Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/60

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

S. NO 3., JAN. 19. '56.

there being no- Latin word beginning with Y, I take the Y in the signature for the initial letter of the Greek work viy, aud decipher the whole signature thus :

" Salve sancta alma sanctissimi Christi mater v t  X p 1 1 <? ferens cl Almirante."

THOMAS HARVEY. Geneva, Dec. 1855.

Irish Car-drivers, I have lately met with what seems a characteristic instance of the way in which these amusing, but not very veracious, ciceroni often impose on the credulity of unsus- pecting travellers. In Miss Grace Greenwood's account of her Tour in Europe, she tells us, that having inquired of her Jehu the origin of the name of "Bloody Bridge," over the Liffey, at Dublin, the man, who doubtless scented a " sympathizer," gave, as the origin of the name, that during the Rebellion of 1798, the captured insurgents were strung up over the battlements of the bridge, and allowed to remain there till they dropped piecemeal into the river below ! The lady appears to have swallowed all this non- sense without hesitation, although the commonest . books (the Dublin Directory, for instance) would have told her that the affray which originated the name arose from the attempt of a mob, urged on by some interested persons, to destroy the bridge while building an attempt which was not defeated without some bloodshed ; and, moreover, that the said affray took place, and the bridge received the name, which it has ever since borne (among the lower orders at least, for it is usually called Bar- rack Bridge by the better classes), before any- body concerned in the Rebellion of '98 was born !

Xiv.

Monumental Brasses. In the church of Wis- beach, St. Peter's, Cambridgeshire, there is one to Sir Thomas de Braunstone, who was constable of the castle, dying in 1401. He is represented in armour under a decorated canopy, and treading on a lion.* The following inscription, which is nearly perfect, is round the slab :

" Cy gist Thomas de Braunstone, jadis Conp.stable du Chastel de Wisebeche, qui raoruit le vyngt septisme iouv de Maii, Tan de nostre siegnour Mil.CCCC primer. De L'alme de qui Dieu par sa grace ait mercy. Amen."

There are the remains of some others, but they are worn away and obliterated.

EDWARD BHOOKSHAW.

Tasso's Erminia. The readers of the Jerusa- lem Delivered will no doubt have their sentimental feelings severely shocked by hearing that the daughter of the Emir of Antioch, to whom Tasso has given the above name, was, as represented in

Magna Britannia, Cambridgeshire, partii. p. 67. ED.]
 * _* An engraving of this brass is given in Lysons's

the poem, very reluctant to be ransomed from her Christian captors, not from attachment to Christi- anity, or love for Tancred, or any other knight, but from extreme fondness for pork ! a luxury which she knew would be denied her 'on her re- turn to her Moslem kindred. Such, at least, is the tale told by Ordericus Vitalis. Xiv.

Epitaph in Harrow Churchyard. The follow- ing lines were found written m pencil on a tomb at Harrow. They have been ascribed (I believe erroneously) to Byron :

" Beneath these green trees, rising to the skies, The planter of them, Isaac Greeutree, lies ; A time shall come when these green trees shall fall, And Isaac Greentree rise above them all."

J. Y. (2.)

Chaucer. I found lately, in Kirkpatrick's History of the Religious Orders and Communities, and of the Hospitals and Castle of Norwich, the name of Walter le Chaucer, who is there men- tioned as having been on two occasions, viz. A.D. 1292, and again in the following year, examined on oath, together with several others (all of them evidently inhabitants of Norfolk, if not, as I sus- pect, of the city of Norwich), relative to certain property connected with the Grey Friars' monas- tery in that city. As Sir H. Nicolas, in his Life of Chaucer, professes to mention (note a, Picker- ing's Aldine edition) all the known persons bearing the poet's name, it may be worth noting the above Walter, who does not appear in the list given by Sir H. Nicolas. Is it possible that a careful search in the records (which existed when I was a school-boy, and perhaps still lie undisturbed) in the Guildhall at Norwich, may discover farther traces of the family ? B. T.

Provostship of Trinity College, Dublin. Mr. Phillips, in his highly interesting work entitled Curran and his Contemporaries, writes thus of Provost Hutchinson :

" After having amassed a large fortune at the bar, and held a distinguished seat in the Senate, he accepted the Provostship of Trinity College, and was, I believe, the first person promoted to that rank who had not previously obtained a fdloivship." P. 58.

This was not exactly the case, as one may learn from the list of provosts given in the Dublin Uni- versity Calendar for 1834, and from the following instances to the contrary.

Adam Loftus, D.D., Fellow of Trin. Coll., Cam- bridge, Archbishop of Dublin, appointed to the provostship in 1592 ; Walter Travers, Fellow of Trin. Coll., Cambridge, 1594; Henry Alvey, of St. John's Coll., Cambridge, 1601 ; William Tem- ple, LL.D., Fellow of King's Coll., Cambridge, 1609; William Bedell, D.D., Fellow of Emma- nuel Coll., Cambridge, 1627 ; William Chappel, D.D., Fellow of Christ's Coll., Cambridge, 1634; Richard Wassington, B.D., Fellow and Vice-