Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/429

 ii s. v. MAY 4, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

353

volumes. May I point out that there is a manuscript index of names and places to the first series of the Shropshire Archaeo- logical and Natural History Society in the Reference Department of the Shrewsbury Public Library ? H. T. BEDDOWS.

Shrewsbury Public Library.

" SONE " (11 S. v. 270). In discoursing of the poetry of Bretagne in ' Les Derniers Bretons,' t. i. p. 197, M. Emile Souvestre remarks :

" Nous voici arrives aux poesies populaires les plus interessantes et les plus remarquables, les s6nes. On donne ce nom a des elegies, com- pos4es presque toujours par des kloareJcs,* et qui refletent leur vie tout entidre. Ce sont les confessions de leurs faiblesses humaines, de leurs chagrins de creur, des oublis de femmes qui les ont torture's. Les sdnes le"onards et trigorrois forment coname d'e'ternels mdmoires auxquels chaque abb6 ajoute sa page avant de rompre avec le monde. L'expression de ces douleurs intimes conserve le plus souvent une simplicity charmante et presque enfantine."

There is an eloquent passage on the sone> pp. 204, U05, in which the author declares that Breton poets have succeeded in nothing better than in this, which best suits the spirit of the people :

" Le s6ne est le roman de la Bretagne, c'est 1'inspirationjeune etamouruuse, c'est la litterature des femmes et des adolescents. Toutes ces pieces sont sans titres et n'en peuvent recevoir. Ce sont d'intimes songeries, de douces plaintes, roulant toujours, a peu pres, sur le memo sujet : des lege>ete"s de jeunes filles, des refus de parents, des d6sespoirs de kloareks, quelquefois de courtcs ivresses d'amour, de longs et suaves adieux murmures au clair de la lune, comme ceux de Juliette et de Rom6o ! Le s6ne ne sort point de la. Mais dans ces cadres peu varies il enserre toute une phase de 1'existence du Breton ; il resume toutes ses aspirations juveniles, toutes les chimeres sentimentales de son premier age."

ST. SWITHIN.

JANE AND ROBERT PORTER (US. v. 130). Nearly sixty years ago the second of Miss PORTER'S queries was, in a way, anticipated and answered dogmatically, but unsatis- factorily, in 'N. & Q.' There came the inquiry (1 S. viii. 364) whether the Sir R. Ker Porter family, then supposed to be extinct, claimed descent from Endymion Porter, and at p. 526 of the same volume J. R. W. replied : " This family was descended from Endymion Porter of classic and loyal memory." An editorial appeal for fuller in- formation did not elicit further particulars from J. R. W. ; but at p. 576 M. H. J. referred all inquirers to the chaplain of the aunt of the representatives of Sir R. K.


 * Young peasants destined to Holy Orders.

Porter. Subsequent inquiries related to the only child of Sir Robert a daughter who married a Russian. In ' The Life and Letters of Mr. Endymion Porter,' 1897,. Dorothea Townsend gives at p. 11 a Porter pedigree down to the marriage of Endymion's granddaughter to Viscount Strangford, with, no hint, however, of a branch that bore Sir R. Ker Porter and his sisters.

A. T. W.

THE AUSTRALIAN COAT OF ARMS (11 S_ v. 44). Fully sharing the alarm of MR- WILSON DOBBS at the proposed new shield,, truly a heterogeneous mixture, I beg, as- another student of heraldry (as well as an Australian, &c.), to express my wish .that some change could be made, if it is not toe- late. To take the least essential things- first, if we must have supporters, and if they are to be native animals, surely they should be natural ; therefore the kangaroo should have his tail straight, and the emu should*

stand on two feet the shield may just

touch his breast. They should not make themselves, and us, ridiculous by their attitude. They are not wyverns, or even unicorns. The crest is beautifully simple, and therefore dignified : it is not explained why the sti.r is seven-pointed. A corpora- tion, by the way, does not need a crest. It is in the shield itself that I find most fault ; it is not simple enough ; and it is here that the new shield is far worse. It is a good point to symbolize the six original states ; but the effect of the six tiny inescutcheons is most " pernickety," if I may use so un- heraldic an adjective ; and when the shield is put upon a small coin, as it is now, its- dignity is all gone. The symbolism of the chevrons I entirely missed till I read it in ' X. & Q.' Then the effect of the large inescutcheon is to reduce the rest of the shield to a mere border. Instead of an azure field with an inescutcheon argent, I should call it an argent field with a bordure azure. The cotising of the cross adds to the effect of the little shields with their little chevrons. The whole thing must be drawn on a large scale to look at all dignified ; whereas it will usually be seen on a small com, or at the top of a Government Gazette, or on an official envelope. By all means let it be altered, but in the direction of simplification. I would humbly suggest Argent, within a bordure azure charged with six besants, a cross gules charged with five six-pointed stars of the field. Or the stars might be omitted. E. H. BROMBY.

University, Melbourne.