Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/347

 12 a. III. JCSE, 191?. j

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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embodied, the substance of all that was to be desired. See 7 S. iii. 111. What may be a modern example analogous to this way of looking at the matter was printed in The Banner of Faith, April, 1909 (p. 120) :

" A little lad was keeping his sheep on Sunday morning. The bells were ringing for church, and the people going over the fields, when the little fellow began to think that he would like to pray to God. But what could-he say? for he had never learned any prayer. So he knelt down and commenced the alphabet, A, B, C, &c., unto Z. A gentleman happened to be passing on the other side of the hedge, heard the boy's voice, and looking through the bushes saw the little fellow kneeling with folded hands and closed eyes, saying A, B,C. ' What are you doing, my little man ? ' The lad looked up, ' Please, sir, I was praying.' ' But what were you saying your letters for ? ' ' Why, I didn't know any prayer, only I wanted God to take care of me, and help me to take care of the sheep, so I thought if I said all I knew, He would put it together and spell all I want.' "

ST. SWITHIN.

The ceremony described by MB. KEALY, of sprinkling ashes on the floor and tracing thereon the letters of the alphabet, was carried out at the consecration of the Westminster Cathedral, June 19, 1893. Miss J. E. Harrison, the well-known archaeologist, published a letter or article on the subject at the time. J. M. C.

LEGENDS ON LOVE TOKENS (12 S. ii. 507). Mottoes of a kind similar to that quoted by your correspondent are found in great numbers on rings and on tokens. I could name thirty or forty books, at least, in which collections of such mottoes may be found. ' The Mysteries of Love and Elo- quence,' issued in 1658, contains many often quoted, and some that are not quite quot- able. ' The New Academy of Complements,' 1741, and also *

"A Help to discourse, or more Merriment mixt with serious matters, consisting of Witty ques- tions and answers, as also Epigrames, Epitaphs, Riddles, Jests, Poesies for Rings, Love Toys, &c., are added and plentifully dispersed. 1682,"

contain many. Two of the best books 1o look at are the British Museum ' Cata- logue of Finger Rings,' pp. 174-94, and Bower Marsh's Catalogue of Mr. F. A. Crisp's ' Memorial Rings.' There is a valu- able note upon the subject of love coins with mottoes in Hodgkin's ' Rariora,' vol. i. pp. 95^6. I have much information at hand upon this subject, but I regret I am not able to write more at the moment. I have printed two books containing collec- tions of such mottoes.

A. L. HUMPHREYS.

VERDUN BARONY (12 S. iii. 274). " The Complete English Peerage. By the Rev. Frederic Barlow, M. A. London, 1772," has no mention of such a title in a long account of the 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, but the list of titles credited to that peerage has :

" Creations. Baron Talbot, by writ of sum- mons to parliament, June 5, 1330, in the fourth of Edward III., Strange of Blackmere, in the county of Salop ; Furnival, Verdon, Lovetot,. Giffard of Brimsfield, in the county of Gloucester,, and Comyn (Gumming) of Badenagh, a family in Scotland, Valence and Montchensy, the names of families."

I have extracted in full, as the collocation, of the words may be interesting.

Of a village, Newbold Verdon, in Leicester- shire. ' Curtis's Topographical History of the- County of Leicester,' 1831, says :

"By the heirs of Crophull in 1401 the manor' passed to the Devereuxs, as parcel of the Barony of Verdun. . . .In 1453 John, Earl of Salop, held the advowson .... The advowson, which belonged to the Duke of Norfolk (who takes one of his titles, viz., Baron Verdun, from this village), was- sold by him to C. Greenway, Esq., in 1807."

The place-name is spelt on maps, &c., as Verdon, Verdun, and Vernon. Curtis spells it Verdun in his ' County History.' A reference to Barlow's 'Complete Peerage' (supra) finds that in treating at length cf the Dukes of Norfolk he says nothing of any property in, or connexion with, Leicester- shire ; but in the list of their titles he gives the baronies of (inter alia) " Furnival,. Verdon, Lovetot, Strange (of Blackmere) " ;. and the exact coincidence with those assigned to the Earls of Shrewsbury in the same volume seems curious. The 9th Duke of Norfolk, who enjoyed the family titles when Barlow published, died without issue in 1777. W. B. H..

ST. BARBARA, V.M. (12 S. iii. 41, 136, 158,. 175, 211, 279). To my original note on this saint I ask to add first a word of sincere thanks to the several contributors whose replies have further illustrated the subject ;, secondly, a few more gleanings of my own.

The notice of St. Barbara in the Horo- logium of the Greek Church (I quote fro ra- the second Venice edition, 1876, p. 236) is simply this :

" Barbara was of Nicomedia in the times of Maximian. She was daughter of one Dioscorus r a heathen, who, having inhumanly tortured her for her faith in Christ, at last beheaded her with -his own bands in the year 290." In her office the Troparium, or Invitatory r and the ConUtcium r or Prose, are equally brief and simple. Stripping off the legendary overgrowth, I see no reason, with all deference to Baronias and others, for banishing;