Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/74

 56 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s.x. JAN. 21, 1922. of any property held in whole or in part for any charitable use or trust." ABCHIBALD SPARKE. THE ARMS OF LEEDS (12 S. ix. 507). I am sure everybody would be interested to hear of a case where a mayor in his private capacity uses the town's arms, with or without helmet and crest. Cases of cor- poration coats of arms with these appurte- nances are not uncommon from the fifteenth century onward. D. L. G. DANTE'S BEARD (12 S. ix. 271, 315, 378, 436). It is not at all clear why St. Swithin assumes that Dante cut off the beard, which he had allowed to grow when he was mourn- ing for Beatrice. It has been inferred from the well-known passage in the ' Purgatorio ' that the poet had a beard some time between 1310 and 1318. Now he died in 1321 ; why then should be have shaved if off ? Surely it is going a little far to suppose that Dante, when he was eating the salt food of exile and testing the steepness of another's stairs, was obedient to the frivolous dictates of in- constant Fashion. Villani says that he was indifferent to graces, and this remark may per- haps have referred to his personal appearance. Where there is so much obscurity it is justifiable to argue a little from general considerations. Now the beard has con- stantly been regarded as a sign of wisdom. Bacchus, wandering over the earth in a car drawn by tigers, and enamoured of Ariadne, is rightly represented with a smooth chin, but Dionysus, the cultivator of the vine, the lawgiver and the father of civilization, appears in Greek sculpture as a man with a beard. Is there any Byzantine or medieval artist who would have dared to represent the Creator of the universe as beardless ? The beard, then* is often an outward and visible sign of wisdom in the man who wears it, and a perception of this truth, as well as a certain artistic sense of what was right and fitting, may well have kept the encyclopaedic genius of the Middle Ages from cutting off the beard that adorned his face so appropriately. T. PERCY ARMSTRONG. The Authors' Club, Whitehall, S.W. GENTLEMAN OF THE POULTRY (12 S. ix. 272). The office of King's Poulterer was hereditary in the family of Napier of Mer- chiston. Whether this continued on the accession of James VI. to the throne of England I do not know, but it might offer a clue to MR. BURY. ALEX. MORING. NICHOLAS GRIMALD (12 S. ix. 409, 498). ! I understand that there is in the British ' Museum Library a copy of the genealogy of the Grimaldi family from the time they quitted Genoa and settled in England to the year 1824, compiled by Stacey Grimaldi, ! F.S.A., and edited by A. B. Grimaldi, i M.A., who, in 1907, resided at 27, Guernsey ! Grove, Herne Hill, S.E. The work may give MR. L. R. MERRILL JAMES SETON-ANDERSON. 39, Carlisle Road, Hove, Sussex. RUDGE FAMILY (12 S. ix. 311, 395, 435). J The Rev. James Rudge, D.D., F.R.S., for j twenty-four years the esteemed and pious I rector of the parish of Havkchurch, Dorset- ! his 69th year. He was the son of James I Rudge, of Heath End House, Cromhall, j and nephew of Thomas Rudge, Archdeacon of Gloucester. His family was a branch of the Rudges of Evesham, in Worcester- shire, but had been settled for some time in Gloucestershire. JAMES SETON-ANDERSON. 39, Carlisle Road, Hove, Sussex. SCHOOL HOLIDAYS (12 S. ix. 528). Seventy years or more ago school boys and girls expected holidays of six weeks from about June 18, and of four or five from shortly before Christmas. Maundy Thurs- day sometimes released one for a few days if not for a whole week. It seems to me that holidays have greatly increased nowa- days, when people are always resting from Work that they have often shirked : but I am not here referring to schools. ST. SWITHIN. MR. R. E. THOMAS will find, I think, much to interest him in chap, xxxiv. of Mr. A. K. Cook's ' About Winchester College,' published by Macmillan and Co. in 1917, if he can get hold of the book. JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT. THE ABYSSINIAN CROSS (12 S. x. 9). I am informed on good authority that this was presented to Westminster Abbey in 1902 by Ras Makunan, Envoy from the King of Abyssinia at the Coronation of King Edward VII., as a votive offering for the recovery of the latter from his serious ill- ness in the summer. It was placed before the " Unknown Warrior's " grave, in which position a photograph of it may be obtained. It is now at the north side of the High Altar. WALTER E. GAWTHORP.
 * the information he desires.
 * shire, died suddenly on July 1, 1852, in