Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/341

 9*8. XL APRIL 25, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

333

Gate at Winchester contain some old shields of painted glass, which were probably brought thither fromsomeother ancient buildingin the city. Four of these shields closely resemble one another in style and size, and were pre- sumably all made about the same date. One shield bears the arms, the five castles and two lions, which are still the arms of the city, and also bears the words " Scutum Ciuitatis Wynton." Of the other shields, two are known to bear the arms of Henry Smart and Richard Kent, who were mayors of Win- chester in the time of Edward IV.; the arms on the fourth shield have not, I am told, yet been identified. Henry Smart died circa 1489, his will being proved P.C.C. 32 Milles. The facts I have mentioned suggest to my mind that the city was using its present arms not only in Smith's days, but long before. But, not being an expert in ancient glass, I should be grateful if any reader who can deal with the point, and who may have an opportunity of looking at these shields, would kindly inspect them and give us the benefit of his opinion as to their date. H. C.

" TOTTENHAM is TURN'D FRENCH " (9 th S. xi. 185). The following is from Mr. W. C. Haz- litt's '-Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases,' 1869, p. 437. I have given the passage in extenso as the book was printed in a limited edition, and therefore may justify the words " very scarce," which I saw placed against an entry in a bookseller's catalogue some little time since :

"Bedwell's Desc. of Tottenham, 1631. ' It seems about the beginning of the reign of Henry VI II., French mechanics swarmed in England, to the great prejudice of English artisans, which caused the insurrection in London on 111 May-day, A.D. 1517. Nor was the city only, but the country villages for four miles about, filled with French fashions and infections. The proverb is applied to such, who, contemning the customs of their own country, make themselves more ridiculous, by affecting foreign humours and habits.' R[ay's ' Collection of Proverbs,' ed. 1737]. But Hey wood's employment of the phrase does not seem to coun- tenance Ray's explanation :

A man might espie the chaunge in the cheekes Both of this poore wretch, and his wife this poore

wretche, Their faces told toies, than Totnam was tourned

Frenche.

" Puttenham, in his 'Arte of English Poesie,' 1589, sign. Y, written in Hey wood's time, says : ' Totnesse is turned Frenche,' and speaks of it as a proverb implying 'a great alteration.' Certainly both places would suit well, but I suspect Hey- wood to be right ; for Tottenham, in the classical vicinity of Chaucer's Stratford-atte-Bowe, was more likely to become the subject of such a proverb, than an obscure and remote country town.

In Prof. Arbor's reprint of Puttenham's ' Arte of English Poesie,' issued in 1869, the passage occurs on p. 199, and is as follows : " Totnesse is turned French, for a strange alteration," which reminds one of what has been said previously in ' N. & Q.' respecting accuracy in quotation. F. M. H. K.

This verdant suburb was the abode of several refugees of the Huguenot and Walloon dispersions, and their descendants are now useful, accomplished, and wealthy English- men. LYSART.

SHAKESPEARE'S GEOGRAPHY (9 th S. xi. 208). I am not a student of Shakespeare, but this might be of interest with reference to Z.'s note on the "sea coast of Bohemia," &c. I see in Murray's ' Handbook to North Ger- many,' p. 243, nineteenth edition, 1877, that the town of Konigsberg, capital of Prussia proper, was founded in 1245, and received its name in honour of Ottokar, King of Bohemia, who joined in a crusade against the heathen Prussians. This city is four miles from the Frisches Haff, that joins on to the Baltic. Its palace is also stated to have been founded by Ottokar.

In Baedeker's 'Guide to North Germany,' thirteenth English edition of 1900, it is stated that Konigsberg was originally a fortress of the knights of the Teutonic Order, named after their ally King Ottocar of Bohemia. On p. 226 it is mentioned that there is a statue of Ottocar in the city. R. B B.

Shakspeare certainly thought Milan to be on the sea. In 'The Tempest' Antonio opened the gates of Milan, and, in the dead of darkness, the ministers of his purpose hurried Prosperoand Miranda aboard a bark, bore them some leagues to sea, and then placing them in a boat, abandoned them Bohemia, Milan, and Verona are all on the sea, according to Shakspeare. Geographical, or other, accuracy is not his. In many of his plays he contradicts in one place what he has said in another. E. YARDLEY.

"NOTHING" (9 th S. xi. 166) In connexion with this subject it may be of interest to re- port that the late Lord Iddesleigh (then Sir Stafford Northcote) attended a conversazione of the Exeter Literary Society on 19 January, 1884, and gave a lecture on ' Nothing.' He was in London until the day before, and when he came back he said,

" I have been so pressed for time, that I have not been able to think what I am to say to-morrow night. I really have thought of nothing. I think I shall choose it for my subject." He did so, and a very charming lecture was