Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/170

 254 NOTES AND QUERIES. [«* a. iv. S«T. a, • William Stuart. The portrait was that of his father, the Hon. William Stuart, formerly Bishop of St. David's and afterwards trans- lated to the archbishopric of Armagh. He was represented in his episcopal habit, wearing the usual wig, and over the chimere was the sky-blue riboon and badge of the order of St. Patrick. Mr. W. Stuart bore a remarkable resemblance to his father, the archbishop, and showed me, I remember, an autograph letter of George III. offering the see of Armagh to his father, which he was hesitating to accept, owing to the disturbed condition of Ireland at the time (1800). Owen sometimes painted pictures of subjects drawn from nature, handled in a rather poetical style, as 'The Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bed nail Green,' 'The Schoolmistress,' and 'The Girl at the Spring,' which are, perhaps, existing in some collec- tions, and may possibly have been engraved. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge. "MELIUS SUPERIUS INDUMENTUM" (9th S. iv. 7).—It is unnecessary to read "indumentum" for anything but a cloak. The mortuary was to take the place of the various personal oblations due to the vicar or rector which he was deprived of by the death of the parish- ioner. The claim here is for the "melius superius indumentum " of every servant and lodger, the cloak being the possession of the defunct, while the upper oed-cover would belong to the master or to the lodging-keeper, and be therefore not claimable as personal property of the dead servant or lodger. J. G. WALL ACE-JAMES, M.B. Haddington, N.B. VAN DYCK (9th S. iv. 189). —Allen ('His- tory of London,' iii. 300-1) gives the name of Sir Anthony Van Dyck amongst " the numer- ous eminent men who were buried in this church [St. Paul's] without monuments." JOHN T. PAGE. West Haddon, Northamptonshire. CHIMNEYS IN ANCIENT HOUSES (9th S. iv. 64, 196). — Chimneys and mural chimney shafts existed at a much earlier date than MR. GARBETT supposes. He is certainly mis- taken when he says that " the convent kitchen at Durham must be one of the earliest with successful smoke outlets." That kitchen was built in 1368 and the following year. But the keep of the castle at Newcastle-upon- Tyne, built between 1172 and 1177, and thus nearly two hundred years older than the Durham kitchen, contains several fireplaces " ith mural smoke shafts running up to the parapets. Similar fireplaces and chimneys exist in the keep at Conisborough, Yorkshire, which is also a twelfth-century structure. J. R. BOYLE. Hull. The impression of a seal exists with the representation of a house upon it having a central chimney. If my memory serves me right it is of the thirteenth or early four- teenth century. An engraving of this seal exists. I thought I had a reference to it, but after long search I have been unable to find it. Can any one point out where it may be seen 1 William Merle, who compiled the earliest journal of the weather that is at present known, ' Consideraciones Temperiei pro 7 Annis,' under date 28 March, 1343, tells of an earthquake in Lindsey which caused the stones in the stone chimneys ("lapides in caminis lapideis ") to fall. EDWARD PEACOCK. Dunstan House, Kirton-in-Lindsey. •LIKE A THRESHER" (9th S. iv. 106, 171, 234).—In Charles Lever's 'Torn Burke of Ours,' vol. iii. chap, xxiv., when Tom Burke is being tried, Darby M'Keown offers himself as a witness for the defence. The following is an extract from what is said by him and by counsel for the Crown : — "'Well, were you ever called "Larry the Flail"?1 "'Faix, I was,' replied he, laughing, 'divil a doubt of it.' "' How did you come by the name of " Larry the Flail"?' "'They gave me that name up at Mulhuldad, there, for bating one M'Clancy wid a flail.'" Darby afterwards acknowledges that he has been in his time a United Irishman, a White Boy, and a Thrasher. He assents to the proposition that " the Thrashers are the fellows who must beat any man they are appointed to attack." ROBERT PIERPOINT. St. Austin's, Warrington. " IMPERIUM IN IMPERIO " (9th S. iv. 69,135).— At the former reference I cited, as an illus- tration of this, the saying " wheels within wheels." Perhaps the following quotation from the 'Life of Mr. Richard Hooker,' by Izaak Walton, may also be illustrative. The author is speaking of his marriage :— "This choice of Mr. Hooker's (if it were his choice) may be wondered at: but let us consider that the prophet Ezekiel says : ' There is a wheel within a wheel': a secret sacred wheel of Provi- dence (most visible in marriages), guided by his hand, that ' allows not the race to the swift, nor ' bread to the wise,' nor good wives to good men ; and he that can bring good out of evil (for mortals are blind to this reason) only knows why this bless-