Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/501

 9*8. IX. JUNE 21, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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them, as one was a priest, were most probably esquires to Nigel."

Sir Peter Leycester, who compiled the Button pedigree up to the year 1666, traces the family (through the Earls of Eu) back to Hollo, the first Duke of Normandy. He says that William, fourth Earl of Eu, married a sister of Hugh Lupus, named Jeanne, who was a niece of the Conqueror, and that there was issue of this marriage (besides William's successor in the Earldom of Eu and another child) six sons namely, Nigel, Geoffrey, Odard (or Huddard), Edward, Horswin, and Wolfaith. These six brothers. Sir Peter says, accompanied their uncle Hugh Lupus into England in the train of William the Conqueror, their great-uncle, arid on the establishment of the Norman power had various estates and honours conferred upon them, Odard being created Lord of Button.

I shall be glad if any of your readers can throw any further light upon the point in question namely, whether Odard was really a brother of Nieel, or only a brother in arms. The title of Earl of Eu (Comte d'Eu) still exists in France, and I presume the bearer thereof is heir male to Nigel's brother William, fifth Earl of Eu.

CHARLES STEWART.

22, Gloucester Road, Stoke Newington, N.

MALLET USED BY CHRISTOPHER WREN (9 th S. ix. 346). This is evidently an heirloom of the Freemasons of high historic interest, for when Sir Christopher Wren was building the great cathedral he was a zealous Master of the St. Paul's Lodge, one of the most ancient in England, at which he presided for upwards of eighteen years, the meetings being held at the " Goose and Gridiron " in St. Paul's Churchyard, only lately pulled down. Be- sides presenting the " Goose and Gridiron " with three carved mahogany candlesticks, the great architect handed over to its custody the trowel and mallet which he used in lay- ing the foundation stone of the cathedral in 1675 (' O. and N. LonoV) On 2 October, 1895, was begun the demolition of this old tavern, where, as we are told in the 'Vade Mecum for Maltworms,'

Dutch carvers from St. Paul's adjacent Dome Hither to wet their Whistles, daily come.

But what has become of the three carved mahogany candlesticks ? The landlord of the ''Mitre," a former sign of the "Goose and Gridiron," derived from its proximity to the inn or town house of the bishops of London, issued a

"Catalogue of many natural rarities, with great Industrie, cost, and thirty years travel into foreign

countries collected by Robert Herbert, alias Forges, Gent., and sworn servant to his Majesty, to be seen at the place called the Musick House at the Mitre, near the west end of St. Paul's Churchyard, 1664."

This collection, or a great part of it, was Dought by Sir Hans Sloane (see 'O. and N. London'). J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

HEARTSEASE (9 th S. ix. 267, 392). To attri- bute the origin of this name to the story DR KNOTT tells of the wallflower is, I venture to say, a very apt example of what logicians call " the fallacy of equivocation." Folkard tells the same tale as BR. KNOTT, and, curiously enough, misquotes Herrick in the same way, but he does not give the story as an explana- tion of the name "heartsease," nor does Her- rick. Herrick's verses, indeed, are headed How the Wall-flower came first, and why so called,' and begin :

Why this flower is now call'd so, List, sweet maids, and you shal know.

So far as I know, Turner (referred to by Fol- kard) is the first authority for the statement that heartsease is a name for the wallflower ; and, though Ly te repeats it, I do not remember having seen the name so applied by any other writer of "olden time" besides these. The earliest name for the wallflower that I have met with in English is " walfair," which occurs in the ' Alphita ' glossary under Violaria.' C. C. B.

BARCY OF HARVERTON (9 th S. ix. 268). The manor of Harraton, or Harverton, co. Burham, at an early period belonged to the Herrington family, from whom it passed either by marriage or grant, most probably the former, though how it works in does not at present appear- to the Barcys. Sir John Barcy, Knt., of Harraton, married and left issue :

1. Robert Barcy, of Harraton, who died s.p. in 1414 ; his widow Margaret died 1433.

2. Isabel Barcy, daughter and coheir, married Thomas Barcy, of Park, co. Lincoln, and had issue : Rowland Barcy, of Henton, co. Lincoln, who was found coheir of his uncle Robert in 1414. Rowland left an only child Margaret, married to Robert Conyers, of Hutton-Wiske, co. York.

3. Elizabeth Barcy, daughter and coheir (so found 1414), married Robert Percy, of Rydale, co. York, and had a son John Percy, of Rydale, 1414, who as coheir of Robert Barcy, 16 Henry VI., released all his right to Harraton.

4. Katherine Barcy, daughter and coheir, married John Hedworth, of Southwick, co. Burham, and had a son John Hed worth, of Harraton, coheir of Robert Barcy, 1414.