Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/193

 9* S. IV. Sept. 30, '99.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 273 longer than the body of the trumpeter, who, grasp- ing it firmly in both hands, vigorously sounds a call. Ine left foot of the figure is raised, in anticipation of the next stroke, while the right is in the act of propulsion by striking a faintly indicated cloud. At the top of the design are rays of sunlight, from whence proceeds a cord passing through a pulley overhead. This cord, to which is added a ball would seem to communicate with the partly visible hind wheel. As the rider appears to be unprovided with any means of steering, it is conceivable that the designer had in view the suggestion that the cord proceeding from the rays overhead served to guide nis course. Me. Bikch suggests that the wheel was merelv a scroll in the original design. How- ever that may be, the window depicts a figure astride of a dandy-horse. J. C. J. The stained-glass window in Stoke Poges Church, co. Bucks, representing a nude youth nding on what appears to be something between a dandy-horse o the early part of this century and a bicyele of a few years back, is well known. An illustration of this window was given in an article headed The Curiosities of Stained Glass,' in the Rambler, vol. in. p. 239. I understand that a somewhat similar figure is to be seen in the old church of Stoke D'Abernon, near Leatherhead. The figure which is bestriding the machine is described by the writer in the Rambler as an angel; but I hardly think this can be, as there are no wings to be seen. I have before me as I write a drawing (which was taken some years back) of the Stoke Poges stained- glass window, and shall be pleased to send your correspondent a copy of it should he like to have one. Chas. H. Crouch. Nightingale Lane, Wanstead. Leo of Modena's Hebrew-Italian Son- nets (9"- S. iv. 183).-Remarkable as it may seem, it is quite true that Leo of Modena (1571-1648) wrote an elegy on the death of his beloved master, Moseh Basola, which can be read in either Hebrew or Italian. It begins :— Kina schemor ohi me Chepar ozar bo, i.e., Chi nasce muor, ohimeche passo acerbo, and there are eight lines. A Jewish physician of Vienna, c. 1650, also wrote an epithalamium which could be read in either Hebrew or German. Bilingual curios in Spanish and Latin are much easier. Don Alonso Antonio Sedefio de Mesa wrote two or three short sonnets, but Rodrigo de Valdes has outstripped all competitors in his very rare panegyric entitled ' Poema Heroyco Hispano-Latino de la Fundacion y Grandezas de la muy Noble y Leal Ciudad de Lima,' Madrid, 1687, 4to. / I {penes vie). Herein are contained 2,288 lines, each word being Spanish as well as Latin. Ne Quid Nimis. Holy Communion (9th S. iii. 427, 498).—A further illustration occurs in Lingard's ac- count of the battle of Azincourt, where he says in a note :— " A singulis in ore capta terrae particula. Tit. Liv. 18, 19. Elmh. 65. This singular custom had been introduced by the peasants of Flanders before the great vi-.tory which they gained over the French cavalry at Courtray in 1302. A priest stood in front of the army, holding the consecrated host in his hand ; and each man, kneeling down, took a particle of earth in his mouth, as a sign of his desire, and an acknowledgment of his unworthiness, to receive the sacrament. Spondan. ii. 339." Richard H. Thornton. Portland, Oregon. As no one has mentioned it, perhaps readers of ' N. & Q.' have forgotten that the three blades of grass custom supplies an incident in Mr. Shorthouse's novel ' Sir Per- ceval.' Edward H. Marshall, M.A. Hastings. Lance - Corporal (9th S. iv. 189). —The derivation is from lanspesade, which was a military term in use in the seventeenth cen- tury, and is to be found in English military dictionaries of the eighteenth century. It signified a private soldier authorized to do duty as a corporal, either to help the cor- porals, or to act for an absent corporal, or as a probation for promotion to the rank of corporal. In one old military dictionary in my possession it is stated that the initial letter I represents the French article le, the original word being anspesade. This is quite erroneous, for lanspesade was derived from the Italian lancia-spezzata, broken lance, a phrase which was applied to horsemen who, by some misfortune, had been disabled, for a time at least, from service in cavalry and came to do duty in infantry, where they held a status which was recognized as a little above that of the private soldier, but not equal to the caporale or corporal. W. S. The lance in lance - corporal comes to us from the Italian lancia spezzata through the French. So late as 1650 Cotgrave gives French lance pessade, with lance pesado for its Eng- lish equivalent. While the English word has now lost all trace of the spezzata, the French word has undergone a different but stranger .transformation, the first letter having been mistaken for the definite article, and removed accordingly, so that the word now appears as anspessade. The happiest derivation of the lancia spezzata is that of the horseman