Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/184

 148 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vn. AUG. 21, 1920. MBS. BETTY STIVEN'S EPITAPH : TOBAGO. I enclose a cutting from The Trinidad Quardian (May 23) giving particulars of a somewhat remarkable epitaph on a tomstone in Tobago. " ON the northern horn of the beautiful bay of Plymouth which lies on the north coast of Tabago are to be seen the ruins of what was once the substantial residence of President Scott .... In the grounds of this ruined house, and some ten or twelve yards from the western wall, lie buried in a substantial vault the remains of his favourite daughter and her new born child. Although the vault is scarcely recognisable from the ruins and rubbish which cover it, the top is in a> fair state of preservation and as will be seen from the following inscription is not without interest. To some people it presents a little puzzle ; to others it is full of romantic sentiment. The stone which has worn remarkably well is of a fine quality slate, such as is commonly used for the roofs of vaults and mural tablets. It measures six feet eight inches long, three feet four inches broad, and is five inches thick with a half inch bevel round the upper edge. Considering its age and the use to which the sorrowing husband put it in the first instance it seems a great pity that it should be allowed to lie in the state of neglect in which it is at present. " The following is the inscription : Within these Walls are Deposited the Bodies of Mrs. Betty Stiven and her Child. She was the beloved Wife of Alexr. Stiven who to the end of his days will deplore her Death, which happened U P Q the 25th Day of November, 1783. jin the 23rd Year of her Age. what was remarkable of her " She iras a Mother without knowing it, and a Wife without lettiny her husband know it, except by her kind indulgences to him.' 1 E. J. PARTRIDGE, Editor. BALDERD ASHED. To balderdash or adul- terate liquor does not seem to be a frequent expression in English, and is posssibly now obsolete. The ' Encyclopaedic Dictionary gives an illustration from Mandeville, 1730. It seems also to have been used as denoting something more than merely mixing, as may be gathered from the following which appeared in The Kentish Post or Canterbury News-Letter, Aug. 9-12, 1727, copied from The Daily Post of Aug. 9 : " Vienna, July 30. We expect every moment an express from Paris, touching the opening of that Congress. The vaults of our wine-merchants have been search'd, and their wines examin'd with the greatest strictness, it having been found that they had balderdash'd them so as to make them unwholsom, and even destructive of the healths of those that drank of them." W. ROBERTS. [A querv and suggestion on this word appeared at 12 S. vi. 111.] (Querns. We must request correspondents desiring in- v formation on family matters of only private interest. no affix their names and addresses to their queries*. id order that answers may be tent to them direct. " SERVICE HERALDRY." OLD volumes of * N. & Q.' contain several 1 discussions on the right to use arms, and) many writers on the subject have spoken* harshly of heraldic stationer* and seal engravers who in the last century made a. good business of " finding " arms for non- armigerous persons. " The Right to bear Arms," by " X," contains some outspokeni criticisms of this abuse. To-day, however, heraldry is suffering from' a form of commercial enterprise which is y perhaps, even more prejudicial to it. I noticed sometime ago in a well-known maga- zine an advertisement addressed to ex- members of His Majesty's forces. It wa& headed " Service Heraldry" and it announced! that a firm designed and registered shields- symbolic of a customer's war service. In the same paper was an article on these so- called arms by a member of a learned societv. Accompanying illustrations shewed that the shields an agglomeration of colours at first sight were made up of regimental colours, medal ribbons and decorations, badges of rank, wound stripes and service- chevrons, &c. The regimental badge occu- pied the position of a crest. Anyone who knew a little of heraldry could see at a glance that these shields were- but a travesty of true arms. This being so,. they could only appeal to those who knew nothing of the subject. The buyer would 1 sin in ignorance, and so strange are common* misapprehensions that he might even feel that his unheraldic heraldry made him a gentleman de jure as well as de facto. The- polite ridicule which must greet the display of such arms among people with a knowledge- of heraldry would, perhaps, disillusion him. Possibly, therefore, you will be doing such a man a service by making public the fact that his shop- bought arms are spurious. What, however, is the position of the- firm ? Are they not assuming certain^ functions of the Sovereign, who alone is " the fountain of honour ? " Cannot this abuse- be restrained by those whose duty it is to administer heraldic matters on oehalf of the Crown ? And does the War Office-