Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/539

 12 s. ix. DEC. 3, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 441 LONDON, DECEMBER 3. 1921. CONTENTS. No. 190. NOTES : " Cats " and " Rats " at the Siege of Arras, 441 Glass-painters of York, 442 Centenary of Shakespeare in English on the French Stage, 444 Dickens's ' David Copper- field,' 445 Prime Minister Caen (or Ken) Wood Win- chester Scholars and the University of Lou vain, 446. QUERIES : " Hangman's Stones " Pre-Conquest Land Perambulations Mrs. and Miss Campbell's Passage oi the Col du Geant in 18?2, 446 Medal of Pope Paul II. John Frewen : Title Page of ' Certaine Fruitful Instructions ' Dominoes, 447 Bournemouth : The Children's Walk Jonas Coaker, " the Dartmoor Poet " Gilbert, Iinlay Montfort Family De la Porte Family Disappearing Church Customs " Speaking through one's hat " The Very Rev. John Lamb, Dean of Ely Philip Le Coq A very Aid worth Iron Bars used as Money " ' Heads ' as the pieman says," 449 Hugh Vaughan The Rev. J. de Kewer Williams Kimmeridge Coal Money Anonymous Novels Richard Rowlands A Hushing Pool ' The His- torian,' 1857. 450. REPLIES : The Year 1000 A.D.. 450' Verdant Green ' St. Christopher and the Christ Child Chinese Vase : Yi Lu Constance Kent and the Road Murder, 452 The House of Harcourt Legal Costume in the Seventeenth Century Seventeenth- century Military Service : Drax Family Families of Pre-Reformation Priests Burial Registers : St. Katharine's, London, 453" Standards "Brothers of the Same Christain Name Dr. Bird, American Novelist Pharaoh as a Surname Glass-painters of York, 454 Quotations on Cheese Thomas Linwood Strong Naming of Public Rooms in Inns Heraldic : the Helmet Netting Barn Farm Stilton Cheese Authors wanted, 455. ENGLISH ARMY SLANG AS USED IN THE GREAT WAR : Comments and Criticism, 455. NOTES ON BOOKS : ' The Historical Geography of the Wealden Iron Industry ' ' Mediaeval Heresy and the Inquisition ' ' A Concise Guide to Cambridge.' Notices to Correspondents. " CATS " AND " RATS " AT THE SIEGE OF ARRAS. GUIDE-BOOKS to Arras all make reference, in greater or less degree, to an incident in one of the sieges of that place, in which the citizens, besieged by the troops of the French King, wrote up over one of the gates a rhyming inscription to the effect that " Only when mice (or rats) catch (or eat) cats will the King be lord of Arras." Un- fortunately there is a lack of agreement both as to the actual wording of the lines and the date when the incident occurred. It seems to be generally agreed that a rhyme of this nature was made use of by the Spaniards (or the people of Arras) during the siege of 1640, but that it was at that date merely the deliberate repetition of some- thing which had taken place at an earlier eiege. The first use of the rhyme, however, is variously put down to the years 1414, 1477 and 1479, and the wording of the lines varies considerably. M. C. le Gentil, writing in 1877, assigns the original incident to the year 1477 ; M. Andre de Poncheville, in ' Arras et 1'Artois devastes ' (1920), puts it back to 1414 ; the ' Michelin Guide to Arras' (1920) ad- vances it to 1479. In each of these years the place was besieged by the French. Three other local writers (named below) refer only to the incident in relation to the siege of 1640. As to the wording of the lines, M. le Gentil, in ' Le vieil Arras ' (a scholarly work not to be classed with popular guide-books), gives it as follows : Quand les rats mangeront les chats Le roi sera seigneur d' Arras. But M. de Poncheville, also a scholarly writer, has another version : Quand les souris mangeront les chats Le roi sera seigneur d' Arras. A third variant, which is used in an anonymous publication called ' Arras et ces Monuments' (1853), by the Abbe Ray- mond Drimille in his ' Guide historique et archeologique ' (1913), and in the popular ' Guide Davrinche ' (1919), reads : Quand les Francais prendront Arras Les souris mangeront les chats ; while in the 'Michelin Guide' (1920) yet another rendering finds place : Quand les souris prendront les chats Le roi sera seigneur d' Arras. Drimille, Davrinche and the anonymous writer of 1853 refer only to the siege of 1640. In only one of the above versions, it will be observed, is use made of the word " rats." And yet it is difficult not to believe that this was the term originally employed, in view of the position occupied in the story of the commune by that particular animal, and its appearance on the seal of the town and in the arms of the Cite. In support of this view it may be pointed out that the French Gazette of 1640, in chronicling the siege of Arras in that year, refers to the " ineptes et ridicules comparaisons des chats qui ne peuvent estre pris des ratz " made by the people of the town, and also to a " proverbe tant rechante du menu peuple d' Arras." Unfortunately the proverb itself is not quoted. At what period " rats " became mice it would be interesting to discover, as also when the word " mangeront " wa? turned