Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/88

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NOTES AND QUERIES. tiis.xi. JAN. 23, 1915.

3. Arms are not granted to dead men, therefore the term " retrospective heraldry " is incorrect. As to the reckoning of fees by the number of generations included, the fees are the same for the patent in each case described above. The position as regards fees is, therefore, the opposite to that implied in the question, for, instead of each brother or cousin being obliged to take out a separate patent, the various members of the family are allowed to be included in one patent.

4. The fees payable to H.M. College of Arms upon the passing of a patent of arms amount to 661. 10s., plus a 10Z. duty stamp. In 1811 the fees were the same, or a pound less. LEO C.

Such " retrospective heraldry " as G. J. speaks of i.e., the granting of a coat of arms to the grantee and his descendants, and also to the other descendants of his immediate ancestor, or sometimes, but more rarely, ancestors is still, I believe, a thing of modern usage. The " ordinary heraldic manuals," being, for the most part, treatises upon heraldry as an exact science, do not, I can quite understand, deal with such questions as these ; but I would refer your corre- spondent to a modern very practical treatise in which the question is referred to at some length. It is Mr. A. C. Fox-Davies's excel- lent little book ' The Bight to Bear Arms ' (2nd ed., 1900), the result of a series of papers originally published in The Saturday Review under the pseudonym of X.

In chap, iv., dealing with the ' Granting of Arms,' after giving a specimen of an ordinary grant by the English College of Arms temp. 1569, Mr. Fox-Davies gives (pp. 113-15) a recent instance of a grant

"to be borne and used for ever hereafter by him

the said [the grantee] and his descendants,

and by the other descendants of his father, the said deceased," &c.

At p. 165 he gives what he styles a typical Scottish grant of arms made in 1886, in which the limitation is

"to the said [the grantee] and to his

descendants, and to the other descendants of his said grandfather" &c.

At p. 193 Mr. Fox-Davies says, in speaking of an Irish "confirmation " of a coat of arms by Ulster King- of -Arms :

" The limitations are usually to the descendants of the father or grandfather, but where proper and sufficient reason has been shown these limits have been extended on some occasions in a very wide- reaching manner."

As an instance of this, he gives (pp. 193-5) " a typical Irish confirmation of arms issued in 1893," in which the limitation is

"unto the said [the granteel and his

descendants, and to the other descendants of his said great-great grandfather" &c. ;

and on pp. 195-6 one of 1874, in which the limitation is to the grantee

" and his descendants, and the other descendants of his aforesaid grandfather,"" &c.

Of what these proper and sufficient reasons for the granting of such " wide- reaching " limitations consist I must confess I am ignorant, or " what the value of such heraldry may be from any. point of view," though they may, perhaps, be surmised. They are apparently all creations of quite modern date, and one would have thought that an ignobilis, or non-armjgerous person, on applying for a grant of arms would prefer to take the grant to himself and his own descendants.

I believe that the cost or fees attendant upon the grant of a modern coat of arms by the English College of Arms would be ratheV over 70L J. S. UDAL, F.S.A.

"BOCHES" (11 S. x. 367, 416, 454, 495). The following explanation of the origin of this word seems worthy of record. It is from The Globe of 11 Jan., 1915 :

" The ' argot ' of the French capital contains numerous examples of place-names and other words whose final syllables are altered in a some- what curious way. For instance, the Bastille becomes the Bastoche, Paris itself appears as Pantruche, and ' amincne ' for ' ami ' is common in certain walks of society. By the operations of this natural law, ' Allemand ' has become ' Alle- boche,' a term which has been current for years, and the tendency to abbreviate, an invariable- characteristic of slang, inevitably produces ' Boche.' We venture to offer this as the true solution of a problem which seems to have interested quite a number of people."

G. S. PARRY, Lieut,-Col. 17, Ashley Mansions, S.W.

BARLOW (11 S. xi. 30). In ' Surnames of the United Kingdom,' by Henry Harrison,, vol. i., London, 1912, the following is given as the meaning and etymology :

"Barlow (Eng.) Belonging to Barlow = 1. the- Bare Hill (O.E. baer+hlcew). 2. Bera's Tumulus (A. -Sax. * Reran- hlcew Beran-< genit. of Bera = Bear). 3. the Boar Hill (O.E. Koger de Barlowe, A.D. 1336, Lane. Fines.

C. W. FlREBRACE.

Low in place-names usually, I believe, signifies a hill or mound ; bar is an old form of bare, which still persists in many of our dialects. These give us bare hill, which may be the meaning of Barlow. The surname is- doubtless traceable to the place-name.

C. C. B. [A. C. C. also thanked for reply.]