Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/433

 n s. xii. NOV. 27, MS.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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that James T. adopted the harp, but without the crown, as a quartering for Ireland, and continued the use of the crowned harp as the badge of that kingdom.

Dr. Woodward has also some interesting remarks to make upon the subject of this grant to Robert de Vere. He there (p. 399) styles the grantee " Marquess of Dublin and Duke of Ireland " ; but on Doyle's authority this conjunction, or substitution, had not then been effected. According to him, the three crowns in pale (in Doyle's illustration, ii. 729, the crowns are two and one) appear on the Irish coins of Henry V. (which is not many years after the grant to Robert de Vere) and his successors. He continues :

" It is not clear why the bearings were considered appropriate to Ireland. But it is certain that, previous to this date, Ireland had no other well- aetermined armorial ensign, otherwise it, and not this coat, would naturally have been assigned to the royal favourite."

Dr. Woodward goes on to say that Henry VIII. substituted the present harp for the crowns upon his coinage, but he did not use the harp in his armorial bearings.

It would appear, then, that in those earlier dfcys, in the absence of any recognized arms for Ireland, the open crowns were used, apparently, with some Irish significance ; and at Elizabeth's funeral we see that the Irish harp was borne crowned with an open crown, which has been used since as the badge of that kingdom.

Boutell, again, who no more than Dr. Woodward can be considered as an incom- petent or careless heraldic writer, in his ' Heraldry, Historical and Popular' (1864), has some interesting remarks to make on this subject. Speaking of " augmentations " to arms and of their valuable significance when connected with some well-known his- torical event, or arising out of some memorable incident, he says (p. 434) :

"Another most remarkable example of an earlier period is the augmentation granted by Richard II. to his favourite, Robert de Vere, K.G., ninth Earl of Oxford, Marquess of Dublin, and [sic] Duke of Ireland : Az., three crowns or, within a bordure argent, being a differenced coat of St. Edmund, to be borne quarterly with the arms of De Vere. This augmentation appears to have been regarded as the Arms of Ireland. (See Mr. J. Gough Nichol's [sic] Paper on the Earldom of Oxford in vol. ix. of Arckceol. Journal.)"

Although, therefore, Mr. Fox-Davies may not have been quite accurate in representing the coat granted to Robert de Vere as the " arms of Ireland," yet I think sufficient has been shown to make us believe that his fault as an heraldic writer has not beenof so heinous a character as Dr. Round makes out, and

that whatever may have been the inten- tion of the King in granting to his favourite who was then Marquess of Dublin the coat in question, some of its acces- sories have been continued with a clear Irish significance. J. S. UDAL, F.S.A.

THE FABRIC OP CATHEDRALS (11 S. xiL 200, 261, 325, 365). An important contri- - bution to this subject, which I overlooked when I wrote my first reply, may be found in William Harrison's 'Description of England," printed in vol. i. of Holinshed's ' Chronicles,' pp. 394-6, where the subject ' Of Quarries of Stone for Building ' is dealt with. There are references to all the princi- pal quarries in England including Hamdon, Purbeck, Clee Hill, and many others which are still actively worked. Clee Hill supplies the finest stone used for road-making iit England to-day.

Harrison alludes to quarries of stone^ slate, flint, and " peble," and also to the- many uses made of foreign stone in building..

May I say that the name of the author of ' England's Chronicle in Stone ' is J. F* Hunnewell (not Hunwell, as printed ift MR. J. WATSON'S reply).

A. L. HUMPHREYS.

SHIPTON - UNDER - WYCHWOOD, OXFORD- SHIRE ( 1 1 S. xii. 380) Your correspondent should consult the 'List and Index of Court Rolls in the P.R.O.,' 1896, pp. 275-6, and he will find details of a large number of Court Rolls relating to Shipton-under- Wychwood and neighbouring villages. The Proceedings of the North Oxfordshire Archaeo- logical Society are full of good papers upon this neighbourhood. Mrs. Sturge Henderson's book ' Three Centuries of .North Oxford- shire,' issued in 1902, is a work of the- greatest value and interest, and has a chapter specially dealing with Wychwood Forest. The sixteenth chapter of H. A. Evanses * Highways and Byways in the Cotswolds ' (1905) also deals with the same subject. Vols. iv.,v.,and vi.of P.C.C. Wills contain numerous Shipton-under- Wychwood wills. John Fisher's ' History of Burford/ 1861, and W. H. Hutton's ' By Thames and Cotswold,' 1903, deal largely with the same district. The MSS. of Burford Corporation are dealt with in the Hist. MSS. Comm. Report ' Various Collections,' vol. i. Best of all is a work put together with great skill, industry, and knowledge by Vernon J. Watney, the present owner of Cornbury, the big house close to Shipton-under-\Vychwood This book, which perhaps few have seen,