Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/464

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. xn. DEC. 5, 1903.

the AruDdel Collection. The fourth duke and his second wife Margaret (Audley) were painted by Holbein, and the pair were not intended to be separated, for her picture (at Audley End, built by her son) has part of the motto, "Invicta." The rest of the motto, "sola virtus,'' is on a portrait of her husband, now in the possession of Lord Westmorland at Apethorp. The 'D.N.B.' (art. Antony More) says that only two genuine portraits of that artist Gresham and Lee exist in England. E. K. PURNELL.

MADAME HUMBERT AND THE CRAWFORDS (9 th S. xii. 407). I cannot give particulars, but I remember reading in a Paris newspaper at the time of the trial that one of the Humberts came into contact with a man of the name of Crawford in South America, and so made acquaintance with the name which Madame Humbert afterwards utilized.

T. P. ARMSTRONG.

Michelet's "Crawford" was Quintin Crau- furd, whose career is well known.

J. G. ALGER. Holland Park Court.

QUEEN ELIZABETH'S POCKET PISTOL (9 th S. xii. 308). In vol. iv. of Hasted's 'Kent,' p. 63, there is the following :

"The cliff on the south-east side is 320 feet per- pendicular, on the summit of which lies a beautiful piece of brass ordnance called Queen Elizabeth's Pocket Pistol, 24 feet loner, cast by James Tol- kys [?J, of Utrecht, anno 1544, and 'adorned with emblematical figures and arms of England ; it carries a 12-pound ball, and was made a present to the queen from the States of Holland."

To this passage there is appended the follow- ing note (b) :

V Kilburne says there was in his time remaining in this Castle a curious brass piece of ordnance, near

I feet long, called Basilisco, reported to be given by the Emperor Charles V. to K. Henry VIII.; per- haps a mistake for the above.''

Basilisco is a large cannon, generally made of brass, and of great weight or length. An account of Richard Kilburne will be found in the 'D.N.B.,' vol. xxxi. p. 101. His books about Kent are dated 1G57 and 1659, so that he is writing about the cannon 113 years after the date on it. Assuming the date, 1544, to be correct, and that H. is also correct in pre- suming that the arms of Henry VIII. are on it, are we then to infer that it was made for the purpose of being presented to him, but that tor some reason it was not presented, and that it afterwards came into possession or the States, who presented it to Queen Jkhzabeth years afterwards? Henry VIII died 1547; Elizabeth came to the throne 1558 ' Charles V. reigned from 1519 till 1556

When is the first time that this gun was- called Queen Elizabeth's Pocket Pistol? It must have been so called in books before- Hasted's time.

The Ptev. S. P. Statham in ' The History of the Castle, Town, and Port of Dover ' gives- the translation of the inscription thus :

O'er hill and dale I '11 throw my ball ; Breaker my name of mound and wall.

There is at p. 287 a photograph of the gun in its present position. Many persons believe- that the inscription is as follows :

Load me well and keep me clean, And I '11 carry a ball to Calais (Ireen.

This is, of course, pure invention, and it is- stated by Mr. Statham that the gun was sup- posed to be capable of carrying a twelve- pound ball seven, not twenty-one, miles. Dr. Brewer in his ' Dictionary of Phrase and Fable' states that the gun was given to- Queen Elizabeth "by the Low Countries in recognition of her efforts to protect them in their reformed religion." Surely there ought to be found some record of this. There are numerous instances given by Rapin in his the queen assisted the States by the advance' of money and otherwise ; but although Motley in his 'History of the United Nether- lands ' and the ' Dutch Republic ' gives such a. full account of the relations between Eliza- beth and the States, there is not a word there about the presentation of the gun by the- States to the queen.
 * History of England ' of the way in which

It would be desirable to see if Kilburne's books have anything more about the gun than what Hasted states in the short note- quoted by me.

Was there a gun foundry at L T trecht in 1544 1 I do not think there is one there now..

The University of Utrecht was founded in 1633, and it has, I believe, a good library, which may possibly contain some book whichi will give H. valuable information on this subject, and about Jan Tollhuys, who was a native of that place.

H. has given your readers the fullest account I have yet seen of the inscriptions and marks on the Pocket Pistol, and a full, true, and particular account of it would' be most interesting. This is only written by way of suggesting further inquiries.

HARRY B. POLAND.

Inner Temple.

This gun was presented to the queen by the States of Holland, presumably for the- material assistance she rendered that country against the Spanish invasion. The English royal arms were no doubt placed upon it to-