Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/157

 12 S.HI. FEB. 24, 1917.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

151

^staves as drawn by Guillim or his editor (see <5th f edition, 1724, p. 301).

An earlier but less confident shot had vbeen attempted by Dr. John Nicholas, who became Warden of the College in 1679, and -died in February, 1711/12. Here is his note about the shield : it occurs on an old parchment sheet of arms, many of which are still to be seen in Fromond's Chantry, or in Thurbern's, or in Dr. Nicholas's own "building, " School " :

" Arg. three reaping hooks sable is born by one Bedel: there was such an one, May of Winton, who was schollar of this school. Quaere if Bedel bore the coat, being [? buried] in the Chappel."

The reference is to John Bedell, a Scholar -of 1440, who became Lay Clerk and was afterwards Manciple of the College. He was Mayor of Winchester in or about 1496, and, dying in 1498, was buried in the College Chapel. He does not seem to have been in any way connected with Fromond's Chantry. Can any reader throw light upon Nicholas's statement concerning the Bedell arms ?

From what has been said it will be evident that the shield we are discussing has been a puzzle to many generations. But Mr. Baigent has recently given me the following very reasonable explanation of the shield,
 * and I have his permission to publish it.

The three weapons are not reaping hooks, but hangers, and the arms are the arms (tinctures not known) of Richard Hanger, or atte-Hangre, of Dibden Hanger, Hants, whose daughter Maud or Matilda was John Fromond's wife.

Mrs. Fromond's parentage is ascertainable by piecing together the statements in various documents in the College muniment room, which Mr. Baigent examined many years -ago, and which I have lately looked at. These documents are mainly in the " Fern- hill drawer," which contains ancient title deeds to the manor of Fernhill, one of the properties with which Fromond's Chantry was endowed. 1 do not propose to say more about these particular documents now, but I should like to point out that Fromond's will furnishes some important details about -his wife's family, and also about his own, in the clause relating to that other chantry which he desired to found at Sparsholt. He directed that prayers should be said there .for his own soul and his wife's, and also for the souls of these persons :

"Stephani Fromond, Ricardi. Alicie, Nicolai de Marisco, Matildis, Johannis Fromond, Alicie, Nicolai, Roberti, Willelmi, Johannis, Johanne, Ricardi atte Hangre, Alianore, Ricardi de Farnhull et Alicie, Ricardi, Roberti Markaunt. et omnium -aliorum parentum et benefactorum nostrorum."

The first twelve of the eighteen persons who are thus mentioned by name were the testator's own relations (Stephen Fromond being his great-grandfather ; Richard Fro- mond and Alice, his paternal grandparents ; and John Fromond and Alice, his father and mother). The next five were his wife's relations, viz., her parents Richard atte Hangre and Eleanor, her grandparents (on her mother's side) Richard de Farnhull (of Fernhill) and Alice, and her great-grand- father, who was another Richard de Farnhall. Finally comes Robert Markaunt, and he was Mrs. Fromond's former husband. By a plea at Westminster before William Thirnyng and his fellow Justices of the Common Bench, Easter term, 11 H. IV. (1410), John Fromond and Maud his wife claimed against Walter Eldenham of Liss, Hants, the third part of one messuage, &c., in Liss, as dower with which the said Maud was provided by Sir Robert Markaunt, " chiva- ler," her former husband. There is a parch- ment copy of this plea in the drawer labelled " Fromond's Chantry." H. C.

Winchester College.

ARGOSTOU : CEPHALONIA (12 S. iii. 91). There" is a short description of the salt-water stream near Argostoli in the ' Handbook to the Mediterranean ' (Murray's) by Lieut.- Col. R. L. Playfair (afterwards Sir Robert Lambert Playfair), 1881, p. 252 :

" About a mile N. of Argostoli is the extra- ordinary and hitherto unexplained phenomenon of the sea running into the land ! A steady stream of considerable volume pours into the rocky beach, with a fall of between 2 and 3 feet* Two mills, whose wheels are plainly seen from the deck of any vessel entering the harbour, have been erected to profit by this unusual motive power. The stream, however, can scarcely work both mills at once to advantage, and all attempts to increase either its fall or volume by excavations behind the mills have proved useless. '

In Murray's ' Handbook for Travellers in Greece,' fourth edition, 1872, p. 72, is the following :

" About a mile and a half from Argostoli, near the entrance of the harbour, occurs a phenomenon apparently contrary to the order of nature : the water of the sea flowing into the land in currents or rivulets, which are lost in the bowels of the earth, at a place where the shore is low and cavernous from the action of the waves. The descending streams of salt water flow with such rapidity that an enterprising Englishman some years ago erected a grist-mill on one of them. The flow is constant, unless the mouths through which the water enters are obstructed by sea- weed. The fact is, however, that the sea flowing into the land is only a new form of a phenomenon, of frequent occurrence in Greece. In the land-