Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/241

 8* S. III. MAK. 25, '99.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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the brief summary appended to the ' Libe de Tempore' of 703. Now, although MR ANSCOMBE clearly knew that " Minora " was a slip for Majora, he assumes that I ad vanced the date 725 as that of the 703 work and that, therefore, "Beda was undoubtedly not the first historical writer, even in Eng land, to use this era." He then cites the ' Historia Abbatum ' of Beda's own monastery which was not written earlier than 716. The value of this argument may be realized when it is borne in mind that he himself has claimed in this discussion that Beda uses the era of the Incarnation in a passage in the ' Liber de Tempore,' dated in 703.

W. H. STEVENSON.

[No further correspondence on what has become a purely personal controversy will be inserted.]

"UNSPEAKABLE TURK "(9 th S. iii. 68, 177). There may be compared the phrase used by Carlyle in ' Past and Present ' (bk. i. chap, iii., ' Manchester Insurrection ') : " How came ye among us, in your cruel armed blindness, ye unspeakable County Yeomanry ? "

ALFRED F. BOBBINS.

MERLIN'S MECHANICAL MUSEUM (9 th S. iii. 169). In *N. & Q.,' 7 th S. xi. 12, under the heading ' Truckle Cheese,' G. F. R. B. gives a short account of John Joseph Merlin, from which it appears that the Mechanical Museum was opened about 1783, in Prince's Street, Hanover Square, and was closed in 1808. In the same volume of ' N. & Q.,' p. 137, the late MR. WALTER HAMILTON described a little book containing a catalogue of the thirty-seven exhibits in the museum. I possess a copy of a pamphlet similar to that described by MR. HAMILTON, but probably printed earlier, as it contains only twelve pages instead of forty- eight, and the exhibits number only twenty- five. No. 20 in the catalogue is " The Patent Piano Forte Harpsichord, with Trumpets and Kettle-Drums," and is described further on in the book thus : " The curious Patent Piano Forte Harpsichord, with Kettle- 1) ruins and a Trumpet Stop, is so constructed as to play together, or separately, with the greatest Facility." If MR. DALTON cares to see this pamphlet and will send me his address, 1 shall be pleased to lend it to him.

C. M. PHILLIPS. 15, Durham Road, East Finchley, 1ST.

OLIVER CROMWELL AND CHRISTMAS (9 th S. iii. 104, 174). Whether Cromwell actually suppressed the festival of Christmas is a diffi- cult question to decide. But he is accused of doing many things he did not do, and we may perhaps judge by analogy. He did not

suppress music in all the cathedrals, nor did he dismiss the organist of Westminster Abbey, for a new organist was appointed in 1 655 by order of Council to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Portman, who had held the office since the reign of Charles I. Cromwell, moreover, was a great lover of the organ. Nor did he, at any rate for any so-called Puritanical reasons, suppress the drama. Theatres were closed on account of the civil wars, and the prohibition was only to last " while these sad causes " do continue. The revival commenced in 1656, when Cromwell was at the height of his power not, as some suppose, at the Restoration. Nor can the patron of Milton, the greatest of our poets, of Walker and Cooper, the greatest native-born painters of the century, and of Simon, the prince of coin-engravers, be accused with justice of either indifference or hostility to the fine arts. J. FOSTER PALMER.

8, Royal Avenue, S.W.

NAG'S HEAD (9 th S. iii. 148). Guillim says: "He beareth Gules a Horsehead couped Argent ; by the name of Marsh. Seeing the Courage and Service of the Horse are so eminent in the Field it may be wondered why the Lion should be esteemed a niore honourable Bearing. But the reason is be- cause the Horse's Service and Strength is principally by the help of his Rider whereas the Lion's is his own."

However, Henry Crampton Lloyd, Esq., joint-lord of the manor of Stockton, in Chir- bury, Salop, has for his crest a nag's head erased argent, while on his coat of arms of 365 quarterings the first and fifteen other quarterings consist of Sable, three nags' heads erased argent. As Mr. Lloyd is the sixty- seventh in direct registered male descent moreover, heir male of a knight banneret of Agincourt, the nag's head may be considered to be under distinguished patronage.
 * rom Beli Mawr, King of Britain, and is,

KILLIGREW.

This is the armorial bearing of families of Jones and Pepys, for which see Mr. Parker's Glossary of Heraldry.'

EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A.

Hastings.

DEVICE AND MOTTO (9 th S. iii. 48). If MR. THORNTON had given the title, author, and rinter of the book it would have been more atisfactory. I send the following extract rom Mrs. Palliser's 'Historic Devices,' Arc., . 84, which may help him :

"The device of Francesco Cybo (son of Pope nnocent VIII.), Count of Anguillara, 1519 (see founts of Massa and Carrara of the House of Cybo), was a barrel without a head from which flames are ssuing, such as is used in times of public rejoicing.