Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/164

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NOTES AND QUERIES. 112 S.VL APRIL 17.1920.

of London. He died Mar. 11, 1710, and was ! of Brayton, co. Cumberland, by Sarah, dau_

huried at Kintbury, in the church of which place there are fine memorial tablets to him and his family. H. R. NIAS.

The Thatched Cottage, Iffley, Oxon.

DEACON : JENNER, 1769. Miss Mary Deacon of Elmstree, Glos, in her will 1769, names her cousins Mr. Deacon Jenner of London, and Robert Jenner, D.C.L. London, now Professor of Civil Law, Oxford, late of Doctors Commons, and his son Thomas of Merton College, to whom she left Elmstree. To this information there is this note, " The connexion of Jenner and Deacon though unproven is inherently probable." I desire to trace the relationship of the above Dr. Robert Jenner, to the Rev. Robert Jenner of Lydiard Millicent, Wiltshire, 1665-1723.

On matriculating Trinity College, Oxford, Sept. 23, 1730, Dr. Jenner is described as of Fetcham, Surrey, son of John Jenner.

R. J. FYNMORE.

Sandgate.

STOBART FAMILY. Can any reader give information about the descendants of Forester Stobart of Broomley, Northumber- land, born 1724, died 1804 ; and about the descendants of his brother Henry, whose grandson George Stobart lived at one time at Eland Hall, Ponteland, Newcastle-on- Tyne ? H. C. BARNARD.

Burnham, Somerset.

CONSTABLE THE PAINTER. Who was his mother ? Pedigree and any details wanted. (Mrs.) E. E. COPE.

COLLINGWOOD. Alexander Collingwood in 1556 obtained the property of Little Ryle, co. Northumberland, from his cousin Sir Robert Collingwood of Eslington, and the grant was confirmed by the king. He m.

Foster, according to the Visitation. Their son Thomas, who was owner of Little Ryle in 1585 and was living 1615, m. first Dorothy, dau. of Robert Clavering of Callaley by Mary, dau. of Sir Cuthbert Collingwood of Eslington ; second, Fortune, dau. of Harry Collingwood of Great Ryle. His son Alexander (by first wife) was born 1593 and is described as "of Little Ryle " in 1628 and 1638. Alexander's son, also called Alexander, was " of Little Ryle " in

1663, and m. Margaret, who was buried

Nov. 13, 1684. Who were the wives of the three Alexanders of Little Ryle ? Is it known when any of these three died ? Alexander IV., son of Alexander III. and

Margaret, built the house of Unthank,

xn. (1691) Dorothy, dau. of Wilfred Lawson

of William James of Washington, co. Dur- ham, and was High Sheriff of Northumber- land 1725. H. PlRIE-GORDON._| '20 Warwick Gardens, Kensington, W.14.

ELEPHANT AND CASTLE. (12 S. vi. 11, 49.)

MR. WALTER WINANS, at the first reference^ quotes a newspaper cutting on the subject of an illuminated bestiary twice misprinted " vestiary " " dated probably about 1240." Presumably he refers to a MS. known as the- Westminster Bestiary from its being pre- served there. It is written in Latin and Norman French, and is said to have come originally from the Friars Minors of York. Whether this is identical with a bestiary of the early thirteenth century of which a translation in English verse is preserved amongst the MSS. in the British Museum. (MS. Arundel, No. 292, fol. 4) I am unable to say, not having examined it. It is more likely to be identical with the Harleian MS. 4751, for it contains a figure of an. elephant carrying on its back a wooden- turret in which are five knights in chair* armour, with battle-axes, swords, and cross- bows ; and in the Latin description which is given of the use of elephants in the East we- read : "In eorum dorsis Persi et Indi ligneis- turribus collocati tamquam de muro jaculis- dimicant."

The Arundel MS. 292, " of the earlier part of the thirteenth century," has been printed' by Thomas Wright, F.S.A., in the Reliquiae Antiquce, 1845 (pp. 208-27). The allegorical 1 account of the elephant therein given is-- entirely devoted to the old fable that an^ elephant has only one joint in the leg ; that when it falls it is unable to rise ; and that the- hunters of old taking advantage of this disability would cut a tree half through so that when the animal leaned against it, it would come to the ground and be at their mercy. This is one of the myths of the- Middle Ages. There is no allusion of any kind to a castle (or howdah as suggested by MR. WINANS), the moral to be drawn having reference to a period long anterior to the- days of trained elephants, namely, to the- days of Adam and Eve ! For the allegory- concludes with the explanation (sifjnificatio)- that a tree was the cause of Adam's fall.. " Thus fel Adam thrug a tre."