Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/141

 X. AUG. le, 1908.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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the Percies, Earls of Northumberland, were descended. He was also ancestor of the Landgraves of Hesse. The dukedom passed through Margaret, daughter of Margaret and Lewis, the last Count of Flanders, to the Dukes of Burgundy of the House of Valois. JOHN RADCLIFFE.

H. L. will find much information in ' L'Art de Verifier les Dates,' and at a glance trace Duke Godfrey's ancestry back to the last quarter of the ninth century, up through the Counts of Louvain to Rainier I., Count of Hainault. In ' Diet. Nat. Biog.'(art. ' Adeliza,' by Mr. Round) we are told that Godfrey descended in the male line from Charles the Great. That I have not been ,able to verify, but do not presume to doubt.

C. S. WARD.

Wootton St. Lawrence, Basingstoke.

The ' D.N.B.' states that Godfrey (Barba- tus) of Louvain, Duke of Brabant or Lower Lotharingia, who was descended in the male line from Charles the Great, founded the Abbey of Affligam, near Alost, in Flanders ; to which his daughter Queen Adeliza leaving her second husband William de Albini retired, and where she died and was buried. Her brother Henry had already withdrawn there (1149). Another brother, Joceline (' the Castellan "), ancestor of the Earls of North- umberland, she had, while lady of Arundel, subenfeoffed in the lordship of Petworth.

A. R. BAYLEY.

PESBOROUOH PORTRAITS AND RELICS (9 th S. viii. 497 ; ix. 30, 175). I have seen, by the kindness of Prof. Newton, of Magdalene Col- lege, Cambridge, a copy of the catalogue of the Leverian Museum, and in it appears

"Oliver Cromwell's armour given by a

lady, a descendant of General Desborough, to Mr. Busby, and by him to Sir Ashton Lever." The purchaser of this lot for five guineas was Mr. Bullock, who himself, as Prof. Newton tells me, formed a museum, which was exhibited at what is now the Egyptian Hall. But in the catalogue of this museum, when it came to be sold, this armour does not appear, and it was probably previously sold sepa- rately. I should be glad to trace the where- abouts of this armour, which consisted of "Oliver Cromwell's helmet, gorget, armour for the body and left arm, and leathern sur- tout." I remember being told when a child that Oliver Cromwell's sword had been given by some members of our family to the British Museum. This, 1 take it, was an incorrect version of the fact that his armour had been given, as above stated, by my grandmother, who was a descendant of General Desbrowe.

Was it ever the practice to carry armour on the left arm only, perhaps in order to leave the sword more free? E. F. Du CANE.

GREEN AN UNLUCKY COLOUR (9 th S. viii. 121, 192 ; ix. 234, 490 ; x. 32). It cannot have been so accounted in Italy in Dante's time or he would not have seen the angels thus : Verdi, come fogliette pur mo nate, Erano in veste, che da verdi penne Percosse traean dietro e ventilate.

'Purg.,' viii. 28.

Nor is it likely that he would have said of Hope that she was

Come se le carni e 1' ossa Fossero state di smeraldo fatte

('Purg.,'xxix. 124);

or of Beatrice, the beloved, that her eyes were emeralds ('Purg.,' xxxi. 116), or that she appeared to him "sotto verde manto" (' Purg.,' xxx. 32), emblematic of hope.

It is not very probable that Manfred of Sicily would have been always dressed in green if the colour had been accounted un- propitious.

If "gren" mean green in the following passage from ' English Metrical Homilies from MSS. of the Fourteenth Century ' (John Small, M.A., Edinburgh, 1862), we have another indication that the hue was not deemed of ill omen :-J*

Quat yed ye, he said, to se

In wildernes, ye tel me,

A man robed in wlank wede,

Als qua sai, nai, ue in fairhede,

For al men wist that knew sain Jon,

That he hauid camel har him upon,

For thi asked Crist, quethir thei yed

Te se sain Jon in wlanke wede,

Als qua sai, es he nan of tha

That er clad in gren and gra.

Crist spac of thaim that gas in gren,

To scheu the folc quat he wald men.

In kinge-houses, he said, won thai

That er cled in gren and grai.

' Dom. iii. Advent. Domini."

ST. SWITHIN.

PROJECTION ,ON A SAW (9 th S. x. 49). Surely this is merely to assist in keeping the kerf clear. I have seen Disston saws with the notch, though possibly they are thus made for the English market. J. D.

Inquiry of the foreman of a large iron- monger's business results in the reply that the projection has no name and no use, and that it is being discontinued by manufac- turers. The query might have stated that at the point in question there is a dip in the back of the saw, involving a lesser relative breadth. A similar query to a Chinaman about one of his tools would be aptly dismissed with the words, " B'long olo custom," which