Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/36

 30

NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. m. JAN. u, 1911.

Lady Fanshawe in her memoirs. Lord Ormonde has informed me that there is no picture of her in his possession, and I have been unable to trace one anywhere else.

H. C. FANSHAWE. 72, Philbeach Gardens, S.W.

COUNTY COATS OF ARMS : ARMS OF Co. SOMERSET. Would any reader who is interested in heraldry inform me whether each county in England possesses a coat of arms, and what the arms of the county of Somerset are ? BLADUD.

[County badges were discussed at length at 7 S. i., ii., iii., and viii.]

CORONER OF THE VERGE. When was this royal office abolished, and what were the duties attached to it ? I do not find it mentioned in John Chamberlayne's * Present State of Britain,' 1723 ; but in Cowel's


 * Interpreter ' it is thus noticed, s.v.


 * Coroner ' :

" Note, there be certain special Coroners within divers Liberties, as well as those ordinary Officers in every County, as the Coroner of the Verge, which is a certain compass about the King's Court, whom Cromp, in his * Jurisd.,' fol. 102, calleth the Coroner of the King's House, of whose Authority, see Co. Rep. fol. 4, lib, 46."

I believe that a verge, as used in the royal household, was a stick or rod whereby a person was admitted tenant to a lord of the manor. In The Weekly Journal of 5 October, 1723, is the following paragraph, illustrating perhaps a late usage of the office :

" Mr. White, the present Coroner of the Verge of his Majesty's Houshold, is appointed, by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, to be Coroner for that City and^ Liberty, in the Room of Mr. Turton,

J. HOLD EN MACMICHAEL.

CROWE FAMILIES OF NORFOLK AND SUF- FOLK. Carthew's ' Hundred of Launditch ' contains a pedigree of Crowes from the fifteenth century to the eighteenth. Arms : a gyronny of eight sable and or ; on a chief of the first, two leopards' faces of the second (granted 1614). There was also a Suffolk family of the name who bore Gules, a chevron between three cocks arg. (granted 1584). Information is desired in continua- tion of Carthew's pedigree, also generally about the Suffolk family. Are there any representatives of either now living ?

There were two mayors of Norwich at the end of the eighteenth century, James and William Crowe of Lakenham, who bore the former arms. Can any reader tell me who they were ? W. ROBERTS CROW.

POOR SOULS' LIGHT :

" TOTENLATERNE."

(US. ii. 448.)

THE query by J. D. refers to a very interest- ing subject, on which there is plenty of litera- ture, with about fifteen theories of explana- tion, but no single one is satisfactory in every case. I have a large quantity of material, but I want what is often difficult, and in many cases impossible, to get evidence on certain points to elucidate a certain theory. In this respect J. D., while giving to me at all events something new, omits what is important evidence, probably from want of knowledge of the literature on the subject, which has engaged my attention for some years.

Let me state my position as clearly as I can, not only as a help to J. D., but also to obtain evidence one way or the other as to my theory. .

There are several peculiarities in ch urches, not only in Great Britain, but also on the Continent, and not confined to Protestant or Roman Catholic edifices, which I have treated as local manifestations of a general controlling principle.

1. The axial line of the nave does not always coincide with that of the chancel, there being a greater or less deflection of the latter to north or south. There are four theories to account for this.

2. There are certain perforations in the walls of churches, outer or inner, or both, which have been called Low Side Windows, though a few are High ; Leper Windows, Lychnoscopes, Hagioscopes, and the old English word Squint, which is more descrip- tive than any other, and commits us to no theory. They are mostly rectangular and narrow, but some are oval or round. Some are square with the wall, but generally they are aslant and splayed. They all have a common characteristic, whatever their shape or size or position their axial line points to the high altar. There are, as I have said, fifteen explanations of these openings, not one of which is satisfactory in every case. To these I have ventured to add another, and for it I am collecting evidence. My theory is that these openings are connected with orientation. To give full references would take half a number of * N. & Q.,' and to many readers they would be un-