Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/421

 128. ii.

1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

415

THE WARDROBE OF SIR JOHN WYNN OF GWYDYR (11 S. x. 469, 518). A question was Basked at the former reference as to the meaning of "Pteropus" in the following extract from an inventory of the year 1616 : '"' One suite of Pteropus, laced with silke and _!<)lde lace ; another suite of Pteropus, laced with greene silke lace."

It was suggested that Thomas Pennant, \vho printed the inventory in his ' Tours in Wales,' 1783, put the word in italics as he Avas puzzled by it. His son David Pennant in the edition of 1810, and Sir John Rhys, in his edition of 1883, kept the word in italics and offered no explanation. It is certain that the material is " Peropus." See the ~ X.E.D.,' where "Peropus" is defined a; " a kind of fabric used in the early part of the .seventeenth century, the same as or similar to Paragon." " Paragon," by the same authority, is denned as " a kind of double camlet ; a stuff used for dress and upholstery in the seventeenth and early eighteenth cen- tury." Among the varieties of spelling for "Peropus" the 'N.E.D.' gives " Piropus " -and " Pyropus."

The date of Sir John Wynn's inventory is

1616, and that the material in question was

fashionable at this time is shown by the

occurrence among the dramatis personse of

Kuggle's " Ignoramus,' first acted on March 8,

1614/15, of a tailor (vestiarius) with the name

Pyropus. J. S. Hawkins, in his commentary

on the play, does not give the explanation.

EDWARD BENSLY.

THE FRENCH AND FROGS (12 S. ii. 251, 293, 351). In

"A Treatise of all Sorts of Foods Written

originally in French by the Learned M. L. Lemery, Physician to the King and Member of the

"Royal Academy Translated by D. Hay, M.D

The Third Edition London MDCCXLV."

chap. Ixix. is entitled ' Of Frogs,' and begins thus :

" There are several Sorts of Frogs, which differ in Bigness, Colour, and according to the Place where they are bred. Your Sea-Frogs are monstrous, and not us'd for Food. Your Land-Fro^*, called in Latin Rauae Sylvextrc*, are very near like unto your Water-Frogs, only that they are smaller : They are not eaten neither : But Water- Frogs are much us'd ; and you ought to chuse those that are plump, fat, fleshy, green, and such as have been catched in clear end pure Water."

After stating their medical properties as food, and recommending them to" young and bilious People, who have a good' Stomach, and are wont to much Exercise," the writer proceeds to ' Remarks,' the first of which is : "' The Water-Frog is an Insect well known." JOHN B. WAINKWUHJHT.

Although I have sat out many table* (Vhote in France, I can only remember being offered frogs' legs upon one occasion. This was at the well-known Lille et D' Albion, Paris, so largely patronized by English travellers. The dish did not appear to " catch on " with the guests. The delicacy was so disguised in sauce, it was difficult to tell what we were eating.

CECIL CLARKE. Junior Athenaeum Club.

FOURTEENTH-CENTURY GLASS (12 S. i. 267, 335, 375, 457). The question of the bishop's ring is connected with another, formerly studied in ' N. & Q.,' that of the ' Wedding Ring and Left-Handed Marriage.' (See US. xii. 258, 310, 366.) Both the bishop's ring and the wedding ring had to be worn on the fourth finger of the right hand ; as for the bishop, the ring was a symbol of his spiritual marriage with his church.

That the ring was sometimes worn on the second finger of the same hand is shown in the example in stained glass and in the painting by Giotto, the only document of an early date quoted by your correspondent (12 S. i. 375). The apparent contradiction between these two different facts is explained by M. C. Enlart in his ' Dictionnaire d'arch6ologie fran9aise, III. Costume.' p. 344. According to Guillaume Durand (' De Ritibus Ecclesiae,' II. ix. 37) the bishop had to wear his ring on the fourth finger, when he was officiating, but in any other circumstance for instance, when only blessing he wore it on the second finger " because this one was called silentiarius or salutaris." But, as a rule, it had always to be reserved to the right hand ; the Pope Gregory IV., at the beginning of the ninth centiiry, ordained so in his ' De cultu Pontificum,' and forbade any account being taken of the old idea about the fourth finger of the left hand and its onnexion with the heart by means of a vein (loc. tit. C. Enlart), being adopted as the 'ing-finger for that reason.

It is very likely that the monuments upon which Prof. Macalister grounded his opinion, quoted at 12 S. i. 376, are of a rather late period, as are most of the examples given by the MARQUIS DE TOURNAY. The rules of liturgy were then in full decay. On the other hand, the precious stone on the ring had an increasing importance, though the amethyst was not yet, as far as I know, the only jewel to be worn, as it is now, by the bishops in Catholic countries. In old times the ring of a bishop might be of any shape or design, as, for instance, that of a cable, no