Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/465

 9* s. vii. JUNE s, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

457

Thus translated by the Rev. F. W. Bourdillon " And the daisy blossoms which she broke o with the toes of her feet, which lay fallen over o. the bend of her foot, were right black against he feet and her legs, so very white was the maiden." Mr. Graham R. Tomspn, in his 'Ballade o Nicolete,' alludes to this :

And dainty daisies, dark beside The fair white feet of Nicolete.

JONATHAN BOUCHIER. Would the courtly troubadour look so low as the humble, scentless daisy, if even as th scented violet? The rose and the lily woulc of course be in his line of vision ; and th< laurel, the myrtle, and the orange.

THOMAS J. JEAKES.

COCKADE OF HOUSE OF SAXONY (9 th S. vii 149). Your correspondent CYCLOPS asks What is the colour of the cockade of the House of Saxony ? The answer is contained in the following words, which I take from that monumental work by the late Dr. John Woodward, 'Heraldry, English and Foreign (second edition, 1896), vol. ii. p. 376 :

"The cockades in use by those in State employ- ment in Germany are composed of a circular centre with one or more external rings the principal are

as follow, beginning with the central disc:

Saxony : White, green, white."

But whilst I am on the subject of the Saxony cockade may I crave the Editor's permission to enlarge a little upon cockades in general and their kindred subject, liveries, as illus- trated by Dr. Woodward 1

It is true that the subject has been dis- cussed from time to time, and at some length, in the pages of 'N. & Q.'; and, if I remember rightly, by myself too. But this was at a period prior to the appearance of Dr. Wood- ward's great work, ana nowhere in that work does he write better or more trenchantly than on this same subject. Moreover, Dr. Wood- ward's volumes are expensive, and, maybe, not within the reach of every reader of ' N. & Q.' ; and it is surely convenient that all that can fairly be said on the subject should be brought together within a small compass. I would refer your readers to vol. ii. chap, xii., from which I take the following lines :

" In the Middle Ages it was customary for the kings and great nobles to distribute robes on days of great ceremony to the nobles of their court, and to their special attendants.

" The robes thus delivered acquired the name of livrdes, and were often of the special colours affected by the donors ; these were not always identical with the tinctures of their armorial bearings. Thus the livery-colours of the Plantagenets, before the divi- sion, are said to have been scarlet and white, those of the House of York were blue and murrey. The Lancastrian princes favoured white and blue ; the I

Tudors green and white. In later times the Stuart j ry ',] lke the P resent Royal livery, was scarlet and gold, and in both cases were the colours derived from their arms. Louis Philippe, King of the French used the same; under the Empire the Imperial liveries were of green and gold.

''Anciently liveries were often signs of factions and when they were discontinued in their original

form, a scarf was substituted

" Later the use of liveries was confined to servitors and dependants ; but even as late as the seventeenth century it was a common practice for gentlemen of good birth and estate to accept and wear, and even to assume without solicitation upon state occasions, the livery of an influential kinsman or neighbour in testimony of respect.*

" At the present day the use of liveries is regu- lated by custom, and by custom alone ; but the general use both at home and abroad is to make them have some relation to the armorial bearings

of the wearer

"In England the use has been stated over and over again in heraldic works, and especially in our useful periodical Notes and Queries, and is briefly as follows : The colours used should depend on the tinctures of the arms. Of these the two principal usually appear in the wreath which supports the crest. The tincture of the tield determines the colour of the coat, subject to needful modification, while that of the principal charge similarly decides the colour of the facings and linings. Thus a person bearing the arms Azure, a cross argent, would also probably use a livery of blue, with

silver lace, buttons, and facings

" When either gold or scarlet appear as the field,
 * he former is modified into a darkish drab, and the

atter into marone or claret

" Another matter which has often occasioned

ierious disputations and heart-burnings is the right' to put a cockade in a servant's hat. Here igain, as in the case of liveries, there is, and can >e, no question of legal right. "The cockade originated simply in the knot of

ribbons, or strings, by which the broad flaps of the eventeenth-century round hat were 'cocked,' or irawn up to the brim in fine weather, and thus riginated the three-cornered hat, as well as the ocked hat of later times. " There was nothing specially military about the

usage, as the ignorant assert. "The same strings survive in the loops of the ats of bishops, and other ecclesiastical dignitaries, n Great Britain ; in the strings of the hats worn >y French curds and Spanish and Italian padres ; nd in the cords which are still seen on the hats of ome livery servants ! However, it naturally be- ame the custom for military men to 'cock' their ats with the livery colour of the prince they erved, and as the Hanoverian colour was the onvenient one of black, the ' black cockade ' be- anie associated in the minds of the people with

lilitary uniform

" When the old use of the strings was forgotten,

e knot in the form of a rosette of ribbon sur-

ived, just as did the buttons on the backs of our

oats, which were intended to fasten back the

flaps in riding or marching. (Our right to use these,

whatever our station, has not yet been called in

question !)


 * 1" S. viii. 473.