Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/403

 i2S.vin.APRiL23,i92i.] NOTES AND QUERIES, 329 WAR PORTENTS. -It is believed by some in Germany that the occurrence of mirage heralds the coming of a great war, as does also the advent of a certain kind of bird. A lady staying in Westphalia made the acquaintance of a villager, a student of nature, who, showing her a bird which he had caught and stuffed, said : You won't know this bird, lady, for I never saw it before in my life, but the spring of last year, before the war, suddenly whole flocks of strange birds appeared here. I managed to catch this one : and looking in my books I found out what it was, and that these birds hardly ever appear in Germany. They come from the North, and only in great flocks, before a war. This is related by Princess Bliicher in An English Wife in Berlin ' (p. 70), and the author continues : I spoke to Dr. M, who is a great authority on birds, and he too had noticed the Silk-tails or Chatterers here for the first time. He said there had always been an old tradition existing among the people that the Silk-tails were a foreboding of war. ST. S WITH IN. a book radiant with light outweighs a gold chain and a winged world. Perhaps someone who is in possession of Sir Thomas Chaloner's De illustrium quorundam Encomiis Miscellanea, cum Epiyrammatibus ac Epitaphiis nonmdlls, will be able to supply ' N. S: Q.' with a copy of the epigram in question. J. E. S. SARDANAPALVS AIT, PEREVNT MORTALIA CVNCTA VT CREPITVS, PRESSO POLLICE DISSILIENS QVAE PEREVNT, NIGRO FVGIVNTQ3 SIMILLIMA FVMO AVREA QVAXTVMVIS, NIL NISI FVMVS ERVNT. AT MENS CVLTA VIRO, POST FVNERA, CLARIOR EXTAT PONDVS INEST MEXTI CAETERA VAXA VOLANT. J/ fES D. MlLXER. uerie*. WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct. SIR THOMAS CHALOVER. It may be of interest to repeat an inquiry which appeared in N. & Q.' at 3 S. x; 28 (1866), as the; portrait referred to was presented to the ! National Portrait Gallery by Mr. E. A. ; Mauiid in November, 1900. Another ver- 1 sion of this portrait has recently appeared disclosing the full inscription, a copy of which I enclose. SIR THOMAS CHALOXER. The following in- ' script ion, copied from a portrait of Sir Thomas Chaloner the elder (belonging to Mrs. M. G. ! Edgar, and numbered 297 in the Exhibition of National Portraits at South Kensington), may be ! interesting to some of the readers of ' N. & Q.' The verses were probably written by Sir Thomas himself, who, besides his reputation as a states- man and soldier, is also accredited with having been one of the best Latin verse writers in the reign of Elizabeth : SARDANAPALVS AIT PEREVXT MORTALIA CVNCTA VT CREPIT P'SS OLLICE DISSILIENS QVAE PEREVNT IROI VI VNTQ3 8IMILLIMA FVMO AVREA QVAN VMVIS NIL NISI FVMVS ERVNT AT MENS CVLT VIRO POST FVNERA LARIOR TAT D N O M EXT AN VOLANT. The following may be suggested as a con- jectural restoration : Sardanapalus ait, Pereunt mortalia cuncta, Ut crepitus presso pollice dissiliens : Quae pereunt trepido (?) viyuntque simillima fumo Aurea quantumvis, nil nisi fumus erunt At mens culta viro post funera clarior extat . Denuo ; vera manent gaudia, vana volant. I ought to add that the portrait represents Sir Thomas in the act of snapping his fingers and holding in his left hand a pair of scales, in which ETCHING BY ROWLANDSON : k PAWPAW SWEATMEATS AND PlCKLES OF ALL SOBTS, BY RACHELL, P.P.' I have a very interest- ing etched caricature of four persons. The central figure is that of a fat coloured lady, richly adorned with jewels, wearing a minia- ture of a white man, while a distinguished looking man in uniform, apparently the original of the portrait, is looking in through a window on the right. The other two figures are those of a young coloured woman, standing, wearing a turban with a gresn hat perched curiously on one side of it, and an elderly ugly man, possibly a mulatto, wearing a straw hat, and sporting a long pig-tail and spurs. The etching, which is hand-coloured, has "Rowlandson fecit," but no other lettering except the inscription on the wall given above. The caricature possibly refers to some West Indian affair, and I should be glad of any information concerning it. There is no copy of it in the British Museum. JOHN LANE. The Bodley Head, Vigo Street, W.I. THE EARLIEST " LONDON " BOOKS. If by the term " London " it is understood that books of direct London interest, as dealing with its topography or with in- cidents in its history, are meant, then there is some doubt as to which are really the earliest. Richard Arnold's ' Chronicle or Customs of London ' may be so classified. Its purpose, as the sub-title at the top of the lefthand column in A ii. recto indicates, is to provide a record or chronicle of specific