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AND QllERIES.

very properly, done away with. In connexion with this, may I ask if any branding-irons are kept at Newgate or any of the prisons, together with the obsolete collection of leg- irons and so forth 1

B. FLORENCE SCARLETT.

According to Wharton's 'Law Lexicon,' the punishment of branding was abolished by 3 Geo. IV. c. 38. G. F. K. B.

HERALDIC CASTLES (9 th S. i. 269). I should recommend THORNFIELD to consult Lord Bute's ' Arms of the Royal and Parliamentary Burghs of Scotland,' where he will find many admirably designed castles from the pen of Mr. H. W. Lonsdale.

OSWALD HUNTER BLAIR, O.S.B.

Fort Augustus, N.B.

To my mind, the best drawings of heraldic castles and of any other charges to be found in books of heraldry, are those in the 'Recueil de plusieurs Pieces et Figures d'Armoiries,' &c., of the Sieur Vulson de la Cplombiere, Paris, 1 639, folio. See particularly his drawing of the arms of Chastelain : "D'azur au chateau d'argent, couvert, gi- rouette de trois girouettes de nieme." This castle is a veritable gem, and might have been taken direct from a miniature in some illuminated MS.

JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.

Town Hall, Cardiff.

THORNFIELD will find what he requires in Fairbairn's 'Crests' (Butter's edition), 1860: Castle in flames, p. 118, No. 15; with two domes, p. 113, No. 7 ; with many other well- executed examples. Other designs, done in the sepia style, occur in ' British Crests,' by Alexander Deuchar, 1817.

JOHN RADCLIFFE.

Of the 246 illustrations of Tuscan municipal arms in Passerini's 'Arme dei Municipii Toscani,' 54 represent castles or towers. It is true that none of them is either inflamed or domed ; but THORNFIELD might get some useful suggestions by consulting the book.

"A MY AS OF ALE" (9 th S. i. 124). I have just found out that "meeas" was used at Bolsterstone in the sense of " mess." Formerly there was a club feast held at the public- house in Bolsterstone, at which a good deal of broth was used. After the dinner was over, poor men and women used to bring their " meeas pots," and say to the landlord's wife : u Pray, dame, will you gi' me a meeas o' broth 1" The " dame " thereupon cut up pieces of oat bread into small squares, and, having

put several pieces into each "meeas pot," poured broth upon them. This was the dish known as " browis,* though I have not heard it called by that name at Bolsterstone.

S. O. ADDY.

REMEMBRANCE OF PAST JOY IN TIME OF SOR- ROW (9 th S. i. 123, 251). MR. E. H. MARSHALL'S note is not to the point. This is the Do way Bible version of the passage, " For duble tediousnes had taken them, and sighing with the memorie of good thinges past." Mark ! the memory of good things past. That is how it stands in the Roman Catholic version, which has always been considered a very faithful trans- lation of the Vulgate. Never mind how the passage ought to have been translated ; that is how it was then understood, and as Boethius had not the opportunity of consulting Mr. Churton's paraphrase, he accepted the saying in its current form. The correctness of the old translation was not the point, but the similarity between sentiments in Dante, Boethius, and the Book of Wisdom, according to the popular conception of them. I under- stand MR. MARSHALL to deny that our fore- fathers so understood them. Very well. We will agree to differ about Boethius, for not many can now feel much interest in his dreary platitudes and philosophic commonplaces. He was the mediaeval Tupper. R. R.

May this thought be traced to Lam. i. 7 1 " Jerusalem remembered in the days of her

affliction all her pleasant things that she

had in the days of old." The Vulgate reads, " Recordata est Jerusalem dierum afflictionis SU83, et prsevaricationis, omnium desidera- bilium suorum, quae habuerat a diebus anti- quis." I quote this version because he who wrote " Ricordarsi del tempo felice " knew it well. But can dierum be construed as a genitive of the time when ?

RICHARD H. THORNTON.

Portland, Oregon.

Dante, Chaucer, De Musset, and how many more poets have dwelt on this experience? Dante's lines may be found in the familiar passage of the 'Inferno' where Francesca speaks to the poet :

Ed ella a me : nessun maggior dolore Che ricordarsi del tempo felice Nella miseria.

To this, no doubt, Tennyson refers in ' Locks- ley Hall' :-

This is truth the poet sings That a sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering

happier things. Alfred de Musset, in ' Le Saule,' has :

Ecoute, moribonde ! II n'est pire douleur

Qu'un souvenir heureux dans les jours de malheur.