Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/466

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NOTES AND QUERIES, [9* s. v. JUNE 9, 1900.

of the matter. Only a few of the specimens are quite correct ; and these, as often as not, are placed the wrong way up, which, as noted above, is the very last thing to be desired at the present juncture.

Having experienced some trouble in arriv- ing at the truth as to this matter, I may say that I found it at last in Boutell's ' Heraldry.' He there gives the history of its evolution, which is very interesting.

The original Union Jack goes back to the time of James I. The object was to invent a joint flag for England and Scotland. Eng- land's symbol was an upright cross gules, for St. George ; Scotland's was a cross in saltire (i.e., with slanting arms) argent, for St. Andrew. In displaying these upon a ground azure it was deemed advisable to edge the St. George's cross with a narrow fringe of white, to prevent the colour red from being super- posed upon the colour blue. In heraldic lan- guage the cross was firnbriated argent. It is worth while, perhaps, to note th&tjimbriation is merely the learned form of fringe; the Lat. fimbria was popularly pronounced frimbia, whence the Wallachian frimbie and the O.F.frenge. This original Jack is easily drawn by help of the above explanation, and is duly shown by Boutell in a woodcut. Unless this be drawn first, the explanation of the later form is a little difficult.

In 1801 it was desirable to unite the two above crosses with the red cross, in saltire, for St. Patrick. The first step was to halve the breadth of the St. Andrew's cross, argent, making the other half of the cross gules. But there was trouble about the St. Patrick's cross even then ; for it required a fimbriation to protect its colour (gules) from contact with the azure ground. The fimbriation was accordingly added, on the St. Patrick's side only, and is very narrow. The flag can now be understood. The ground 'is azure. The upright St. George's cross is red, with a narrow edging of white. In the other crosses the lines which divide them should be central ; that is, the directions of these lines, though they are discontinuous in the middle, should nevertheless pass through the true centre of the whole flag. But the breadths of the stripes are unequally distributed owing to the fact that there is an additional white edge on the one side, whilst at the same time the white of St. Andrew must be no broader or narrower than the red of St. Patrick. This is where the mistake is often made.

If this be carefully followed the flag can be truly constructed ; though it is best, after all, to examine Boutell's woodcut, in which there is one drawback, viz., that he expressly

omits to show the arrangement of the colours, and so does not tell us which is the right way up. We can, however, infer the colours from the fimbriation, and there is a very small engraving in Elvin's * Glossary of Heraldry ' which supplements this defect.

The rule is this. The white and red of the saltires should be so arranged that at the edge of the flag next to the pole (heraldically the dexter side) the St. Andrew's white is higher up than the St. Patrick's red (in both the upper and lower arms), and the narrow fimbriation is below. At the- free edge the reverse is the case. The fimbriation is, in fact, discontinuous, and reappears, after passing the centre, on the other edge, thus producing somewhat of a crooked appear- ance. To avoid this many makers narrow down the cross of St. Patrick (a most regret- table example of disrespect to glorious Ireland), so as to make the outer edges of the fimbriation continuous with the edges of the St. Andrew's cross, which just destroys the heraldic sense of the combination.

The whole of the above is merely a popular explanation of the official description, quoted in 'N. & Q.,' 7 th S. iv. 486, thus :

" The Union Flag shall be azure, the crosses saltire of St. Andrew and St. Patrick quarterly per saltire, counter-changed argent and gules, the latter fimbriated of the second, surmounted by the cross of St. George of the third, fimbriated as the saltire."

No description can be more exact.

If those who study this will only look around them they will find the result rather saddening. But as we learn to respect our flag more and more there will doubtless be much improvement in the future. And the matter concerns us all.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

SIR JOHN WELD (9 th S. v. 229, 298, 385). Through the courtesy of a correspondent I am now able to say that Sir John Weld, the Town Clerk of London, died 6 November, 1666, aged eighty-five, M.I. at Willey. His son, Sir John, jun., was buried at Willey, 4 August, 1681. The Sir John Weld who died 11 July (not September), 1674, was of the Lul worth branch, being third son of Sir John of Lul- worth Castle (who died in 1622). He was seated at Compton Basset in Wilts. I can find no record of the date of his knighthood, but it appears to have been before 1648. His son William afterwards inherited Lulvvorth Castle. W. D. PINK.

F. E. ACCUM (9 th S. v. 267, 361). It may perhaps assist the querist if I point out that a German chemist, Frederick Christian