Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/56

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. n. JULY ie

LUD. XVI. D. G. FR. ET. NAV. EEX. On the

sinister side, three fleurs-de-lis, surmounted by a crown bearing a cross. Between two sprays or branches round the edge in Roman capitals, SIT. NOMEN. DOMINI. M. BENE- DICTEN. [tie] 1786. In good preservation.

H. C. PORTER.

14, Livingstone Road, Hove.

FRENCH CARDINAL. Can you inform me what Frenchman obtained a cardinal's hat at eighteen years of age 1 J. GIFFARD.

Cowley Rectory, Cheltenham.

"PAYING THROUGH THE NOSE." Will any reader be good enough to explain the origin of the phrase "Paying through the nose"? I have referred to the ' Slang Dictionary '

Sublished by Chatto & Wind us, 1874, also rewer's 'Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,' new edition, but imagine the explanation incomplete. J. F. BLACKMORE.

[See I 8t S. i. 333, 421 ; ii. 348; 5 th S. vi. 134.]

PICOT OR PIGGOTT. Picot is a very old English personal name, at least as old as Domesday Book. I presume the surname Piggott very old in Herts and Beds, because it is common to landed and unlanded families is the same name. Can it be connected with the Italian Christian name Pico ?

T. WILSON.

Harpenden.

SCOTT BIOGRAPHY. I have a small volume of 374 pp. en titled "Life | of | Sir Walter Scott, Bart., | with | Notices of his Works, | &c. | by G. M'Donald, Esq. | London : | Published by Jones and Co. 1838." It contains a por- trait of the author of ' Waverley.' From its general appearance I should imagine it to be a cheap production. But who was the author, G. M'Donald ? Until I saw this ' Life ' I had never heard of it or its author.

C. P. HALE.

THOMAS KEYES. The name Keyes occurs in various Berks marriage registers. Who was Thomas Keyes, husband of Lady Mary Grey ? Where and when did he die ?

E. E. THOYTS.

POEM ON THE HORSE-CHESTNUT. Will any reader of ' N. & Q.' kindly tell me who is the author of the humorous poem (often used as a comic recitation) beginning,

An Eton stripling training for the law, A dunce at syntax, but a dab at taw,

and proceeding to demonstrate that a horse- chestnut is a chestnut horse? Where and when was it originally published ?

... &. H. MURRAY. Oxford. Iy ,

' BUONDELMONTI'S BRIDE.'

(9 th S. i. 489.)

THE picture alluded to may have been an intended illustration of one tragic result of the famous Buondelmonti affair in Florence in 1215, when Guido Orlandi was Podesta. To be brief, a young Buondelmonti had promised himself in marriage to a daughter of the house of Amidei. As he was passing one day by the house of a lady of the Donati family, Lapaccia by name, the latter blamed him for affiancing himself to a damsel quite unworthy of mm, at the same time declaring to him that she had been reserving for him her own daughter Ciulla, who was one of the most beautiful young ladies in all Florence. Beholding the latter, Buondelmonti " per subsidio diavoli," says Villani (v. 38) became instantly en- chanted, and before he quitted the mansion placed a ring upon her fatal finger. The kinsfolk of the jilted maiden of the Amidei, soon learning of the shame done them, coun- selled together how they might be revenged upon Buondelmonti ; and this is how it came to pass. On Easter morning a number of them contrived to surprise him, mantled in white and riding upon a white horse, as he was returning from the house of the Bardi ; and presently, while he was approaching the foot of the Ponte Vecchio, " precisely where stood the statue of Mars," they made a rush for him. Although he defended himself as best he could, Schiatta degli Uberti dragged him from his horse, while two of the Amidei did him to death with their daggers. In addition, Villani says that Oderigo Fifanti (surely a superfluity !) opened the victim's veins. "And this death of Messer Buondelmonti was the origin of the woeful Guelf and Ghibelline factions in Florence." Perhaps he should have said rather that it was the spark which determined the conflagration. In any case, the quarrel of Pontiff and Emperor was of older date, and it would seem, therefore, that a local social outbreak was easily made to square with a political and general one, and bring it to a disastrous culmination.

ST. CLAIR BADDELEY.

Buondelmonti was a Florentine, betrothed to one of the Amidei. He broke his engage- ment in order to marry a beautiful girl of the Donati family, and was murdered in revenge by the family of his first choice at the foot of the Ponte Vecchio in 1215. It was this family feud which gave rise to the factions of the Neri and Bianchi. Rogers tells the story in