Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/404

 330 NOTES AND QUERIES. [i2s.ix.oor.22.mi. of Chigwell, Essex ? I have approximate dates for the two vicarages, but none at all for the archdeaconry. I know of Allen's other preferments. WM. McMuRRAY. I. DONOWELL. Can any reader give me any information regarding I. Donowell, whose name appears thus, " I. Donowell, Arch : del : " on some very interesting line engrav- ings of Oxford, published by John Tinney at the Golden Lion in Fleet Street, London, in 1755 ? I cannot find his name in any of the ordinary books of reference. W. V. G. 5, Queen Anne's Gate, S.W. " Pis ANUS FRAXI." In the years 1877 and 1879 there were published in London two books entitled respectively * Index Librorum Prohibitorum ' and ' Centuria Li- brorum Absconditorum. ' The author's name is given as " Pisanus Fraxi." Would it be indiscreet, at this interval of time, to inquire what his real name was ? At the time I imagine that the name was a secret de Polichinelle. ' Le Livre,' while respecting his anonymity, describes him as " un des bibliophiles les plus distingues de 1'Angle- terre' " ('Le Livre,' Bibliographie Ancienne, vol. i. 10). H. A. P. [Professor Bensly, at 11 S. viii. 365, elucidated this little mystery. Not that the identity of " Pisanus Fraxi " was in doubt. By that nom de guerre was known Henry Spencer Ashbee, who, as Professor Bensly says, " turned the two syllables of his surname into Latin as Fraxinus Apis (an ash and a bee are displayed in a book- plate of his) and then formed the anagram ' Pisanus Fraxi'."] ST. COLME'S CHABM. Can anyone explain the meaning of the fifth and sixth lines of St. Colme's charm quoted or composed by Scott in chap. iii. of ' Guy Mannering ' : St. Bride and her brat, St. Colme and his cat. A possible explanation may be St. Bridget and her mantle (Ir. brat, mantle). Can "cat" be a reference to the book ' Cathach,' attributed to St. Columba ? AGNES FIDDES. ROGER GWYLLYM AND RICHARD LLOYD GWYLLYM. I have two seventeenth-century portrait miniatures of two handsome boys with the above names engraved at the back of the frames, which are of metal. Can any reader inform me if there are any living representatives of a Welsh family who might throw some light on these portraits ? S. J. PEGG. " BUTTER GOES MAD TWICE A YEAR."- A Hertford servant girl, some 45 years ago, when experiencing any difficulty in spread- ing butter on the bread, used to remark, " Butter goes mad twice a year, as my grandmother says. : ' Possibly the allusion is to the tendency of this article of diet to melt in summer and harden in winter. Is the saying current elsewhere ? E E s Q17IRES .. Hertford. NURSERY RIME. I should like to know if I have straight in memory the wording of this rime, familiar in my Connecticut home in the 1850's, but which I have not come across in any English collection. The last line was a popular fling at those who shirked small risks : Jemmy Jed Went into a shed, And made of a ted Of straw his bed ; When a mousing owl That about did prowl Set up a yowl, And Jemmy Jed Up stakes and fled. Wasn't Jemmy Jed a pretty fool, Born in the woods, to be scared by an owl ? The final rime would seem to indicate a Scotch origin, as with Dr. Foster, who " stepped in a puddle up to his muddle." FORREST MORGAN. Hartford. CAPT. PEREGRINE BERTIS, R.N. Will any student of old sporting papers or journals give an account of him ? J. H. COPE. Finchampstead, Berks. UNIDENTIFIED ARMS. Out of the numbers of coats of arms sent to be identified I cannot name the following, nor can heraldic friends to whom I have submitted them : 1. Bend sa. between two mullets vert. 2. Chev. sa. cottised between three bears' heads muzzled. 3. Three roses or on chief az. indented. 4. Per bend a star of eight points. 5. Per fess pale counterch. three swans ppr. Others with access to heraldic works may like to solve the problems. E. E. COPE. Finchampstead, Berks.