Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/19

 12 a. in. JAN. 6, 191?.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

itself from the wound, especially if the barb got lodged, and return to its place of de- parture like a boomerang. The two passages from Bacon's writings are, I believe, only allusions to the Tartar's trick in battle to sham retreat and then turn round in the saddle and send back a volley of arrows upon the deluded foe pursuing them. In both quotations it is the bow that shoots back, and nothing is said about the arrow.

L. L. K.

Col. H. Walrond, in ' Shakespeare' England,' ii. 379, says :

"Bows are either made entirely of wood, whether of one piece or more, or are composite, i.e., fashioned out of horn, wood, and sinew ; the latter kind is used by Orientals, and is much the more powerful. Of this fact Shakespeare seems to have been aware," and then quotes the passage,' A Midsummer Night's Dream,' III. ii. 100-101.

A. R. BAYLEY.

SEIZE-QUARTIERS (12 S. ii. 447). I think your correspondent T. F. D. will find that armigerous descent has everything to do with a claim to " seize-quartiers," and that the mere fact of having sixteen great- great-grandparents all armigerous will not of itself confer that right.

The following attributes given in Sloane Evans's ' Grammar of British Heraldry ' (1854), p. 183, as those of a " Gentleman of Blood and Ancestry " (generosus), will, I think, illustrate this :

" He must be of five steps of worshipful gen- tility " [which I take to mean armigerousl, " claim- ing lineal descent from Atavus, Proavus, Avus,and Pater, on the Father's side, and as much on his Mother's line."

And he gives a general reference to " Gwil- lim." In Guillim's ' Display of Heraldry ' (1724, "the sixth and best edition," as the booksellers say), Part II. p. 272, s.v. ' The Privileges of the Gentry,' appear these words :

" For the Protection and Defence of this Civil Dignity they have three Laws: the first, Jus Agnationis, the Right or Law of Descent for the Kindred of the Father's Side : the Second, Jus Stir pis, for the Family in general : the third, Jus Gentilitatis, a Law for the Descent in Noble Families, which Tully esteemed most excellent ; by. which Law a Gentleman of Blood and Coat- Armour perfectly possessing Virtue was only privileged. To make that Perfection in Blood, a lineal Descent from Atavus, Proavw, Amis, and Pater, on the Father's Side was required ; and as much on his Mother's line ; then he is not only a Gentleman of perfect Blood, but of his An- cestors too."

Is not this what is understood by " seize- quartiers "? J. S. UDAL/F.S.A.

" To WEEP IRISH " (12 S. ii. 328, 456). This expression, as MB. E. S. DODGSON points out at the former reference, is not noticed by the ' N.E.D.' under ' Irish.' An earlier example, however, can be given than ." Ta weep Irish, or feign sorrow," which he quotes from' Scholse Wintonensis Phrases,' by Hugh Robinson (1584 ?-1655) :

" He make thee to forget Bishops English, and weep Irish ; next hanging there is no better reuenge on Martin, than to make him crie for anger ; for there is no more sullen beast than a he drab." [JohnLylyl, 'Pappewith an hatchet' (1589), vol. iii. p. 410 in R. Warwick Bond's- edition of Lyly's Works ; p. 35 in Petheram's- reprint of the tract.

In the passage just quoted, " to weep- Irish " clearly does not mean " to feign. sorrow." EDWARD BENSLY.

FIVES COURT, ST. MARTIN'S LANE : TENNIS COURT, HAYMARKET (11 S. iv. 110, 155, 176,. 231). The conclusion come to five years ago was that the Fives Court in St. Martin's Street, Leicester Fields, was destroyed before- February, 1820.

Grose's ' Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue,' revised and corrected by Pierce Egan, has in the third edition, printed in 1823 :

" Fives Court. A place distinguished (in addi- tion to the game of Jives) for sparring matches between the pugilists. The combatants belong- ing to the prize-ring exhibit the art of self-defence at the Fives-Court with the gloves ; and it is fre- quently at this Court where public challenges- are given and accepted by the boxers. The most- refined and fastidious person may attend these exhibitions of sparring with pleasure ; as thejr- are conducted with all the neatness, elegance^, and science, of Fencing. Admission 3s. each person. It is situated in St. Martin's St. ^ Leicester-fields . ' '

J. J. FREEMAN.

Shepperton-on-Thames.

MlTTAN (MlTAN), ENGRAVER (12 S. ii. 450)..

No doubt James Mitan, 1776-1822. Red- grave describes him as being apprenticed in 1790 to a writing engraver, entered as a student of the Royal Academy, and even- tually becoming distinguished as a line engraver. Besides book - illustration, he engraved Leslie's ' Slender and Anne Page/ He competed in architectural designs for a bridge over the Mersey, as also for the proposed Waterloo monument.

HAROLD MALET, Col.

There were two engravers of the name of Mitan about the period asked for : James- born 1776, died 1822, and S. Mitan, his brother and pupil, who engraved for Messrs.- Ackermann. A. G. KEALY.