Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/32

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. vm. JULY e, 1901.

this dual sign may be said to typify both Christ and Satan, good and evil, life and death. The late Prof. Max Muller, in point- ing out that the serpent occurs in all parts of the world as a symbol of many widely different ideas and characteristics, says (' Chips,' vol. iv.):

" But who but an evolutionist would dare to say that all these conceptions came from one and the same original germ, that they are all held together by one traditional chain ? "

May I venture to suggest that the origin of all may be found in the sign Scorpio? As Satan at the fall of man assumed the form of the Scorpio serpent, so it seems probable there may be in the double-headed eagle a Satanic imitation of the Scorpio eagle. If so, we may expect that when the confederacy of nations is formed under Antichrist, this deformed eagle will be its heraldic emblem. J. M. LAWRENCE.

Mr. J. Lewis Andre, F.S.A., in his excellent paper on St. George which appeared in the Journal of the Royal Archaeological Institute of September, 1900, says that in "art S. George is represented either on foot or horseback, and generally in combat with the dragon or with the monster dead at his feet. In England I do not know of any example in which the dragon is absent, but Mrs. Jameson observes that ' when he figures as patron saint of Venice the dragon is usually omitted,' and this is the case also in a noble statue by Donatello at Florence."

And further adds that

"in wall paintings S. George appears oftener on horseback than he does when seen in sculptures, and the steed on which he is seated was, says Cahier, such a magnificent animal that the Picards have retained the expression Saint George belle monture for a fiery steed."

Attached to the church of St. James, Louth. Lincolnshire, there was in 1512-13 a gild under the patronage of St. George which had an image of him in the church. That the saint was on horseback is certain, for in 1538-9 we find charges for taking down and bearing away the image of "Saynct George," and a little after comes a payment of xijc?. " to the laborers for bearing away the horse pertainyng to Sainct George Image." These passages are from the manuscript accounts of the parish, which have happily been pre- served. The same records incidentally speak of the saint's bridle and sword.

The following references to St. George may be of service to future inquirers :

Relic of. Monasticon Anglic., last edition, ii. 530.

On horseback at Wymondham. Archceolooia. xliii. 271.

Patron of cross-bowmen. Felix de Vigne, Gilds and Corporations, 17.

In pageant. D. Rock, Church of our Fathers, ii. 425.

Armour. Ibid., iii. i. 70.

Wall painting at Stotfold, Bedfordshire. Gentle- man's Magazine Library, i. 74.

Figure, Ruerdean, Gloucestershire. Ibid., iv. 291.

Picture, on horseback, Dartmouth, Kent. Ibid., vi. 89.

Riding the George. Johnson, Ancient Leicester, 112.

EDWARD PEACOCK.

Dunstan House, Kirton-in-Lindsey,

HOGARTH'S HOUSE, CHISWICK (9 th S. vii. 386). When John Clare, the Northampton- shire peasant poet, visited " Dante" Cary at Hogarth's House, Chiswick, his host pointed out to him as one of " various memorials con- nected with the great satirist and moralist the window through which Hogarth eloped with old Thornhill's only daughter " (' Life of John Clare,' by Frederick Martin, 1865, p. 155).

JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

In Once a Week, Third Series, i. 167-8, our friend the late Mr. E. Walford described Hogarth's house, garden, mulberry tree, and workshop,

" occupied by Mr. Cock, a worthy gentleman, in whose garden stands Hogarth's portable sundial, duly authenticated. The same gentleman owns Hogarth's chair, a stout, strong armchair, made of cherrywood, and seated with leather. The latter is very much decayed, and one of the arms is a good deal worm-eaten, but the rest is sound and good. This chair, in which Hogarth used to sit and smoke his pipe, was given by the painter's widow to the grandfather of the present owner, who was a martyr to the gout. It moves very easily on primitive stone castors, three in number.'"

THOMAS J. JEAKES.

BLUE BEARD (9 th S. vii. 224, 355). I take the following from ' The Original Blue Beard,' Once a Week, Third Series, vol. i. No. 1 (4 Janu- ary, 1868), p. 19 :

"Gilles hung his victims When tired of this

atrocious amusement, he would plunge a long needle into their necks and take delight in beholding them in their last convulsions."

In " Nouvelle Description de la France, par M. Piganiol De La Force, seconde ed., a Paris, chez Florentin Delaulne, 1722, A.P.D.R.," v. 228, is the following :

" Machecou est une petite Ville qui est le chef lieu du pays de Raiz. Elle est situe"e sur la riviere de Tenu qui se perd dans la Loire apres avoir recu 1'^coulement du Lac de Grand-lieu. Le Baron de Raiz avait anciennement un droit fort singulier sur les Bouchers de Nantes, dont chacun lui devoit donner un denier le jour du Mardi gras. II devoit le tenir k la main et etre pr6t & le donner aux gens du Seigneur de Raiz dans 1'instant qu'ils lui pre"- sentoient une aiguille, et s'il ne 1'avoit pas a la main dans ce moment, les gens du Seigneur pou-