Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/263

 9* S.V. MARCH 31, 1900.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

255

Codrington, of Codrington, county of Gloucester. For a summary of the family history of the Gorges see Collinson's ' History of Somerset, 3 iii. p. 156. The arms of the family were a whirlpool (gurges), azure and argent, figured in Clark's 'Heraldry, plate xxv. No. 6. Now in Ducange (s.v. 'Gordus') we find that there was an Anglo-French gord (representing the Latin gurgitem, and meaning a weir for fishing), the Latinized form of which was gordus. From this gordusmight beformedthe adjective gordanus. Hence it is probable that Easton-in- Gordano may mean Easton in agro Gordano Easton in the land of the Gorges. It may be mentioned that gorge was an Anglo-French word meaning a stream of water, the mediaeval Latin gorga, which was also a form of the Latin gurges. A. L. MAYHEW.

Oxford.

In the Somerset Archaeological Society's Transactions for 1893, p. 60, will be found a paper on the subject by the Right Rev. Bishop Hobhouse. E. A. FKY.

This is the third occasion on which inquiry has been made for the meaning of "In Gordano." The only reply received will be found in 5 th S. i. 14, 197, and is not of a very definite character.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

PICTURES COMPOSED OF HANDWRITING (9 th S. v. 127). St. John's College, Oxford, possesses a curious portrait of Charles I. with the penitential psalms written in a minute hand in the lines of the hair and face. It is said to have been given about 1660. Charles II., on the occasion of his visit to the college in 1663, asked the college for it, and could not be refused. But when he thanked the society for its loyal reception of him and asked what he should do in return they requested him to restore the martyr's picture. For further information cf. ' The History of St. John's College,' by the Rev. W. H. Hutton (Robinson & Co., 1898), p. 172. W. R. BARKER.

Gray's Inn.

One of the most celebrated proficients in this art was a Norwich schoolmaster, Mr. W. K. Farnell, who kept a school in that city in the sixties. Amongst other pictures composed entirely of handwriting which he executed was a representation of the Cruci- fixion still in existence. So exquisitely is this done that even under a magnifying glass it is difficult to distinguish it from a steel engraving. Mr. Farnell died in 1869, and

certainly in his hands "penmanship," to quote his own words, "ought to be con- sidered one of the fine arts."

FREDERICK T. HIBGAME.

In the year 1870 I purchased in America an engraved copy of the * Proclamation of Emancipation,' written by W. H. Pratt, of Davenport, Iowa, and dated 1865, the writing of which formed, by means of judicious variations in the thickness of 'the strokes, a portrait of President Lincoln. I remember seeing at the same time a similar copy of the Declaration of Independence forming the portrait of George Washington.

H. A. HARBEN.

About two years ago I saw in a shop for the sale of antiquities, &c., in Guildford, co. Surrey, such a picture, in size about 18 in. by 12 in. I forget the subject exactly, but think it was either a human head or form. The shop was on the right-hand side of the principal street leading from the river Wey towards the London Road, and the front of it partly projected into and receded from the street. C. MASON.

29, Emperor's Gate, S.W.

At Freemasons' Hall, Great Queen Street, there is a calligraphic drawing, by Louis Gluck Rosen thai, entitled ' A Biographical Sketch of the Duke of Sussex.' It measures about 28 in. by 21 in., and appears to have been executed in 1840. See also Freemasons' Quarterly Re- view, New Series, 1843, p. 502. PAX.

In reference to above I should like to say I have seen pictures of men, animals, &c., drawn in shorthand characters which read as tales, proverbs, &c. A. H. S.

At the annual exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1875 a clever pen-and-ink sketch was exhibited in the Architectural Room representing "Christ Church, Lambeth. Paul & Bickerdike, Arch ts ," and with the name "Alfred Bickerdike, del. 1874," in one corner. This picture was afterwards repro- duced in the Building News for 9 April of the same year. It was then discovered that some of the shading, instead of being mere strokes of the pen, consisted of words and sentences, and some scandal was created thereby. The 11-conceived jest, it came out, was the work of the artist's "ghost" (the actual drawer of the picture), who publicly apologized.

There is a well-known copy of the ancient _mage of our Saviour, painted on linen, and styled the Yera Icon, preserved in St. Veronica's Chapel, St. Peter's, Rome. This remarkable work (the artist's name does not occur to me) is formed entirely of one con-