Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/419

 9* S. IV. Dec. 2, '99.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 459 those pieces so stamped are of considerable age, and pieces that appear to me to be of more recent origin lack those marks, but have instead another official stamp. I have dishes, ifec., with the old mark that some up-to-date vandals have electro-plated. I think the subject worthy of more elucidation because pewter is an article that at one time took a high rank, for 1 have seen some sets with gadrooned and scolloped edges and an elaborate crest and coat of arms. These were evidently not made for servants' use, but were doubtless for many years the chief dinner service of some wealthy and important per- sonage. There are several historic country seats where a quantity of beautiful pewter is stowed away as lumber and never sees the light. Pewter is an article which is no longer made, and which, unfortunately, in many cases has been cast aside as old metal. A dealer at Bury St. Edmunds told me that years ago he bad had tons, as he de- scribed it, through his hands, but had never paid much attention to it. Downstairs it has given way to cracked china plates and burnt, discoloured dishes. I can remember my great- uncle's servants' hall with a large mansard roof, the walls decorated with stags' heads, with a long broad table laid for the servants' dinner, with bright pewter plates and dishes, buckhorn - handled knives and forks, and large brilliant iridescent copper flagons for beer down the centre, which was a sight to be remembered. "I am afraid I have trespassed too much on your good nature ; but as many per- sons have pewter in their possession, it may interest them to know something concerning its history, and induce them to look upon it with more respect than they have done hitherto. J. A. B. [The question was asked 21"1 S. vii. 495; and, again, 6,fi S. xi. 269. See also 4th S. iv. 363, 521; 7th 8. vii. 248; x. 449,498; xi. 96, 196; 8th S. ix. 167, 294,335,375. Some papers appeared in the Reliquary, but no work dealing satisfactorily with the subject seems to exist, though such is called for.] "The starry Galileo."—Who wrote these words? D. C. Preservation of Silk Banners. — Will oil or anything tend to preserve some valuable silk heraldic banners painted fifty years ago ? C. T. J. Moore. Frarapton Hall, near Boston. Widow's Peak.—A peak, says Johnson, means l( (2) the rising point of a woman's headdress." It was certainly a special part! of a widow's headdress, as we learn from Palsgrave (1530), who explains Fr. "Biquo- quet," " Peake of a ladyes mourning heed." Cotgrave repeats, substituting " hood " for " heed " ; and Addison (' Rosamond,' III. iv.) has:— Thou should'st thy husband's death bewail In sable vesture, Peak and Veil. Longfellow in ' Kavanagh,' c. viii., says of Miss Sally Manchester, cook and chambermaid : "She had on her forehead what is sometimes denominated a 4 widow's peak,' that is to say, her hair grew down to a point in the middle." It is a noteworthy feature ; and when em- phasized by throwing the hair back instead of parting it down the middle, a very hand- some feature. I remember long ago hearing it called a widow's point. Was it so called by mere misappropriation of the name for the headdress 1 In this new application it could scarcely become a special property of widows. If a woman had it not by nature, she would not be likely to affect it in widowhood by cutting back the hair on the sides. C. B. Mount. Medal for Navarino.—I see a complaint in a daily paper that no medal has yet been issued to troops engaged some two years back in one of our African campaigns. This recalls to my mind that my father's medal for Navarino (1827) was not issued till 1848. I have it by me, and it bears our Queen's head with the latter date. Can this long delay be explained? Many officers and men must have passed away between these dates ; and it would seem that economy must have had something to do with it. Navalis. WHARTON BARONY BY PATENT. (9th S. iv. 381.) In answer to A. C. H. I may state that no patent for the Wharton barony is in existence at the Record Office, although the Writs of Summons to the first Baron Wharton to attend various Parliaments of Henry VIII. and others are still to be found there. The whole evidence for the existence of a patent is based, firstly, upon a despatch from Lord Hertford and Sadleir, Bishop of Durham, recording " the presentation of Letters Patent for their peerages" to Lords Wharton and Eure at Newcastle-on-Tyne in March, 1543/4. This is now amongst the Hamilton papers in the British Museum. As the same sentence mentions " Letters Patent for the Governors of Wark," ifcc, and " Letters Patent" for some other object, it is just possible that the " Letters Patent" for the peerage may be a slip of the clerk's.