons and Harold Brooke, unless Admiral Mark Robinson was of the same family as Walter Robinson. Tradition derives the Admiral from the

Robinsons of Appleby, co. Westmorland, from whom possibly Walter Robinson may have also descended :

Mark Robinson, Admiral^Elizabeth, dau. of

K.N.,

b. about 1720,

made his will at Bath,

24 March, 1795, and

d. 23 Nov., 1799,

bur. at Bathwick.

John Vining Read,

in. abont 1746,

d.1775.

Elizabeth MarkRobinson,=pMargaret Catherine Charles=p

tn. Admiral R.N.,

James b. about 1753, Clare of Freshford [? Glaze] and Bath, of Bath, co. Somerset, apothecary. d. 1834, bur. at Freshford.

Withers, in. (?) m. at Col. John Wor- Miller, cester, R.M. d. 1793.

Robin- son, R.N.

Thomas Pitt Robinson, R.N.,

d. at Wid- combe, Bath,

1861.

Elizibeth=pGeorge Augustus

Catherine, b. 1783.

Fredeiick

Skottowe, R.N.,

TO. 1801,

d. 1817,

bur. at Walcot, near Baih.

Eliza Barnard.^Charles Beville Dryden, youngest

b. 1809, d. 1903.

son of Sir John Dryden, Bart , of Canons Ashby, co. Northants.

PERCY D. MUNDY.

RETROSPECTIVE HERALDRY (11 S. xi. 28). To the four questions under the above heading I venture to offer the following replies :

1. In memorializing for a patent of arms the petitioner generally prays for the arms to be granted to himself and his issue. When brothers join as memorialists, it is customary for the eldest brother to ask for the arms to be granted to himself and to the other descendants of his late father, naming him (sometimes the brothers also are named). Occasionally cousins wish to be included within the limitations of one patent, in which case the memorialist begs for the arms to be granted to himself and to the other living descendants (of the same name) of his late grandfather. Patents of this kind are issued nowadays, as in the past.

2. The value of such heraldry is the same in 1915 as it was hundreds of years ago when similar patents were being issued. His Majesty's College'of Arms in England and the Offices of Arms in Scotland and Ireland are branches of the Royal Household, the Kings of Arms and Heralds holding their offices under the Royal Seal. As long as the granting of arms is a prerogative of the sovereign, armorial bearings must have a social value.