Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/194

156 NOTES AND QUERIES. [i 2S .x. FEB. 25,1922. presumably at the first date. A handbill of this exhibition at No. 4, Spring Gardens, advertises the automaton chess-player and "The Automaton Trumpeter of John Maelzel of Vienna." This handbill is c. 1819/20. Your correspondent can be assured that this is the earliest example; its later replicas had a concealed boy or dwarf as skilled player and were not entirely automata as they professed to be.

THE ABMS OF LEEDS (12 S. ix. 507 ; x. 56. 72, 115).' Although Leeds is honoured by having & Duke and a Lord Mayor, an esquire's helmet only adorns its coat of arms. The Kings-of-Arms have confirmed and assigned the supporters and crest as fol- lows : On a wreath of the colours or and, azure an owl proper as the same is in the margin hereof more plainly depicted. On either side, an owl proper crowned or, as the same are in the margin hereof also more plainly depicted, the whole to be borne and used for ever hereafter by the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Citizens of the City of Leeds and their successors, in their corporate capacity, on seals, shields or otherwise, according to the Laws of Arms. The helm and shield are only depicted in the blazon in the margin. The silver S a vile owls have been changed to their natural colour and the Danby rowels have been changed to unpierced mullets, quite un- necessarily, and have lost their historic -connexion. What are the laws of arms ? If the con- firmation and assignment are not in accor- dance with them, are they valid and effec- tual ? Would not the crest be more properly described as a badge ? The Yorkshire Weekly Post of Jan. 14 con- tains a photographic reproduction of the arms. . G. D. LUMB. Leeds. LAND MEASTJBEMENT TEBMS (12 S. x. 48, 96). I suggest that bidale or bidle is a modification of pightle. I have heard this word pronounced " piddle." Halliwell gives for it : "A small meadow ; any small enclosed piece of land." I have heard it suggested that its derivation is " pittike." A. D. T. THE " CHEVALIEB SCHAUB " (12 S. x. 110) with whom King Stanislaus stayed in 1754 was probably Sir Luke Schaub, whose wife (a Frenchwoman) when saying with Lady 'Cobham at the Mansion" House in Stoke Pogis in 1750 paid a call on the poet Gray, -which led to his writing the ' Long Story.' Mr. Tovey, in annotating the poem, says that Sir Luke Schaub is described by Cunning- ham as " a kind of Will Chiffinch (see Scott's ' Peveril of the Peak,' passim] to George I. and much in the favour of George II. He had several pensions from both kings for confidential services abroad and at home." Mr. Tovey adds that Sir Luke died in 1758. G. C. MOOBE SMITH. KANGABOO COOKE (12 S. x. 94). BUR- DOCK omits the final " e " in his name. He was Major- General Henry Frederick Cooke, C.B. and K.C.H., commonly called " Kang- Cooke," and a portrait of him under that sobriquet is to be found in Dighton's carica- tures. About the year 1812 he was a Cap- tain and Lieut. -Colonel in the Coldstreams and A.D.C. to the Duke of York. Various rumours were in circulation as to the genesis of his nom de plume, Kangaroo. One was that he let loose a cageful of these animals at Pidcock's menagerie ; another, that on being asked by the Duke of York how he fared in the Peninsula, he replied that he could " get nothing to eat but kangaroo." He died at Harefield Park on March 10, 1837. He was the last surviving brother of Lieut. - General Sir George Cooke, K.C.B., who lost an arm at Waterloo, where he commanded a division. In some verses written by Lord Brskine to commemorate a dinner he gave at Oatlands, and his guests, on Dec. 31, 1812, he thus alludes to Cooke : Next to Lewis there sat, would you wish to know who ? I will tell you my worthy good friend Kangaroo. He who goes by a name by parents not given Depend on't 'tis one highly favoured by Heaven ; The friend whom we love we mould at our pleasure And count on his temper the best of all treasure ; Since in spite of the misanthrope's sullen pretence, Good nature is still the Companion of Sense. Thus take the world o'er, you will find very few Who have more of sound brains than this same Kangaroo ; And as for his person, his breeding, and taste, They speak for themselves so I pass on in haste. WlLLOUGHBY MAYCOCK. HEBALDIC MOTTOES (12 S. x. 110).- ' Historic Devices, Badges and War-cries,' by the late Mrs. Bury Palliser (pub. Sampson Low, Fleet Street, 1870), which is fully illustrated, will meet with all your corre- spondent's requirements. CONSTANCE RUSSELL. Swallowfield Park, Reading. MB. SOULBY will find ' A Hand -Book of Mottoes,' by C. H. Elvin (1860), answers