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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vm. JULY 19, 1913. made what was probably his first attempt at portrait-painting. Nelly was invited to a dance, and naturally took pains to dress as well as possible. Phillip had never seen her looking so "braw" as when she thus appeared before him all in white, and he declared that he would paint her picture, "an' paint her richt too." So Nelly's portrait was painted, and is now in Edinburgh; but Nelly herself was of those whom the gods love, and died young. He also painted for Mrs. Allardyce the signboard with the Gordon arms. In time the inn was done away with, and long afterwards the signboard was found in an outhouse connected with Parkhill House, the residence of the late John Gordon of Parkhill, Pitlurg, and Dyce. By his instructions it was cleaned 'and put into Parkhill House for preservation.

Some time after Mr. Gordon's death his son let the house, and sent the family pictures to Robert Gordon's College, Aberdeen. What became of the signboard is unknown.

THE MARQUESSATE OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 'The creation of this title is noteworthy for more than one reason. In the first place, for many years English county titles have been bestowed only on royal princes. I believe that the last creation in favour of a subject below the blood -royal was the mar- quessate of Stafford, in 1786.

A more important point is that there was ^already an earldom of Lincoln in existence, created in 1572 in favour of Lord Clinton, and now held by his descendant, the Duke of Newcastle. Even assuming that the earldom is of the city and not the county, this would seem likely to lead to confusion, .and I believe that there is no exact precedent lor such a duplication of titles, although there have been two instances somewhat similar. In 1837 " Coke of Norfolk " was created " Earl of Leicester, of Holkham " {which reads like a contradiction in terms), though the Marquess Townshend held the earldom of Leicester created in 1784 : probably the early extinction of the latter title was anticipated. And in 1784 Earl 'Temple was created Marquess of Bucking- ham, although the Hobarts had been Earls of Buckinghamshire since 1746. I remember reading somewhere that " Buckinghamshire,' instead of " Buckingham," was adopted as the title in 1746, and also in the case of the dukedom held by the Sheffields from 1703 to 1735, owing to the existence of claimants to'the earldom of Buckingham bestowed on

he notorious George Villiers in 1617. (The ^emainder included his brother, Viscount Purbeck, but. as it was known that the latter not the father of his wife's son, the House of Lords refused to acknowledge the claim of their descendants.) This suggests hat the earldom of 1617 w y as the earldom of the town of Buckingham, but it would be more natural to suppose that it was of the county of Buckingham. This leads to a really important point.

In the reign of Elizabeth, when the arldom of Lincoln was created, an earl was still normally earl of a county comes comitatus. This was sometimes obscured the fact that the earl might take his usual style from the capital of his county, instead of from the county itself ; a surviv- ng instance of this practice is the earldom of Shropshire (1442), the earls of which have always been styled Earls of Shrewsbury. So the Earls of Lincoln presumably held the earldom of Lincolnshire. It is difficult to believe that Elizabeth would do anything so eccentric as to create an earldom of the city, instead of the county ; but it is also difficult to believe that the Crown's present advisers would sanction the creation of a marquessate of Lincolnshire if an earldom of Lincolnshire were already held by another peer. Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' find out the actual wording of the Letters Patent of 1572 ? If the earldom is of the county of Lincoln, it is even possible that the validity of the marquessate might be technically impugned. G. H. WHITE.

St. Cross, Harleston, Norfolk.

UNNOTED SHAKESPEARE ALLUSIONS IN THOMAS SHAD WELL :

1668.

Ninny. 'Pshaw! you! I '11 pluck bright Honour from the pale-fac'd Moon, (as my Friend Hot-spur says ) what do you talk of that ?

' Sullen Lovers,' 1720 ed., vol. i. p. 94. 1 Cl(erk) [reads]. I do acknowledge, and firmly believe, that the Play of Sir Positive At-All, Knight, called The Lady in the Lobster, notwith- standing it was damn'd by the Malice of the Age, shall not only read, but it shall act with any of Ben Jonson's, and Beaumont's and Fletcher's

Plays

Sir Positive}. Hold, hold ! I '11 have Shake- ear's in ; 'slife, I had like to have forgot that.

spear s

Sullen Lovers,' 1720 ed., vol. i. p. 60. 1673.

Bev(il). What, I warrant, you think we did not know you ?

Lucia. O ! yes, as Falstaff did the true Prince, by Instinct. You are brisk Men, I see ; you run at all.

' Epsom- Wells,' 1720 ed., vol. ii. p. 225.