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LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1887.

CONTENTS.-N° 95.

NOTES:-Arms of Florence, 321- The Cross of ChristHundred, 322-Letter of Burns-" Coming out of the little end of the horn," 323-Biographical Dictionary of the

Stage-Reculvers-Spelman On Sacrilege-Archbishop Drummond, 324-Recovery of Speech-Dictionary of National Biography'-" Pulling Bacon"-Weeping-St. George's, Bloomsbury - Thackeray, 325-Convertisseur Passover Custom-Will of Hugo-Portraits of Mackenzie and Lockhart, 326.

QUERIES:-Privy Council Register-Candle-Rent-Stronnay -Comworth-Highland Costume-Norah's Treasure'

5. The arms of the people": Argent, a cross gules.

6. The arms of the Church: (Azure, if I remember), two keys in saltire or.

7. The arms of the Guelphic faction: Argent, an eagle displayed gules; over its head a small lily or, and beneath its feet a dragon vert. (I supply the omitted tinctures.)

8. The arms of Charles, Duke of Anjou : Azure, semé of fleurs de lis, and in chief a label or. 9. The arms of Robert, King of Naples: Per “Piping hot ”—Henry, Lord Clifford-"Keep your Temper" pale, (a) Barry or and gu.; (b) Azure, semé of -Visitation of Middlesex, 327-Glass Cannon-Payne- fleurs de lis or. (This is erroneous. The arms in "Lacing the cup" — Arms on Church Window-Wrinkle the first place are those of Hungary, Gules, four "Poverty Knocker"-St. Sophia-Hely, 328-Finger Rings bars argent; and in the second place the Angevin REPLIES:-Who was Robin Hood? 329-Appeal in Cases of label is omitted. Usually the whole coat is tierced Pardon, 330-Nom de plume"-Epitaph, 881-Gunn- in pale: (a) Hungary, (b) Naples, (c) Jerusalem.)

-Moncreiff - Ben Jonson -"Signor Puppy" - Eliot

-Arms-Authors Wanted, 329.

London M.P.s-'Wisdom of Solomon'-Last Supper' of Leonardo, 332-Charitable Bequests- New English Dic

The first, with the lily, is the symbol of the flowery nature of the locality in which our city of Florence is situated. (The Florentine lily is repre

tionary-Cold Harbour-Fringford Church-John Brown-
By-boat-"Not a bolt out of the blue"-Byron, 333-
Quarter-Wayter-Rebuilding of St. Paul's-Roll of Win-
chester-Busby-China Plates-Lease of 999 Years-Crom-sented épanouie, or florençée.)
well's Pastimes-Three Chilly Saints-Creature=Drink-
Inn Signs, 334-Epitaph-Huguenot-Tell-Gurnall, 335-

The second is a record of the union of the Floren

Harvest Custom-Bray Head-Spade Guinea-Peart-Scar- tine republic with Fiesole after the capture and deborough Warning-Eleanor of Bretagne-Bellingham, 336-struction of the last-named city by the Florentines Carrington Bowles, 337-Duke on the day of St. Romolo in the year 1010.

Carlile-Bunhill Fields

with the Silver Hand, 338. NOTES ON BOOKS:-Symonds's Life of Benvenuto Cellini' -Skeat's Principles of English Etymology'-Garnett's 'Life of Carlyle.' Notices to Correspondents, &c.

Notes.

THE ARMS OF FLORENCE.

Writing, at p. 35 of the first volume of this present series, on the 'Arms of the Medici,' I remarked that "in no place were political sympathies so frequently marked by heraldic assumptions or mutations as in Florence"; and I promised at a future time to supply some notes in justification of this assertion. In fulfilment of this promise I send the present paper on the different arms of the Florentine Republic, and in lieu of transcribing my own notes, as I at first intended, have translated the somewhat fuller account which was circulated in Florence last year, on the occasion of the historical procession which was got up in honour of the royal visit, and the unveiling of the new façade of the Duomo.

The arms, or heraldic escutcheons, of the republic, which are still to be seen painted under the battlements of the Palazzo Vecchio, are the following:1. The ancient arms of the city of Florence : Gules, a fleur de lis argent.

2. The ancient arms of the union of Florence and Fiesole Per pale argent and gules.

3. The modern arms: Argent, a fleur de lis gules.

4. The arms of the Republic, or of the "Priori di Libertà": Azure, the word "Libertas," in bend

or.

The third dates from 1215, when the Florentines defeated at Monte Robolini the Pistoians who supported the Ghibelline faction. The victorious Guelphs expelled from Florence the Ghibelline families; and, having seized the reins of government, changed the blazon of the arms of the Republic (which were anciently Gules, a fleur de lis argent) to Argent, a fleur de lis gules (as at present borne).

The word "Libertas," which appears in the fourth shield, is the true blazon of the Republic; but it is not known when the Florentines commenced to use it. It is probable that they selected it when they were enabled to shake off the Imperial yoke.

The fifth, the arms of the people" (see 7th S. i. 35), Argent, a cross gu., date, it is believed, from 1292, when the first gonfalonier was created, in the person of Baldo Ruffoli, to whom these arms are assigned. (I suspect a mistake here, as I do not think the Ruffoli ever bore these arms.)

It is uncertain when the Florentines commenced to use the arms of the Church. It is believed that it was in one of the periods during which the Guelphic party, which was always devoted to the Papal see, prevailed.

The seventh was given in 1265 by Clement IV. to the Florentine Guelphs, who, when exiled from their fatherland, volunteered to serve Charles of Anjou in the war against Manfred of Sicily, the protector of the Ghibellines.

The eighth, in which is represented an azure field, semé of golden fleurs de lis, with a golden label, is that of Charles of Anjou, to whom the Florentine Guelphs in 1267 consented to give the

lordship of their city. The fleurs de lis are the commissa, or joined cross, consisting of an upright arms of the Kings of France, and the label, which | ought to be tinctured vert, is that which was used by their second sons. (There is a manifest error here, the label was tinctured not vert but gules. Afterwards, to avoid a supposed breach of the heraldic rule which forbade colour on colour, it was, at the sacrifice of historic truth, often changed to or, both in the Florentine escutcheons and in the augmentations assumed (6th S. xii. 142) by the Guelphic faction.)

Lastly, the ninth, which contains the arms of King Robert, commemorates the concession which the Florentines made to that king of the lordship of their city at the beginning of the fourteenth century. JOHN WOODWARD.

Montrose.

(To be continued.)

THE CROSS OF CHRIST.

Dr. Luckock, in his interesting work on the Footprints of the Son of Man as traced by St. Mark' (vol. ii. p. 284), says :—

"Whatever the road may have been by which Jesus went to the scene of His death, we know that those who led Him out compelled Him to carry the instrument of His execution on His own shoulders. Christian Art has misled us in its representation of what it was that He carried. It was then the usual custom in cases of crucifixion to make the condemned criminal bear to the place of execution, not the whole cross-this in the majority of cases, after the exhaustion produced by the scourging which preceded, would have been physically impossiblebut only the two transverse beams. They were tied or lightly nailed together in the shape of the letter v, and placed like a yoke on the criminal's neck. Crucifixion was borrowed, we must remember, from the Romans, and the Roman convict certainly so carried them, from the name which he received in consequence, furcifer, fork-bearer,' the most contemptible designation which

a Roman could receive.

"And now we come to the point where, we think, the teaching of Christian Art is at fault...... Christian Art .....would have taught a truer and a deeper lesson if it had embodied the sentiment which prevailed in the earliest ages of the Church."

Now, on turning to Riddle's Latin Dictionary,' I find that furca is said to be a two-pronged instrument on which burdens were carried (Plau.), especially for slaves, who carried such about by way of punishment; they were also flogged under it (Livy). Such a slave was called furcifer. According to Heindorf furca is two pieces of wood in the shape of the letter V, which pressed upon the neck and back, whilst the hands were bound to the two ends; it was also a kind of gallows for hanging slaves, highwaymen, &c., upon (Pliny). "Put the cross to the slave" ("Pone crucem servo") are the words used by Juvenal.

Now, I bave always understood that the learned consider that there are three kinds of crosses, viz., the crux decussata, or cross divided like the letter X, and usually called St. Andrew's cross; the crux

piece of timber with a transverse piece on the extreme top at right angles with the first, like the letter T; and the crux immissa, or let-in cross, in which the transverse piece of timber is let into the upright, but placed somewhat below the top of the upright. This is the cross on which our Lord is usually represented to have suffered; and though there may not be any absolute authority for ascertaining the precise form of the cross used on the occasion in question, yet, apart from the fact of the early Christian writers having without exception referred only to this form, the circumstance of an inscription having been placed over His head would render the conjecture highly probable.

Bearing in mind that crucifixion was ordered to be discontinued by Constantine, A.D. 330 (Haydn's 'Dates'), can any of your correspondents do me the favour to tell me whether the two transverse beams in the shape of the letter V were ever used in Palestine before that date? It certainly appears to me that the title Pilate wrote and put on the cross, which was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin (St. John xix. 19), must have been put on the crux immissa, not the crux commissa.

Astley Rectory, Stourport.

H. W. COOKES.

THE WORD "HUNDRED."-The latter part of Prof. Skeat's otherwise satisfactory article on this word seems wanting in clearness; indeed I do not profess to understand it. He says, “All [i. ., Goth. hund, Lat. centum, &c.] from an Aryan form kanta, a hundred. It is known (from Gothic) that kanta stands for dakanta, tenth, from dakan, ten, and originally meant the tenth ten, i. e., the hundred." But, surely, if kanta stands for dakanta, and dakanta means "tenth," kanta must originally have meant "tenth" only, and not "tenth ten." He then continues, "The Gothic (in speaking of a single hundred) has the full form taihun-taihund, a hundred (=dakan-dakanta), i. e., ten-tenth." How words meaning "ten-tenth can ever have come to mean a "hundred " passes my comprehension. Most people would, I imagine, take "ten-tenth" to be bad English for ten-tenths one. But, as Prof. Skeat had in the preceding sentence spoken of "tenth ten," I presume that he intended "tententh" as the word-for-word translation of taihuntaihund, and that, as in Gothic the ordinal numeral (or numeral adjective) sometimes follows the substantive which it qualifies, he believed the real meaning of taihun-taihund to be "tenth ten"=

"

=

*E.g., Mark xv. 25, "wheila pridyo," [the] third hour; Matt. xxvii. 46, "bi wheila niundon," at [the] ninth hour. But we also find the numeral adjective [the] third day; Luke xviii. 12, "taihundon dail," [the] preceding, as, e. g., Mark ix. 31, "pridyin daga," on tenth part; so that no inference whatever can be drawn from the position of taihund in taihun-taihund,

hundred. If so, he would surely have done better to write "literally ten-tenth, i. e., tenth ten."

*

But, even if I have explained his views aright, it seems to me much more reasonable to take with Grimm (i. 763) the taihund (or tehund) in taihun- | taihund (or -tehund), as also in sibun-tehund (70), ahtau-tehund (80), niun-tehund (90), to be a neuter substantive, and to the Greek Sekás or the Fr. dizaine. According to this theory, therefore, taihuntaihund would mean ten decades (is not decad a more English spelling?). We may well compare the Mod. H.G. neuter compound subst. Jahrzehent (or Jahrzehend)= a space of ten years, a decade, in which the second member of the compound word is evidently identical with zehnt(e), formerly written zehent(e)= tenth; for here also what was originally a numeral adjective has become a neuter numeral substantive, and what is more, zehent is, etymologically, the same word as tehund. And so again dizain and dozain in O.French meant merely "tenth" and "twelfth," and now in the feminine forms, dizaine and douzaine,† have become substantives in the sense of an aggregate of ten and twelve. In the case of the Fr. décade, just the opposite has taken place; for, while the original meaning of the word is an aggregate of ten (= dizaine), in Cotgrave it is given also the meaning of "a tenth."

sixty; only here it is the first of the three parts of the compound word (and one letters, probably the first, of the second part) which remains in the abbreviation, whereas in our case it is the end of the second of the two parts of the compound word taihun-taihund. F. CHANCE. Sydenham Hill,

LETTER OF BURNS.-The following, which is in my possession, seems worthy of publication:

MY DEAREST FRIEND,-Yours by Mr. Stoddart was the welcomest letter I ever received. God grant that now when your health is re-establishing you may take a little, little more care of a life so truely valuable to society and so truely invaluable to your friends! As to your very excellent epistle from a certain Capital of a certain Empire 1 shall answer it in its own way sometime next week; as also settle all matter as to kindness in everything else. little Miss. Your goodness there is just like your I am happy to inform you that I have just got an appointment to the first or Port Division, as it is called, which adds twenty pounds per annum more to my salary.

My excise income is now, cash paid, seventy pounds a year; and this I hold untill I am appointed Supervisor. So much for my usual good luck. My Perquisites I hope to make worth 15 or 201. more so. Rejoice with them that do Rejoice.

Apropos has little Mademoiselle been inoculated with the small-pox yet? If not let it be done as soon as it is proper for her habit of body, teeth, &c.

Once more let me congratulate you on your returning health.

The hund of hundred is therefore, strictly speaking, the tail of a word meaning dizaine, and is in fact etymologically equivalent to the zain(e) of this word. With this abbreviation we may compare the Danish treds, familiarly used for tredsindstyve joyments that nothing could fill up. Farewell.

There is no doubt that taihund (or tehund) in these words is derived from taihunda (tenth), and it may originally have been the neuter of the strong or indefinite form. See what I say further on in the text about the equivalent German form zehent.

†The feminine in French is frequently used as a neuter, as, c. yn "en v'là une bonne," "d'abord et d'une "; and also as a collective, as in armée, cuillerée, maisonnée, &c. That dizaine and douzaine had originally the meaning of "tenth" and "twelfth " does not seem to have been recognized by Scheler and Littré, and I may make the same remark with regard to dozen and English etymologists. See Cotgrave and Godefroy.

Prof. Skeat says, “hund=t-enth without the t, just as centum decentum." This may be so, but I have my doubts about it. For, as ten-Goth. taihun, O.Sax. tehan, A.-S. tén (or tyn), O.H.G. zëhan, M.H.G. zëhen, Mod.H.G. zehn, and as in those among these words which have two syllables the accent seems to have been on the first syllable (in Switzerland, as my own ears testify, zehn among the people is still pronounced as a dissyllable, zehen, with the accent on the first e, which is broad or open, and a very strong aspiration of the h, reminding one of zechen), I am rather inclined to believe that the e in ten (and consequently in tenth) represents the ai in taihun, and the in tehan, zëhan, and zëhen. And, if so, then hund the nth of tenth only. The e in ten may, however, possibly represent a sound formed by the coalescence of the e just mentioned with the shorter vowel following the h in those cases in which this letter has been preserved, and then hund might claim to represent the nth of tenth and a fraction of the e as well,

God grant that you may live at least while I live, for were I to lose you, it would leave a vacuum in my en

ROBT. BURNS.

I. W. HARDMAN, LL.D.

Cadbury House, Yatton, Bristol.

THE

"COMING OUT OF THE LITTLE END OF HORN."-This expression does not seem to occur in the dictionaries of English proverbs in ordinary use. I first heard it used many years ago by a Warwickshire man; he used it so often, and it appeared to me so graphically to convey the idea of getting the worst of a bargain, or of being reduced in circumstances by some unexpected "squeeze," that it took root in my proverb garden, and is now so familiar that I am not sure if I have heard it from others since. An unexpected illustration of the primitive meaning of the adage has just come in my way. In a small country curiosity shop I found the other day a painting on panel of the sixteenth century. It measures 18 in. by 22 in. long, and is in a fair and untouched state. Upon a tree, whose branches extend to each side of the picture, hangs by a red belt with gold tassel an enormous curved horn, the ends upwards. At the extreme left stands a man with black velvet flat cap and surcoat trimmed with fur, ruff, and gold chains on the breast. He is superintending the action of a man dressed in a purple doublet, profusely slashed, who wears a large felt hat and a cloak, with a dagger in his girdle, and is engaged

in thrusting into the large end of the horn an unfortunate wretch, whose trunk and legs (the latter loosely bound together with a rope, the end of which is held by the gold-chained gentleman) are inverted, and are the only portions of the body visible at that part of the picture. But at the little end of the horn, about 6 ft. away as the crow flies (or across the radius of this instrument of torture), but 9 ft. along the curved surface, appears the unhappy head and one arm of the victim. At the right stands a man clad only in a shirt and ragged coat, wringing his hands, with as much of a woe-begone expression as can be given with one eye, its fellow having been peeled from the panel by some unlucky abrasion. On a black ground at the bottom of the picture is the inscription, "This horn embleme here doth showe of svertishipp what harme doth growe." On either side of the tree are the words, in semi-Gothic character, "The Sea of Trubble." Above the head of the personage in the velvet cap is the citation, "Psalme 37, 26, but he is ever merciful and lendeth and his sede enjoyeth the blessing." Another reference to the Psalms is unfortunately illegible. The wearer of the gold chain is probably the sheriff, possibly the creditor, who has brought the poor fellow who was so foolish as to undertake suretyship bound to the tormentor. He is putting him through the horn, which elongates and compresses him in a most distressing fashion. Whether the beggarly man who is wringing his hands is the debtor himself after his passage through the horn, as I suppose, or one of his impoverished family, there are no means of determining. In any case, we have here a graphic and unmistakable illustration of the proverb, and I shall be much obliged to any of your readers who may be willing to furnish me with references to its use or to pictures similar to mine. J. ELIOT HODGKIN.

Richmond, Surrey.

A 'BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF THE STAGE.' -I have long contemplated a 'Biographical Dictionary of the Stage.' It is to contain short lives of all our living or deceased actors and actresses. Mr. Henry Irving has very kindly allowed me to dedicate the first volume to him. What I want through the medium of the columns of N. & Q.' is an account-of course sent to me direct-of any actor or actress at present alive or whose name may have escaped my notice, with a view thereby of making the work as exhaustive as possible. I imagine the first volume will contain the first four letters of the alphabet. It is to include all Englishspeaking actors and actresses, American and colonial as well as our own. I have written to several of the leading American and colonial journals within the last few days, and hope in due course to receive some satisfactory results.

EDWARD R. VYVYAN. 231, Elgin Avenue, Maida Vale, W.

RECULVERS (1792).—The following extract is of interest :

"The church is very ancient, dedicated to St. Mary, and consists of three aisles and a Chancel with two towers at the West End and spires on them. The Northern one contains 4 Bells. The Chancel is separated from the Church by three very ancient arches. The dreaded moment seems fast arriving when the boisterous waves will level this venerable pile, as there are now [1792] but 90 feet between it and them, and as no endeavours are made to prevent it soon may we expect that some unfriendly wave with sacrilegious jaws will gorge where it is supposed a monument to the memory of this now neglected House of God. On a wooden tablet, Ethelbert stood, is the following inscription:

Here as historiographers have said

St. Ethelbert, Kent's whilom King, was laid,
Whom St. Augustine with the Gospel entertained
And in this land hath ever since remained,
Who though by cruel Pagans he was slain
The Crown of Martyrdom he did obtain,
Who died on the 24th of February in the year 616,"
W. LOVELL.

SPELMAN ON SACRILEGE.'-Without going into the question discussed by Spelman in this work, it may be well, as a matter of literature, to point out instances which were not recorded in the original edition, first printed in 1698, nor by the editors of the reprint in 1846. At the end of Erdeswicke's 'Survey of Staffordshire,' 1723, 8vo., beginning on Q. 3=p. 229, are "Observations upon the Possessors of Monastery-Lands in Staffordshire, by Sir Simon Degge, Knight," in the form of a letter to George Digbey, of Sandon, Esq., the owner of Erdeswicke's original MS., pp. 8. Erdeswicke also seems to have been of the same opinion as Spelman, to judge by remarks of his on pp. 8, 9, 179, 188, as to the ill fortune which pursued some of those who acquired those lands. W. E. BUCKLEY.

ARCHBISHOP DRUMMOND.-Archbishop Drummond of York (1761-71) belonged to the older type of the episcopate, when, in his ordinary life, a prelate differed but little from a hospitable nobleman or country gentleman of the better sort. We are told that "his manners were noble, his disposition engaging, his hospitality princely," and that "wherever he was, elegance, festivity, and good humour were sure to be found." The following story is told of him. He built a new gatehouse at Bishopthorpe, which by some error in the plan was not in a straight line with the front door of the palace. The archbishop's attention being called to this, he remarked, "Pooh, that don't matter. Any parson coming to see me will be in too great fright to notice it, and I shall take care that when he goes away the hospitality of Bishopthorpe will prevent his seeing straight before him." With all this, which belonged to his age, the archbishop's diocesan correspondence shows him to have been a good, sensible, practical man of business, who managed his see well.

E. V.

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