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NOTES AND QUERIES. m s. iv. AUG. 5, 1911.

having bodies as large as small birds. Their webs were spread from branch to branch of large trees, or from one tree to another. They were neither scorpions, as such are not common (in fact, scarcely known) in that part of China, nor were they tarantulas, which are not found there. ' The Ency- clopaedia Britannica ' (9th ed., vol. xxiii. p. 60) says that the largest species of taran- tula does not exceed three-quarters of an inch in length. J. DYER BALL.

CARDINAL ALLEN'S ARMS (11 S. iv. 30, 78). According to Anthony a Wood ('Athense Oxonienses,' ed. Bliss, i. 621), the arms given to Cardinal Allen in the books of lives of the cardinals and Popes are "Argent, 3 conies or rabbets passant sable." Burke' s 'General Armory ' assigns these arms to the Aliens of Rossal, Lanes, to which family the Cardinal belonged. E. G. T.

The family arms of Cardinal Allen were Argent, three conies in pale sable.

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

" SCAVENGER " AND " SCAVAGER " (11 S. iii. 146, 336). There is an early reference to scavage in a charter of Henry II. (1154-8), summarized in the 'Calendar of Documents preserved in France ' (No. 1352) :

" He grants to the burgesses of St. Omer that they may have in the city of London lodgings (hospitia) at their will and choice, and may sell their goods (res) there to whom they will without view of justice or sheriff, and without scavage (scawinga)," &c.

G. H. WHITE.

St. Cross, Harleston, Norfolk.

" DAVID HUGHSON " : EDWARD PUGH (11 S. ii. 89 ; iv. 70). It may interest MR. W. P. COURTNEY to know that I possess three water-colour drawings by E. Pugh (probably the artist to whom he refers): they are (1) 'Nottingham Castle,' (2) ' Loch Tay,' and (3) ' Near Capel Curig.' T. CANN HUGHES, M.A., F.S.A.

Lancaster.

GENEALOGICAL COLLECTIONS (US. iv. 29). Although C. W. R. H. asks us to reply direct, I venture to think that a suggestion in ' N. & Q.' respecting genealogical collec- tions may be of use.

If collectors do not wish to bequeath their MSS. to the Society of Genealogists, I would advise that they are not left loose (either in drawers, cases, or envelopes), for such things are frequently regarded as per- sonal papers, and as such doomed to destruc-

tion in the copper fire. They should be transcribed on quarto sheets, an index added, and bound in buckram with the contents lettered thereon. This will not in every case ensure their preservation, but in the majority of instances it will, for volumes of this nature have a definite marketable value, and even if this were not so, executors would have some hesitation in destroying bound volumes.

W. B. GERISH.

VATICAN FRESCOES (11 S. iv. 69). THETA, who asks for light on words upon old en- gravings of frescoes in the Vatican, may like to know that similar words are printed in a volume of engraved frescoes in my hands, viz., " Jo : Jacobi de Rubeis formis cura sumptibus ac typis Romse ad Templum S. Maria de Pace. Cum privilegio Summi Pontificis. 1686."

Rubeis was a publisher living at the end of the seventeenth century near the church of S. Maria della Pace, close to the Piazza Navona, and he published not only Raffaello's frescoes in the Vatican, but also those painted in the Palazzo Farnese (100 in number) by Annibale Carracio of Bologna ; those of Petrus Aquila, engraver and artist, in the Palazzo Barberini ; and those of Carlo Maratta in the Palazzo del Panfilio in the Piazza Navona. The illustrations are superb, as THETA may judge from his Vatican specimens. WILLIAM MERCER.

The explanation asked for by THETA is simple. The \\ords mean "At the printing- press of Giacomode Rossi, near the Temple of Peace [Basilica of Constantino Maxentius], Rome." The De' Rossi were famous printers of plans, panoramas, &c., in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The original of one of these (c. 1656) is in my possession. ST. CLAIR BADDELEY.

THE BURNING OF Moscow (11 S. iii. 464 iv. 74). In a book entitled " An Illustrated Record of Important events in the Annals of Europe during the Years 1812, 1813, 1814, and 1815, comprising a series of Views of Paris, Moscow, the Kremlin, Dresden, Berlin, the Battles of Leipsic, &c. Together with a History of those Momentous Transactions. London, printed by T. Bensley, Bolt Court, Fleet Street, for R. Bowyer, Marlborough Place, Pall Mall, 1815," I find it stated at pp. 6 and 7 that Count Rastopchin (the military Governor of Moscow) proposed to Prince Kutusoff, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian armies,.