Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/279

 ii s. in. APRIL s, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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on four short legs. The word " gardevin " is or was pronounced " gar-de-vin," the last syllable riming with " din." At all events, that was our pronunciation fifty to sixty years ago. These " gardevins ' appear iiow and then in old furniture shops. ROBERT PIERPOINT.

LONG BARROWS AND RECTANGULAR EARTHWORKS (11 S. iii. 88.). The queris is no doubt acquainted with Sonnenschein' Guide,' p. 358, where certain works on the above subjects are mentioned. Perhaps some of the following books and articles may have escaped his notice :
 * Best Books,' pp. 469-70, and his ' Reader's

Wright's ' Essays in Archaeology ' has a section on ' Barrows in East Yorkshire.'

Miss Maclagan's 'Hill Forts, Stone Circles, and Sepulchral Remains of Scotland,' 1875, contains descriptions of several barrows.

Barnes's 'Ancient Britons,' 1858, deals witl

1 Earthworks of the Britons.'

Anderson's 'Scotland in Pagan Times,' 1881-2,

2 vols., discusses various antiquities. Transactions of Archaeological Inxt., 1853, deals

with ' British Barrows near Chichester.'

Xafnre, 1870, vol. i., considers 'Ancient British Long Barrows.'

"Gentleman's Magazine Library" ('Archaeology,' Part I., 1886) contains 'Barrows in Cornwall and Dorsetshire ' and ' Accounts of Encampments, Earthworks,' &c.

Transaction* Devon Association, vol. xxviii., gives 'Devonshire Assoc. Report of Barrow Committee."

Proceedings Somerset Archaeological Society, vol. xlii., contains article on 'Two Barrows on the Brendon Hills.'

T. S. R. W.

UNICORN ON ROYAL ARMS (US. iii. 187). Supporters have long been associated with the blazonry of the royal shield. They are said to have v been introduced by Edward III., to whom a lion and a falcon have been assigned. The royal supporters varied con- tinuously from the time of Edward III. until the time of James I., since when they have remained unchanged. Edward VI. had a lion or and a dragon gu. and Mary and Elizabeth had the same, with some- times a greyhound arg. replacing the dragon gu. on the sinister side. Two unicorns had succeeded to two lions as the supporters of Scotland before the birth of Mary Stuart's son, James VI. of Scotland. When James became the first Stuart King of Great Britain he assumed as his supporters a golden lion, representing England, on the dexter, and a silver unicorn, representing Scotland, on the sinister side of his shield.

The unicorn in heraldry signifies extreme courage and great virtue. At the time of its introduction as an heraldic device it was not such a fabulous creature as it is now. To its horn special virtues were attributed. John of Herse, who made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1389, gives the following interesting information :

" Near the field Helyon in the Holy Land is the river Mara, whose bitter waters Moses struck with his staff and made sweet, so that the children of Israel could drink thereof. Even now, evil and unclean beasts poison it after the going down of the sun ; but in the morning, after the powers of dark- ness have disappeared, the unicorn comes from the sea and dips its horn into the stream, and thereby expels and neutralizes the poison, so that the other animals can drink of it during the day. The fact which I describe I have seen with my own eyes."

Guillim in his ' Display of Heraldry,' 1724, p. 162, says :

" The Unicorn hath his Name of his one Horn on his Forehead. There is another Beast of a huge Strength and Greatness, which hath but one Horn, but that is growing on his Snout, whence he is called Rinoceros, and both are named Morioceros, or One- horned. It hath been much questioned among Naturalists, which it is that is properly called the Unicorn : And some have made Doubt whether there be any such Beast as this, or no. But the great Esteem of his Horn (in many places to be seen) may take away that needless Scruple."

There is an interesting account of the unicorn in Sir Thomas Browne's * Works * (vol. i., Bonn's ed., 1852, pp. 337-43).

THOMAS WM. HTJCK. Saffron Walden.

The unicorn was probably appropriated as the sinister supporter of the royal shield of England on account of its invincible strength in combat. So strong was he, says Bartholomeus (' De Proprietatibus Rerum,' trans, by J. Trevisa, bk. xviii. 90), " that he is not taken with might of hunters." Topsell in his ' Four-footed Beasts,' pp. 551-9, says that the unicorn is an

' enemy of the lions, wherefore as soon as ever a

ion seeth an Unicorn, he runneth to a tree for succour, so that when the Unicorn maketh force at him, he may not only avoid his horn, but also destroy him ; for the Unicorn in the swiftness of

lis course runneth against the tree, wherein his sharp horn sticketh fast ; then when the lion seeth

/he Unicorn fastened by the horn, without all danger, he falleth upon him and killeth him."

The former racial animosity between England and Scotland was typified in the popular interpretation placed upon the two animals, as referred to by Spenser in his Faery Queene ' (ii. 5) :

Like as a lyon, whose imperial power A prowd rebellious unicorn defyes.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.