Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/202

 194

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. x. SEPT. 6, im

In the latter part of the seventeenth cen- tury, and no doubt well into the eighteenth century, Tewkesbury was still noted for its mustard-balls, which were sent into other parts until 1720, when the famous Durham mustard leapt into favour, principally through having pleased the palate of George I. In 1722 the following advertisement appeared in the London Journal of 15 December :

" Sir John Yeomans, the Great Mustard Master- General, gives notice that his new-invented Royal Flower of Mustard-Seed (which will keep good in the Flower as long as in the Seed) is now daily call d for and highly esteem'd by the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom. This Noble Flower makes the best and most wholsome Mustard in the whole World by mixing it according to the printed

Directions Captains of Ships may have it in

Earthen jarrs. Pray ask for it by my Name, and see that each Parcel is seal'd with the Globe, for there are Counterfeits abroad."

J. HOLDEN MAcMlCHAEL.

C. C. B. queries at p. 94, a propos of Fal- stafFs remark that " Poins's wit was as ' thick as Tewkesbury mustard,' why Tewkesbury ?" Ray, in ' Com pi eat Collection of English Proverbs ' (ed. 1768), p. 241, has :

" ' He looks as if he had lived on Tewksbury mustard.' Tewksbury is a fair Market-town in [Glocestershire], noted for the mustard-balls made there, and sent into other parts. This is spoken partly of such, who always have a sad, severe, and terrick countenance.

Si ecastor hie homo sinapi victitet, Non censeam tarn tristem esse posse. Plaut. in ' Trucul.' Partly of such as are snappish, captious, and prone to take exceptions."

In Defoe's ' Tour through Britain ' (ed. 1742), ii. 287, we are told that "the Town was long famous for its Mustard-balls, as also for a great Manufacture of Stockens."

C. E. D.

The large mallet used with an iron wedge for splitting the trunks of trees is known in Devonshire as a " beetle," in the rural districts usually pronounced " bittle." A. J. DAVY.

Torquay.

MARJORIE FLEMING'S PORTRAIT (9 th S. x. 128). Some years ago (I am sorry I cannot give the exact date) there appeared in Scrib- ner's Magazine an article by Mrs. Fields, entitled ' A Second Shelf of Old Books.' It was fully illustrated, and amongst the por- traits was that of " Pet Marjorie." I presume this is the picture sought for by your corre- spondent, for it bears the subscription, " Mar- jorie Fleming. (After the water-color por- trait by her cousin Isabella Keith. By consent of David Douglas, Esq., Edinburgh.) " No one who has seen this characteristic portrait of the dear child, with her large

inquiring eyes and tight-fitting white cap, would ever be likely to forget it.

JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

INDEX-MAKING (9 th S. ix 348).-! have received from a young clerical Oxford friend the names of the three following books: (1) 'Canones Apostolorum et Conciliorum, SJBC. IV.-VII.,'ed. Theod. Bruns, Berlin, 1839. (2) ' Documents illustrative of English Church History,' by H. Gee and W. J. Hardy, recom- mended as a handy reference book by a high authority at the British Museum. The pre- face is by the late Bishop Stubbs ; he and Prof. Bright advised in the selection. (3) 'The Whole Duty of Man,' said to be a treasure house for the pastor in parochia.

T. WILSON.

Harpenden.

ARMS OF MARRIED WOMEN (9 th S. ix. 28, 113, 195). No doubt, as MR. MATTHEWS says, in British heraldry a widow would bear her late husband's arms impaled with her own, usually on a lozenge ; but, as I take it, the question asked by W. G. D. F. is not as to how arms may be borne by a widow, but by a married woman who is, moreover, an ignobilis, i.e, one not entitled to coat armour.

The passage cited by MR. RADCLIFFE from Nisbet would undoubtedly go to show that a married woman an ignobilis might still bear the arms of her husband ; but he does not say in what form. If by impalement, she has no coat with which they can be impaled ; and I presume such a thing as an impalement with a blank shield is a thing unheard of in British heraldry. There can hardly be any usage allowable here similar to that form of impalement sometimes practised in foreign heraldry and known as "arms of expecta- tion " (see Dr. Woodward's work on ' British and Foreign Heraldry,' 1896, vol. ii. chap. ii.). There the arms of an unmarried lady of high rank are sometimes represented in the sinister half of a lozenge, the dexter half being left uncharged.

If a married woman bears her husband's arms alone, either on a shield or a lozenge, they are open to the objection stated by Guillim, namely, that they might in the one case be taken for those of a man, and in the other for those of a " maiden gentlewoman."

Writers on heraldry tell us that the prac- tice of impaling arms was first introduced by ladies, yet I have nowhere heard it stated that in the absence of any arms of her own a married woman could use her husband's alone. If heraldry is anything it is an exact science, and one ought not to be misled, or