Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/524

 430 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s.vm. MAY 28f 102: in the night; (5) he prefers walking above sitting; (6) he prefers hard to soft food; (7) he holds his grandchildren in greater favour than his immediate progeny ; (8) he is inquisitive after trifling, not grave, affairs; (9) he drinks much tea but little wine; (10) he will go out more in cold than in warm days. Men of yore were unanimous in praising him to have adroitly hit off the symptons of senile aberration. I do not know how far the other peoples agree with the Chinese in these ten indica- tions of mental weakness of the old age. The Japanese would seem to differ from the Chinese in some of them ; e.g., there are among them many old persons disliking tea because of its making them sleepless (cf. Muju, ' Shaseki Shu,' A.D. 1283, tome viii., ch. xvi.), and their proverb, " Infants are the wind's children and old folks the fire's children," is of a meaning quite con- trary to the tenth Perversity mentioned above. KUMAGUSTJ MlNAKATA. Tanabe, Kii, Japan. 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. ARMS or THE SEE OF BRECHIN. What is the correct field ? The Cathedral was founded by King David I. in 1150. His grandson, David Earl of Huntingdon (born in 1143), bore or, three piles in point gules. The family of Wishart bore argent, three piles in point gules. Alex. Porteous, in 'The Town Council Seats of Scotland,' says that the natural son of David of Huntingdon, who obtained from his father the Lordship of Brechin, " was, from the great slaughter he made among the Saracens, surnamed Guishart, and from him are descended the families of Wishart." But Woodward and Burnett say there never were such persons as Wisharts, Lords of Brechin, and that the right tincture is or. I find that the Gumming MS. gives the tincture as argent, and this is the tincture in the Bishop Forbes memorial window in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Dundee. Is it possible that the change from or to argent is a sign of bastardy ? HUGH J. LOVIBOND. Dundee. IDENTIFICATION OF ARMS. What families bore the following arms (tinctures not given) in 1500: 1. Party with a lion counter-coloured. 2. A chevron with three millrind crosses. 3. A chevron between three martlets with five cinquefoils on the chief. USONA. MAGINN AND BYRON. William Maginn, in a note respecting the Hellespont appended to verse 32 of his poem, ' The Funeral of Achilles,' states that " Lord Byron, in spite of all his boasting, did not perform the feat of Leander." Is it known whether Maginn had any authority for this categorical assertion ? H. J. AYLIFFE. 17, Wyndham Street, Brighton. " THE GREY MARE is THE BETTER HORSE." I. want information about " The Grey Mare is the Better Horse." I know it is in Hay wood's ' Proverbs,' 1546 ; in ' Pryde and Abuse of Woman,' 155C ; I and in ' The Marriage of True Wit and Science,' 1569 ; and an older play, ' Wyt and Science,' by John Bedford. It sprang from some story. What is the story ? I was told that a crusader returning home was given a grey mare by a sheik and was told to turn her face to the west when he unsaddled her. One day he made a mistake and the mare changed into a woman who offered to marry him, but the prudent man said he had a grey mare of his own. I am quite sure, when I was a child, I I heard a song about " The Grey Mare was the Better Horse." It was sung by a person from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and her ancestor came from Cornwall about 1630. A number of Devonshire and Cornish people were sent over by Mason about that time. Does anyone know such a song ? It was evidently old. I can't recall it. That crusader story is evidently an allusion to some proverb or story. I have traced several proverbs back to stories early in the fourteenth century, and would like a clue to this one. And where is that crusader story ? M. J. CANAVEN. 133, West Springfield Street, Boston, Mass., U.S.A. [This was discussed at 6 S. ii. 207, 279 ; iii. 95 ; iv. 138, 233, 256, 316, 456; v. 96. Not much to the purpose of the above query was elicited.]