Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/421

 9 th S. I. MAY 21, '98. ]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

413

it is possible they may have degene- rated into ordinary taverns. For instance, at Greenwich, in Kent, there was a house spoken of as the Swan and the Swan House, which was the residence of Henry Courtney. "Earl of Exeter, beheaded 1539. It was after- wards divided into four tenements, later on nto ten, and eventually became a brewery See Drake, ' Hundred of Blackheath,' p. 80.)

AYEAHR.

All county histories contain notices, and )ften engravings, of large houses or " inns " in 11 our chief towns. Chester, Shrewsbury, and thers still furnish fine examples. The best were chiefly in the more northern towns, as the noblemen and county families, instead of coming to London, as in later days, spent their " season " in their own county towns. Many of the older hotels and inns in such towns were formerly houses belonging to the gentry. B. FLORENCE SCARLETT.

PATTENS (9 th S. i. 44, 336). In partial answer to MR. ADAMS, I can state that the Lancashire clog and the Yorkshire patten are not alike. The former is simply shod with iron; but the wooden sole of the patten is raised above the subjacent elliptical iron frame on which it is supported. The wooden sole of the clog touches the ground ; that of the patten does not. W. C. B.

In pattens the iron rings were under the insteps of the wearer, and her feet were quite above the ground ; in clogs the iron supports were only a kind of hollow heel. Goloshes were regarded as marvellous luxuries when they first came in, and it is strange to see the world doing as well as it is now that they are gone out. The Kev. Robert Spalding (" Private Secretary ") helped to bring them into discredit. ST. SWITHIN.

Poco MAS (9 th S. i. 388)." Poco Mas " * was the pen-name of an officer who served on the staff of Espartero during the eventful period of the Carlist war in the north of Spain in which Sir De Lacy Evans took a conspicuous part. R. B.

Upton.

THE FIR-CONE IN HERALDRY (9 th S. i. 207, 330). At the last reference we are told that the pine-tree is an emblem of death and ob- livion. Should we not rather say an emblem of life after death? Its association with Bacchus and its use at weddings carry sug- gestions of fecundity and reproduction. On

the author.
 * Poco Mas (Little More), a pun on the name of

Assyrian monuments we find the pine-cone figured as an offering to the god guarding life ; and in modern Russia the coffin, when carried to the grave, is covered with pine- branches. In both cases the idea of immor- tality is meant to be conveyed. I "convey" the above from Folkard, who has much more on the subiect tending to the same conclusion. He says, by the way, that Virgil calls the pine pronuba, because wedding-torches were made of its wood ; but I find nothing of this in Adam or in Rich, nor is the word given (in this sense) in the 'Clavis Virgiliana.' Can any one refer me to the passage in which it occurs? C. C. B.

BRANDING- PRISONERS (9 th S. i. 328). It has never been law to brand prisoners " on the back of the hand with a broad arrow." Your correspondent has evidently derived this impression from the broad arrow on the modern convict's clothing, as on Government stores in general. Branding in the hand with letters was inflicted on offenders during that period of our criminal-law history when benefit of clergy was allowed to laymen. In 1488 it was enacted by statute 4 Henry VII. c. 13 that such a person convicted of murder should be " marked with a M upon the braun of the left thumb," and if of any other felony " with a T in the same place of the thumb." In 1698 it was provided by statute 10 & 11 Will. III. c. 23, for the more effectual repres- sion of theft and petty larceny, that such offenders as had the benefit of clergy allowed them should be " burnt in the most visible part of the left cheek, nearest the nose." This additional severity, proving a failure, was annulled in 1707 by statute 5 Anne, c. 6, and hand-burning was resumed. But in 1779 statute 19 Geo. III. c. 74 gave justices the option of imposing a pecuniary fine or a whipping, in lieu of branding, on felons " liable by law to be burned or marked in the brawn of the left thumb";* and henceforth branding fell into disuse, until in 1822 it was formally abolished by statute 3 Geo. IV. c. 38.

F. ADAMS.

When the practice ended I cannot tell, tiaving no references by me at present ; but I recollect seeing that the ceremony was sometimes carried out with a cold iron, and perhaps this was just before the custom was,


 * "In all such Felonies where the Benefit of

he Clergy is allowed (as it is in many) there the

Criminal is marked with a hot Iron with an M for

Manslaughter, on the Left-hand, or with a T for

Thief ; and wandering Rogues are to be marked on


 * he Shoulder with an R." Chamberlayne's 'Magnie

Britannise Notitia,' 1745, pt. i. p. 193.