Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/41

 9* s. vi. JULY M. woo.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 31 refused to submit when I was at school, an fights resulted. Newbpys.and old boys in new suits, had to have their buttons counted, th young tyrants who conducted the proceeding insisting on their belief that the subjec had a button short. Buttons fifty years ag were somewhat glaring decorations, and cer tainly three-fourths of the buttons were mor for ornament than use. The proposal t count a lad's buttons was always met witl resentment, and often with resistance. Tr have "a button short" was equivalent t< having a deficiency, mental or otherwise. THOS. KATCLIFFE. Workaop. TENNYSON QUERY (9th S. v. 415, 502).—In the slashing review of Tennyson's poems which appeared in the Quarterly Review for April, 1833, the lines One drew a sharp knife through my tender throat- Slowly, and nothing more, are sharply criticized :— "What touching simplicity—what pathetic re aignation—he cut my throat, 'nothing more !' On< might, indeed, ask, What more' she would have?' The whole of the review was reprinted in the Standard of 13 March, 1884. JOHN T. PAGE. West Haddon, Northamptonshire. THE NATIONAL FLAO (9th S. v. 414, 440, 457, 478; Supplement, the 30th of June; and vi. 17). — 'N. & Q.' will have done good service if the suggestion made in the last number be carried out, and an Order in Council be issued authorizing the use of the Union Flag by all private persons. In con- nexion with this discus_sion readers of 'N. & Q.' need scarcely be reminded of the beautiful symbolism of which the colours composing our flag are typjcal: the blue, baptism by water, the material world, or "great deep" or "ark," or world made manifest, or sea, or Isis, or Venus, or Regina Coeli, the world won out of chaos ; the -white, illumination, air or light, the third Person of the Trinity ; the red, fire, the " Oriflararae," or " Fire of Gold," the national colour of the Welsh. The flag with a white field, advocated by MR. ST. JOHN HOPE, would hardly be popular, if he means that it should occupy the position of a National Flag. The colour white is by old tradition regarded as ominous to English Royalty, and De Quincey,* in hia essay on ' Modern Super- stition,' makes mention of it in reference to the unfortunate Charles I., who at his coro- nation wore a robe of white velvet. It is new and enlarged edition, vol. viii. p. 446. remarkable what mistakes have hitherto been made, not only by private persons, but by Government officials, in depicting the flag. Cussans, in his' Handbook or Heraldry,' published by John Camden Hotten in 1869, mentions that in the then existing bronze currency the shield on which Britannia is represented as seated is incorrectly blazoned. The National Ensign is made to appear as a single saltire, surmounted by a cross, both fimbriated ; and Mr. Cussans continues, "The same device is sculptured in the marble monu- ment to General Howe, in St. Paul's Cathe- dral." Strange to say the mistake in the coinage is maintained in that issued during the past year. A. N. Q. [As our illustration of the flag was drawn to scale from the official description quoted by Mr. Green, we think it well to give the official sizes, taken from ' The Foreign Office Liat for 1900,' published by Harrison & Sons. They are as follow:— For use on shore—8 breadths, i.e., 12 ft. by 6 ft. For use on shore when 4 breadths, i.e., 6ft. by 3ft. specially ordered /12 breadths, i. e., 18 ft. by 9 ft. For use on boats—4 breadths, i.e., 6 ft. by 3 ft. For use on board ship—8 breadths, i.e., 12ft. by 6 ft. We have received communications on this sub- ject sufficient to fill a number of ' N. 4 Q.' In- teresting as it is we cannot devote more space to it. Among correspondents who are thanked for con- tributions are MESSRS. GEOROE W. CAMPBELL, CHARLES COBHAM, A. F. ROWE, GHOMON, MARINER, and A. T. M. These various communications have been submitted to MR. ST. JOHN HOPE. Many of them include coloured illustrations.] GENERAL COPE (9th S. v. 289).—This unfor- tunate soldier seems wholly ignored; no report as to his family, paternity, or marriage is forthcoming. "John" was a favourite mrne with the family in Northamptonshire rrom 1415 to 1851, who were baronets. They spread into Oxfordshire, and many settler] in Ireland. The hero of Preston Pans, who died n 1760, certainly came of this family. There was a General Sir John Cope, fifth baronet, died 1721; his grandson "John," who died un- married, was Gentleman Usher to George II., whose life would cover his Gentleman Jsher's whole career. A. H. JOHN WHITE, THE PATRIARCH OF DOR- CHESTER (9th S. v. 475).—The exact quotation •eferring to John White in 'Canterbury's )oom ' runs as follows :— " Dr. Staughton, D. Sibbes, D. Taylor, D. Gouge, VI. White of Dorchester, M. Rogers of Dedhani, Divines, were brought into the High Commission, nd troubled or silenced for a time, by his [i.e., Baud's] procurement upon frivilous pretences : But n truth because they were the principle Props of ur Protestant Religion, against his Popish and Vrminian Innovations."
 * 'The Collected Writings of Thomas de Quincey,'
 * 'ith sundry more of our most eminent orthodox