Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/55

. is, mi NOTES AND QUERIES.

the badge of which was a small figure of a lobster attached to a red, green, and white ribbon, the colours being those of the island The "order ".was presumably a convivial one Has any reader of 'N. & Q.' seen such badge? WILLIAM GEORGE BLACK.

12, Sardinia Terrace, Glasgow.

CASTLEREAGH'S PORTRAIT. I see in some writers a pwnip styled Castlereagh's portrait What can be the ground of such a sobriquet ? J. D. BUTLER.

Madison, Wis.

AUGUSTINE WINGFIELD. He was one of the three members for Middlesex in the Bare bones Parliament. Who was he ?

W. D. PINK.

TRANSLATION WANTED. The following was the motto of the Hon. Laurence Sulivan What does it mean 1 " Lamh Foistineach an Uachtar." CHAS. J. F^RET.

49, Edith Koad, West Kensington, W.

" LORD BISHOP." I read in a Birmingham paper of 15 December a statement that " the Lord Bishop of Coventry was presented by a number of Coventry Churchmen last evening with a bicycle." The bishop referred to is a suffragan, and it would be interesting to know upon what authority a suffragan can be called a " lord bishop." Is the title appli- cable, in point of fact, to any bishop who is not, or is not on the statutory road to be, a peer of the realm ? POLITICIAN.

MADAM BLAISE. Nearly forty years ago a picture of this lady, celebrated in the verse of Oliver Goldsmith, was exhibited at the Royal Academy. In the Catalogue was in- scribed the quatrain underneath : At church in silks and satins new,

With hoop of monstrous size, She never slumbered in her pew

But when she shut her eyes. The lady was represented as a fine stately woman, very richly dressed, having a hoop of great amplitude. Is the painter known ? for as a work of art it was fine, and was engraved at the time in the Illustrated London News. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

CANNING PORTRAITS BY ROMNEY. Now that George Canning and his family are being dis- cussed in ' N. & Q.' (8 th S. xii. 486 ; 9 th S. i. 17), I should like to ask about two or three portraits which Romney painted. The earliest of these was of Mrs. Canning and child, which was commenced in 1778, and was apparently in hand for some time after that. Mrs. Can- ning's address was Wanstead, Essex. Between

1786 and 1788 Romney painted two half- lengths of Mr. Canning and of his wife and child. The latter may have been the portrait commenced in 1778, but I think not. I am anxious to know who these Cannings were, and the present whereabouts of the portraits.

W. ROBERTS. Carlton Villa, Klea Avenue, Clapham, S.W.

OLD YEAR CUSTOM. A Scandinavian ser- vant of mine (Norwegian) insisted on the last night of the year at twelve o'clock on drinking a glass of cold water on the front doorstep. She drank half of it and threw the other half away, so taking in the new year and throwing the old away. Has this custom any counterpart among English or British, not to offend the Scotch new year's habits, which hold so tightly amongst a rural popu- lation 1 TENEBR^E.

CHALMERS BARONETCY. Sir Charles W. Chalmers, Bart., a captain in the Royal Navy, born at Portsmouth 1779, died at Appledore, county Devon, 1834, married Isabella, widow of Capt. T. Scott, H.E.I.C.S. It is desired to ascertain the place and date of this marriage, and information will be thankfully received It may be added that Charles Boom, the only child of the marriage, was baptized at St. James's Church, Taunton, Somerset, 19 Aug., 1816. H. S.

DARWIN AND MASON. Can any of your readers kindly tell me in what life of Darwin mention is made of Robert Mason of Hull? A friend who saw it cannot remember the title of the book. [An] Erasmus Darwin was married 9 Nov., 1685, in Trinty Church, Hull, to Eliza, daughter of Robert Mason.

M. ELLEN POOLE.

Alsager, Cheshire.

DEFOE. Is there any early external evidence n existence that confirms the tradition that Daniel Defoe wrote " A Journal of the Plague Year, &c., by H. F.," which was printed in liondon in 1722 in octavo 1 ? When did the radition itself first appear in print ?

X. Y.

ARCHER FAMILY. Can any one inform me /o what family "John Archer, chaplain to King George III.," belonged, and what coat >f arms he bore, and give particulars relating o him or his family 1 MARIE ARCHER.

Melbourne.

PORTRAIT OF SIR GILES EYRE OF BRICK- WOOD. Is there any portrait extant of Sir jiles Eyre, who was appointed one of the udges of the King's Bench in 1689, and who led and was buried in Whiteparish in 1695 ?