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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. v. MABOH si, woo.

the * Durham Account Rolls ' there are some few entries of scutum apri and clipeus apri, but though I have often tried I have never succeeded in finding any explanation of the phrase, unless Halliwell gives the key under 4 Shield bones,' which he explains as " Blade- bones, North," giving as an illustration a quotation from "The Legend of Sir Guy.' But there is nothing of this in Brockett or Jamieson. A shoulder, cut like a shoulder of mutton, with the shank to hold it by, may have been used as a shield . in joke and so called, but I want to know more about it.

J. T. F. Durham.

PYTHAGORAS AND CHRISTIANITY. The following two lines are from St. Bernard of Morlaix's hymn 'De Contemptu Mundi':

Jerusalem pia Patria, non via, pulchra platea.

Ad tua munera sit via dextera, Pythagorsea.

Has the Church ever recognized or approved the Pythagorean philosophy 1 M.

" AMPHIGOURIS." These are described by a writer in the ' Britannica ' as " verses whose merits are measured by their unintelligi- bility." The French writer Charles Colle (1709-83), I find, distinguished had I not better say extinguished 1 himself in this bypath of art. Will some learned French student give us one or two examples of this species of literary eccentricity ? They ought to be amusing if not dull. Are there any English examples of this mad art ?

M. L. R. BRESLAR.

[The " amphigouris " of Colle, a trivial form of composition of which he had the grace to become ashamed, are, so far as we know them, too free and too profane for admission into our columns. Here, if you want to judge, is one stanza guiltless of anything worse than ineptitude :

Ino Met le domino

De saint Bruno ; Et, par un quiproquo,

Dans Tabacco Fait revenir lo D'un livre in-folio, Qui fait faire a Clio Dodo.

You will scarcely want more. Colle, however, is not extinguished.]

MAWDESLEY FAMILY. Mawdesley is a township of Croxton parish near Chorley, and tradition gives us the name of Richard Nelson of Mawdesley, circa 1361, as the earliest progenitor of the great admiral yet identified ; his descendant Thomas married twice, leaving a large family, of whom three sons settled in the north. One, named William, was of Holloway, in Middlesex, 1618; another,

named George, was of Lynn, Norfolk. A grant of arms is recorded to Nelston of Mawdisley in 1587 ; and we have bequests from Thomas Nelson, of Westminster, 1608, bo the poor of Mawdesley, " where I was born," and reciting " my uncle Robert Maw- desley." Another civic Nelson makes bequest to "Richard, son of John Mawdesley de- ceased." Both these Nelsons were well off, and undoubted kinsfolk of the admiral's family. What, then, is known of this Mawdesley family ? A. HALL.

Highbury, N.

ASSASSIN OF WILLIAM THE SILENT. The father and mother of Gerard, the murderer of William, received the three seignories of Lievremont, Hostal, and Dampmartin, in the Franche Comte (in place of the ready money promised by King Philip for assassinating William), and took their place at once among the landed aristocracy. Is there any account of the subsequent career of these worthy gentry, their family and estates ? P. F. H.

Perth.

CROSS NEAR WYCOLLER HALL. In the Coucher Book of Whalley Abbey I find the subjoined reference to a cross on the borders of Lancashire and Yorkshire. Wycoller Hall is near the ancient town of Colne. My Ordnance map shows eight crosses in this corner of the hundred of Blackburn. Can any of your Lancashire or Yorkshire readers help me to identify this cross "?

" Et exinde versus austrum usq : ad crucem super calceam de Wycoluer vocatam le Waterschedles Crosse p'tenduntur limites inter parochias ecclesie de Whallye et ecclesie de Kyghlaye. Ebor : dioc."

HENRY TAYLOR. Birklands, Southport.

" PUTREM " : ' ^ENEID,' vm. 596. What is the force of this adjective in the well-known line

Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum ?

The more crumbling or rotten the earth might be, the less far would the beat of the horse-hoofs be heard. They would, in fact, be deadened. RICHARD H. THORNTON.

Portland, Oregon.

GOAT IN FOLK - LORE. A. Lincolnshire woman remarked to me a few days ago, " Yes ; we keep a goat. They say it is healthy for cattle, and our beasts generally do well." Is there any reason to think that the effluvium of the goat has an effect on microbes ? If not, I suppose that the belief in the animal's powers of keeping a herd sound must be regarded as pure folk-lore. A