Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/78

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [u s. iv. JULY 22, mi.

their son was baptized in the parish church of Llanrhydd, in which parish part of the town of Ruthin is situate, on 5 October, 1760, his father's trade being given as shoe- maker.

Edward Pugh the artist and David Pugh the man of*letters were probably first cousins. A David Pugh witnessed the marriage of Edward Pugh and Elizabeth Haddocks ; and David Pugh of the Parish of Ruthin was married by licence in its church to Dorothy Jones of the parish of Llanbedr on 25 May, 1756. If the book-writer were born in the first part of the following year (1757), he would at the date of his death in Sep- tember, 1819, have been in his 63rd year. This Dorothy Pugh, of Wall Street, Ruthin, was buried there on 1 January, 1816, being a widow, aged 85.

See Monthly Mag., xxxvi. (1813, pt. ii.) 187 ; xlviii. (1819, pt. ii) 372 ; Gent. Mag., 1819, pt. ii. 378; 'Aquatint Engraving,' by S. T. Prideaux, 1909, pp. 278-9, 348, 368 ; Algernon Graves, ' Royal Academy Ex- hibitors,' vi. 214 ; Algernon Graves, ' The British Institution/ p. 440.

W. P. COURTNEY.

MITRES AT CORONATIONS (US. iv. 27). This subject has received frequent notice of late in the columns of The Church Times, where more than one correspondent ex- pressed the wish that the wearing of mitres by the bishops would be revived at the Coronation of King George.

Several months back (I cannot supply the exact reference) there appeared in the same periodical a correspondence con- cerning the mitre (still in existence) which belonged to William Seabury, Bishop of Connecticut (or Massachusetts), the first bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church of America, who was consecrated at Aber- deen in 1784. The mitre was described as being black with gold embroidery, similar, perhaps, to that mentioned by MR. F. T. HIBGAME. But of course Bishop Seabury was never present at a Coronation, at least as a bishop. R. L. MORETON.

THE LOTUS AND INDIA (US. iv. 27). The Nelumbium speciosum is the Egyptian bean of Pythagoras, the lotus and tamara of the Hindus, who hold it sacred. With them it is the floating shell of Vishnu and the throne of Brahma. The flowers and leaves are very similar to those of water- lilies.

The small brass pot, spheroidal in shape* called a lota, is described by Col. Yule in his ' Hobson-Jobson.'

I well remember Lord Randolph Churchill denouncing a distinguished Viceroy of India, and accusing him of being " lulled to lan- guor by the land of the lotus."

J. E. LATTON PICKERING.

Inner Temple Library.

The Queen's robe could not have been embroidered with any flower more sug- gestive of India than is'the lotus. The name has been applied to various plants ; but the one that is identified with the Indian Empire is a nelumbo (Nelumbium speciosum), an aquatic growth, which has a place in the mythology of the Hindus, and is the principal motif in their decorative designs. The flow r er and bud of the lotus, as Sir George Birdwood pointed out, have furnished " the universal ornamental form among the Asiatic Aryas from the beginning of their art history." What the rose should be to English pattern- makers, that is the lotus to their distant fellow-subjects. Hence the appropriateness of the device of Queen Mary's vestment.

ST. SWITHIN.

QUEEN ELIZABETH AT BISHOP'S STORTFORD (11 S. iv. 27). For a criticism of the story in connexion with the Queen's visit to Cambridge in August, 1564, given in Froude's ' History of England ' from the Simancas MSS. and depending on the authority of the Spanish Ambassador De Silva, who professed to have heard it from an eye- witness, see Mullinger's ' University of Cam- bridge,' vol. ii. pp. 190-91. Mr. Mullinger points out that there is no mention of the alleged occurrence in the three principal sources to which we are indebted for our knowledge of the details of the royal visit. He argues from what is known of the writers of the narratives that " it seems in the highest degree improbable that these three would have omitted all reference to an incident so damaging to the Puritan party."

With regard to the scene being laid at Bishop's Stortford, the Queen left Cambridge on 10 August by the Huntingdon Road for the Bishop of Ely's palace at Longstanton. A detailed account of the visit is given in C. H. Cooper's 'Annals of Cambridge/ vol. ii. pp. 181-208. EDWARD BENSLY.

I have not read the novel in question, but no doubt Monsignor Benson's authority is a yarn sent home by the Spanish ambassador Don Diego Guzman de Silva. The Queen