Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/323

 9". H. vii. APRIL an, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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of those who have ever lived to be over one hundred years of age. The late Mr. Thorns' book on ' Longevity ' is an antidote to belie] in this craze. Some there are who hold that no one ever attains this age. There may be a very rare case, which was formerly as an exception supposed to prove a rule. Cer- tainly a centenarian (genuine) is a much rarer bird than is commonly supposed.

THOMAS AULD.

INSCRIPTION IN RINNEL CHURCH (9 th S. vii. 208). There was an Ogilvy aisle in Kinnell Church, Forfarshire. With regard to it Jervise, in 'Epitaphs and Inscriptions, vol. ii. p. 42, says : "The aisle was unroofed ...... the growing neces-

sities of the parish having led to a disregard of the injunction embodied in the well-known couplet : As lang as water runs clear Let nane but Ogilvies lie here."

It will be noticed he does not say that the couplet appeared in the aisle, or on any monu- ment within it.

The seventh Earl of Airlie died at Denver, Colorado, but his body was brought home, and now rests in a sweet, lowen nook on the banks of the South Esk, beside Cortachy Castle. That gallant soldier the eighth earl fell in action at the head of his regiment, at Diamond Hill, on 11 June, 1900, and lies in South Africa. D. S.

AUTHOR OF VERSES WANTED (9 th S. vii. 228). The two lines quoted as part of the epitaph on the great Tudor queen are printed on p. 379 of the second edition of Camden's * Remaines,' published in the year 1614. But they stand alone, and are there- fore called a distich by the historian, who does not mention the author's name. As the Scotch copyist, in addition to translating them into his own idiom, has made several changes, which are certainly not improve- ments, I will give the lines exactly as I h'nd them :

Spaines Rod, Romes ruine, Netherlands reliefe ; Earths ioy, Englands gemme, worlds wonder, Natures chiefe.

Elizabeth may have been fittingly de- scribed in poetical language as "Englands gemme," but one cannot help thinking that the transcriber was somewhat presumptuous when he altered the phrase and called her u heavinis Jem." At all events, I prefer the earlier version.

Your correspondent says that the couplet given by him is followed by six more lines, and that the whole poem is entitled * Queen Elizabeth's Epitaph.' I feel almost certain that he will recognize most of them in the

verses immediately preceding the distich, so I make no apology for quoting them :

\Veepe greatest Isle, and for thy mistresse death Swim in a double sea of brakish water : Weepe little world for great Elizabeth. Daughter of warre, for Mars hiinselfe begat her. Mother of peace ; for shee brought forth the later. Shee was and is, what can there more be said ? On earth the chiefe, in heaven the second Maide.

In the margin of Camden's most interest- ing volume the name of the author is given as H. Holland. As regards the couplet, some other writer of the time must have composed it, for he says, " Another contrived this distich of her." JOHN T. CURRY.

The epitaph on Queen Elizabeth beginning "Spain's Rod, Rome's Ruin," is stated in Toldervy's 'Select Epitaphs' (1755) to be, or have been formerly, in the church of All- hallows the Great. The above is from a note in my possession, and I have not now access to the book. A reference to it might perhaps give further information.

GILBERT H. F. VANE.

The Rectory, Wem, Salop.

CROWNED HEADS (9 th S. vii. 248). As a general rule the sovereign's head appeared crowned upon our coinage from Eadgar who was practically the first king of all Eng- landuntil the great Civil War and fall of Charles I. Thomas Simon's magnificent head of Oliver Cromwell king in all but name is laureated like a Roman emperor's, although the shield of arms on the reverse is ensigned by the crown imperial ; and this type of uncrowned head, sometimes entirely bare without laurels, has generally obtained until the present time. The principal ex-


 * eptions have been the hammered money

v lG60-2) of Charles II., all the dies for which were made by Simon ; Queen Victoria's florins of 1849 and 1852 (William Wyon) ; and the Jubilee coinage of 1893 (Thomas Brock). The crowned head upon the Jubilee coinage of 1 887 (J. E. Boehm) was a failure in every sense of the word.

In the earlier period we find the gold coin )f James I. (1619-25), of which Mr. H. A. GJrueber says :

"This is the first instance of the laureate bust n the English coinage. James, delighted to be represented as the * Civsar Augustus' of Britain, and he assumed this title on his coronation medal, on which he is also figured in Roman dress. The name h'rst given to this coin was the Unite, but it soon received that of the Laurel, from its type of obverse."

It may be noticed that prior to the union of the crowns the head upon Scottish coins is sometimes uncrowned, James VI. himself