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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. xn. JULY 31, 1915.

BADGE. I should be glad to know the significance of a metal badge or device, over two inches in length, consisting of two battleaxes crossed saltire-wise, having sus- pended from the intersection an open hand pointing downwards, with a heart upon the extended palm. There is no engraving or lettering, and the work is modern. W. B. H.

A THIBD ALTERNATIVE. Dr. Sven Hedin is reported to have said somewhere that Germany must either win this war or go under altogether ; " there is no third alternative." But is there ever a third alter- native ? I find that the ' N.E.D.' gives under this word :

"4. Extended to, A choice between more than two things ; or one of several courses which may be chosen " ;

and quotes the following instances :

" 1848, Mill, ' Pol. Econ.,' The alternative seemed to be either death, or to be permanently supported by other people, or a radical change in the economical arrangements. 1857 Gladstone, ' Oxf. Ess.,' My decided preference is for the fourth and last of these alternatives."

A. R. BAYLEY.

' JEBROLD'S WEEKLY NEWS.' Where could I see a file of this paper for the last quarter of 1851 ? The British Museum Library has only the volume for 1849.

L. L. K.

HERBS THAT CAUSE ABORTION IN CATTLE. Ante, p. 39 5 under the heading ' Goats with Cattle,' we are told that goats " are credited with eating certain herbs on a pasture which cause abortion in cattle." I would again ask if any one can furnish the names of these " certain herbs."

JOHN T. PAGE.

Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

THE ROYAL BRITISH INSTITUTION, COWPER STREET. This society was in 1856 occupying the hall and part of the building which later was used for the Middle Class School in Cowper Street, City Road. I shall be greatly obliged by some additional data to define the period of its activities. ALECK ABRAHAMS.

HERALDIC QUERY. I want to find the approximate date of a seventeenth-century sounding-board in the church of Leonard Stanley, Glos. It bears a quartered shield with Party per chevron sa. and erm., in chief two boars' heads or, for Sandford, and Party per fesse gules and vert, a fesse arg., in r chief a chevron arg.

Of what family was the latter the arms ? The Sandfords of Leonard Stanley are said to have married into the families of Brydges, Yatt, Partridge, Drew, and Phillips in the seventeenth century. C. S.

PUBLIC FASTS, 1756 AND 1776. What were the occasions of the public fast sand prayers appointed by authority on 6 Feb., 1756, and 13 Dec., 1776 ? ISRAEL SOLOMONS.

ATLANTIS AND LEMURIA. What literature has been published on these " lost con- tinents " ? WILLIAM MACARTHUR.

Dublin.

WAS ST. THOMAS OF CANTERBURY A BENEDICTINE MONK ? In the article ' Bene- dictine ' in the 'Catholic Encyclopedia,' vol. ii. (at p. 462), I see that St. Thomas is claimed by the Rev. Dom G. Cyprian Alston, O.S.B., as a member of his order ; and in ' A Book of the Wye ' (London, 1911), at p. 181, Mr. Edward Hutton states ti at " the greatest of English saints, St. Thomas Becket, was a Benedictine." At the risk of appearing unduly ignorant, may I ask for the contemporary evidence of his having become a monk ? Bishop Challoner states that when St. Thomas was at Pontigny he ; ' put on the habit of the [Cistercian] order together with the spirit and poverty of it " ; but the Bishop does not imply that the Saint ever became a professed Cistercian. The Cis- tercians are, of course, a branch of the great Benedictine family. At the moment I am unfortunately unable to look up the question myself, but I do not remember to have seen any representation of St. Thomas in the white habit of St. Bernard, and am under the impression that at Canterbury the Saint was accustomed to wear the habit of an Augustinian Canon, and that it wa.s as a Black Canon that Sir Henry Irving repre- sented Becket at the Lyceum in Tennyson's play of that name. Am I mistaken ? After this long lapse of time it is very likely. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

POEM WANTED. Can you tell me where I could procure a copy" of some lines I read in a novel (I fancy it was) many years ago ? They were the heading to a chapter, but I have forgotten the name of the book. They were headed : ' Live to-day, To-morrow is not.' The first lines went thus :

Lecone (or Leconne), close the book of fate, For troubles are in store.

Live to-day, to-morrow is not.

R. B. HECTOR. 47, Lancaster Gate, W.