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NOTES AND QUERIES. [is s. n. SB*. 9, wie.

It is there described as showing the west end with Clock Tower " from a beautiful Drawing by William Tew, Esq., F.R.S. To be had only of W. Tew, hosier, &c., 1 Birchin Lane." The price was 5s. 6d. each.

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

dhwms.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

" LORD CECIL " AS COMMANDER OF A GENOESE ARMY. Cav. Quint o Cenni of Milan, a great authority on military costume, writes to me about " a Lord or Count Cecil " who commanded a Genoese army in the war of 1744-6. I can find no such person. Can any reader help ? J. M. BTJLLOCH.

123 Pall Mall, S.W.

" SCREAD (SCREED)." At the Fox Inn, South Witham, near Grantham,apieceof the old Great North Road has been used for build- ing cottages, and the road diverted some thirty or forty feet to the west. When this was shown to me, the landlord referred to his inn as occupying a " scread " of the road. I asked him what a " scread " was, and he told me that the word meant the same as " shred." The etymology looks likely. Is the word in common use ? J. C. W.

[Skeat's ' Etymological Dictionary' has " Screed, a shred, a harangue. (E ) The Northern form of Shred, q.v." In the latter sense given by Skeat, and also somewhat in the sense of a " yarn," the word is not uncommon.]

SHAKESPEARE'S STATUE ON THE PORTICO OF DRURY LANE THEATRE. I should be grateful if any reader of ' N. & Q.' could supply some reliable information as to the early history of this statue. The ' Return of Outdoor Memorials in London,' issued by the London County Council in 1910, asserts that it is a reproduction, but smaller, of Scheemakers's statue. I doubt its being smaller than the one in Westminster Abbey, but, be that as it may, it is certainly not a reproduction, the attitude of the two figures being quite different. The one in Leicester Square is an exact reproduction of Schee- makers's, except in so far as the words on the tablet differ. Nevertheless Mr. John Timbs, in his ' Curiosities of London,' refers to the statue on Drury Lane portico as by Schee- makers, executed in lead by Cheere, and presented to the theatre by Mr. Whitbread, M.P. Now the present portico of Drury Lane Theatre was not set up until some time

between 1819 and 1826, whereas Mr. Whit- bread died by his own hand in 1815. Sir Henry Cheere died in 1781. It would be interesting to know at what date (assuming" Mr. Timbs to be correct) Mr. Whitbread presented the statue to the theatre, and where it stood before the portico was built in Elliston's regime.

WILI.OUGHBY MAYCOCK.

THOMAS ARNOLD AND AMERICA. In Dean Stanley's ' Life of Arnold of Rugby ' the great bead master several times expresses the fear that because of his outspokenness on the subject of a truly Christian State, in which religion was allowed fullest play in the formation of the character of its citizens,, he may be driven by the force of political faction to cross the Atlantic and to settle- in America. Strange to say, Stanley omits to explain this mysterious phase of Arnold'^ mind, albeit he discusses it under nearly every other aspect. Perhaps some one- may be able to enlighten me as to it.

M. L. R. BRESLAR.

Percy House, South Hackney.

HERALDIC QUERY. Would any reader help me in ascertaining some dubious identifications of Kentish coats of arms ': These are in painted glass in an eastern window of the south chancel in Bishops- bourne Church. Every shield is surrounded by a flowered wreath. Three of them are dated 1550 ; the others bear no date, and seem to be slightly later. Any heraldic indication would be useful to make sure of the date, which is of interest owing to certain curious ornamental features, connected with the history of Dutch engraving in the sixteenth century. The shields impale the arms of the family of Beckingham, which are as follows :

Quarterly, 1 and 4, Azure, on a fesse crenellee between three escallop shells sable r a star for difference ; 2 and 3, Azure, a chevron between three bucks' faces gules.

1. Argent, three hawks' lures sable, 2" and 1. Wakeringe (?) or Bromwich ( ?), 1550.

2. Argent, three birds' heads erased sable. Hernway(?), 1550.

3. Barry of eight argent and gules, in a canton of the second a cinquefoil of the first. Beckingham (?), 1550.

4. Azure, on a fesse or, between three spearheads argent, a greyhound courant sable. Borne by Edward Umpton, K.B., temp. Elizabeth; also Umpton, Oxford- shire, Farringdon and Wadley, Berkshire. No date.