Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/44

 30 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s.ix. JULY 0,1021. HOCKLEY OF HAMPSHIRE. Can any reader inform me where I can obtain an account or pedigree of the Hockleys of Hampshire ? STEVENSON HOCKLEY WALSH. PENZANCE FAIR : " CAPUT JOHANNIS IN Disco." 'What is the origin of the Corpus Christi Fair at Penzance ? Can it be sup- posed to have anything to do with the arms of the town St. John Baptist's head in a charger ? In the York Breviary, in one of the lessons for the Feast of the Decollation of St. John, it is said, " Caput Johannis in disco signat Corpus Christi quo pascimur in sancto altari." When did this idea first arise, and where ? And upon what may it be founded? There was some correspondence at 12 S. vi. 227, 276, upon St. John's Head altar-slabs, but these questions were not discussed. Are there any* other Corpus Christi Fairs in England held at the present day, or recorded ? If so, is there any similar possible connexion between the feast and the arms of the town ? Is " Caput Johan- nis in disco " in the arms of any other town ? PEREGRINUS. - DE BRUS TOMB AT HARTLEPOOL. Situated in the churchyard of St. Hilda's at Hartlepool is a massive table monument, measuring Oft. Sin. by 5ft. 9in., which for over a century has been credited by his- torians and writers generally with being the tomb or cenotaph of a member or members of the De Brus family. Upon what grounds writers based their statements that the tomb stood, formerly, within the chancel does not transpire. Having in mind the tradition associated with the tomb, doubtless the least hint that that part of the edifice was its former resting- place would justify even those engaged in the great and difficult task of a county history in making a statement which was then, perhaps, quite justified, but which may be misleading successive historians and students. That there were arms of some sort upon the four sides of the tomb at one and the same time without variation is not disputed, but to say that the charge or charges are similar to those borne by the De Brus of Skelton before they assumed the arms of Annandale has not the ordinary rules of heraldry for corroboration. After making allowance for the principal charge (a most grotesque looking animal) being a lion rampant which ordinarily would be regarded as the De Brus arms we have " in pale " several lozenges or fusils at either side six in number and in the dexter chief point are a pair of interlaced links which do not savour much of twelfth - century work, to which date the tomb is frequently ascribed. Regarding the lozenges or fusils as subordinate ordinaries, and therefore later than the honourable ordi- naries, it would perhaps materially help to nmiiiiimmiiumiinmiiMnmnmmiinmiiii date the tomb 'if anyone could say about what date the former ordinaries came into use ? The latter seem to have got an impetus during the Crusades. W. A. Copinger, in ' Heraldry Simplified,' p. 20, quotes Mr. Gough as saying that " the arms sculptured on the effigy in the Temple Church of Geoffrey de Magnaville, Earl of Essex, who died in 1144, are the earliest which have been discovered/' Is it possible that this rude tomb erected to the memory of some member of a once famous family is of contemporary date with the effigy of the Earl of Essex ? If not, what is the origin of the great tomb at Hartlepool ? A. E. OUGHTRED. Scagglethorpe, Malton.