Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/398

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. m. MAY 20, mi.

a shield ; but I do not think this has be'en generally customary in England.

D. O. HUNTER BLAIR.

Fort Augustus.

A clergyman in this country has never been denied the right of using a crest, if he is of an armorial family, and chooses to display it. A grant of arms to a clergyman includes a crest, and the emblazonment shows the helmet and crest. It is, however, very customary for clergymen not to make use of a crest in depicting their arms. On the other hand, an ecclesiastic of the rank of a bishop, archbishop, or cardinal is not entitled to use a crest. If a grant of arms is made to a bishop of the Church of England, the emblazonment consists of shield and mitre only, the crest being depicted in the margin, distinct from the emblazonment proper. The descendants of the bishop would use the crest in the ordinary manner.

The use of the cartouche or oval seems to be nearly universal with ecclesiastics abroad, but not in this country. See 'A Complete Guide to Heraldry,' by A. C. Fox-Da vies (London, T. C. & E. C. Jack, 1909).

T. F, D.

HANNAH MORE PORTRAITS (11 S. iii. 347). On William Finden's engraving (published 25 August, 1834) of the painting by Opie, which is the frontispiece to W. Roberts's ' Memoirs of the Life of Mrs. Hannah More ' (4th ed., 1836), the original is described as " now in the possession of Lady Olivia B. Sparrow." Was she also the owner of the portrait by Miss Reynolds ?

EDWARD BENSLY.

'NICHOLAS NICKLEBY,' " POPYLORUM TIBI " : SUPPRESSIONS IN * PICKWICK ' (11 S. iii. 244, 313). I am afraid I was a little hasty in assuming that the words " populorum tibi " were in the ' Te Deum.' I still hope to find them somewhere in the Psalms. The difficulty, however, remains : how did Dickens come upon the original, and what prompted him to transform it into " Popylorum tibi " ?

HIPPOCLIDES desires to know the cryptic passage in ' Pickwick ' to which I made allusion. The author tells us, apropos of theCobham stone, that Mr. Pickwick's por- trait was painted in commemoration, and that "he did not have it destroyed a few years later." It seems that about this time Sir John Soane had his portrait painted, mean- ing to present it to an institution,but, as a likeness, it was found too unflattering, and

his friends inflamed him against it. Jerdan, one of these, cut the canvas into ribbons, and a controversy followed. Readers will not now find the passage, which, in a few years, was quietly dropped out. I remember once proposing an article on the Soanes Sir John and his eccentric son George to Boz, which he vetoed with every symptom of horror and disgust, e,s though it were a painful subject.

I think there is only one other passage in ' Pickwick ' which has been thus removed, and that is the rather gibing note on the worthy Mr. Jesse, apropos of -Jingle's dog story.

I had the fortune of living at Richmond just twelve years after the appearance of ' Pickwick,' when Mr. Tupman might be pre- sumed to be living there also. Strange to say, there was then a resident who was the very picture of Mr. Pickwick, rosy, circular - spectacled, &c. This was Mr. Edgeworth, brother to the fair Maria. He was highly popular among the ladies.

PERCY FITZGERALD.

In a schoolboys' counting-out rime the last line ends : " Hi cockolorum tibi, one, two, three." Is it not likely that " popy- lorum " was a version of this same rime, known to Dickens ?

H. SNOWDEN WARD,

Authors' Club.

'PICKWICK' DIFFICULTIES (US. iii. 267 313, 332)." Now then, old Strike-a -light ! " is an expression which has been familiar to me for many years. It was applied to most " old codgers," men who had a reply to every question, or were good at " tit for tat " in the way of repartee. Men who knew more than their fellows were addressed as " old Strike-a-light," and were not lazy persons, but quite the other way, able to give information on small matters to their fellow " working chaps," The term was something of an affectionate or appreciative greeting. It might possibly have arisen from tinder-box days, or when a box of striking matches was somewhat of a rarity. THOS. RATCLIFFE.

" RHUBARB " : ITS DERIVATION (US. iii. 328). I certainly copied the statement about the Rha, or Volga, being " a river in Pontus " from somewhere ; and I do not know that it is wrong. For Pontus was most vaguely used ; Lewis and Short explain it as meaning (1) the Black Sea ; (2) the region about the Black Sea ; (3) a particular district in Asia Minor. MR. LYNN refers to the third sense ;