Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/549

 n s. v. JUNES, i9i 2 .] NOTES AND QUERIES.

453

plusieurs annees cet Empire ; afin gagne par 1'amour de sa patrie, il obtint la libert d'y retourner. Le Monarque, en ^change du General Chat qui fut laiss, lui donna nn navire charg de richf-sses. A peine le jeune Anglois fut-il de retour en Angleterre, qu'il y fut elev6 a la dignit de Maire de Londres. Dans ce nouveau rang, pour donner des temoignages publics de la reconnoissance qu'il devoit aux Chats, il en prit le nom : il fut appete Mylord Cat Ses descend- ants ont succe"d aux bonneurs de cette de"nomina- tion ; ses images sont encore r^pandues en plusieurs endroits de Londres : on le voit pom- peusement represent^ dans les enseignes, portant en triumph? sur IVpaule ce Chat auquel il fut redevable de son bonheur & de sa gloire."

It is to be observed that by the introduc- tion of an unauthorized g into the first syllable of Whittington, Paradis de Moncrif makes the name as difficult for an English- man to pronounce as it probably is for a Frenchman. ST. SWITHIN.

SHROPSHIRE ADVENTURERS (US. v. 329). The following is from ' Abstracts of Grants of Lands and other Hereditaments under the Acts of Settlement and Explana- tion, A.D. 1666-1684 ' (Fifteenth Annual Report, Public Records, Ireland, 1825) :

" Thomas Hunt and Francis Carleton, Esq, Lands of Belaclare, Skenagh and Moyclare in the Barony of Garrycastle and King's County, Lands ff Lehensie and Killmaclone, and Lissanuskie in the Barony of Killcoursie in the same County, Total quantity 766 ac. 3 ro. 13 per. Plantation measure (1247 ac. ro. and 11 per. Statute). Total Rent 15Z. 10s. 4Jrf. Lands of Tewistowne IS ac. 1 ro. per. Plantation measure (29 ac. 3 ro. 9 per. Statute). Rent 7.9. 4 jrf. ; in the Barony of Kclls and County of Kilkenny in trust for themselves and other Shropshire" Adventurers. Date 25 Feb, 21 Car. IT. Enrolled 2 March, 1668, saving to George Fitz-Gerald his right to Lehensie by decree. Roll 21 Cha. II. second part, face."

Who was the above-named Thomas Hunt, Esq. ? ERSKINE E. WEST.

Cowper Gardens, Dublin.

MACAULAY ON "FEN SLODGERS : ' (US. v. 348). See ' History of England,' chap, xi., where an account is given of the military mutiny at Ipswich in 1689. As the his- torian, however, says nothing of " Girvii " or " Fen Slodgers," it seems likely that the passage given as a quotation in the query is an expansion by the author of ' History of the Fens of South Lincolnshire.' Macaulay writes as follows :

" Meanwhile the mutineers were hastening across the country which lies between Cambridge and the Wash. Their way lay through a vast and desolate fen, saturated with the moisture of thirteen counties, and overhung during the greater part of the year by a low grey mist, high above which rose, visible many miles, the mag-

nificent tower of Ely. In that dreary region, covered by vast nights of wild fowl, a half-savage population, known by the name of the Breedlings, then led an amphibious life, sometimes wading, and sometimes rowing, from one. islet of firm ground to another."

In a foot-note to this description the author refers to Pepys's ' Diary ' for a reference to " the state of this region in the latter part of the seventeenth century." Pepys went north to Wisbech in September, 1663, to get information regarding the estate of his uncle Day, and under date 18th of the month he writes thus :

" Up, and got our people together ; and after eating a dish of cold cream, which was my supper last night too, we took leave of our beggarly company, though they seem good people too ; and over most sad fens, all the way observing the sad life which the people of the place which", if they be born there, they do call the breedlings of the place do live, sometimes rowing from one spot to another, and then wading."

THOMAS BAYNE. fMn. DAVID SALMON also thanked for reply.]

SARUM MISSAJL : OFFICE OF ST. WER- BURGH (11 S. v. 163, 233, 354). An account of the Tanner MS. 169*, with the obits of the abbots and founders of St. Werburgh's Abbey, Chester, extracted from the MS., annotated by Miss M. V. Taylor, has just been issued in vol. Ixiv. of the Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. The office of St. Werburgh, and other passages only of interest to the liturgical student, have not been printed. R. S. B.

THE AUSTRAIJAN COAT OF ARMS (US. v. 44, 353). Looking at an Australian three- penny bit, on which the arms are quite un- decipherable, one can only agree with MR. BROMBY that the present shield requires simplification, whilst Mr. Fisher's proposal would make it far more complicated. If the number of states be increased in the future, and more little inescutcheons have to be squeezed in, the effect will be worse. I do not think that this is an improbable contingency. The Northern Territory was cut off from South Australia some time ago. and will certainly become a new state if a white population can be induced to settle there. Subject to the same proviso, Papua may become a state in the future ; and the huge state of West Australia will hardly be able to avoid partition if the northern part should be settled.

The simplest plan would be to symbolize the different states simply by stars on a border, adding another star when a new state is created, whilst the centre of the