The relationship of the Fanningstown Walshes has been duly set forth in several editions of the 'Landed Gentry,' art. "Walsh of Fanningstown," to which I beg permission to refer L. W.

The French families, Comtes Walsh, Comtes de Serent (an estate situate in Anjou), are represented to this day in France, where they remain not unmindful of their primitive Irish or Celtic origin, called by the natives "Brettanaigh," pronounced "Brannagh," or the Welshman, being themselves of unknown Cymric source*" undè, clarum ac venerabile nomen."

I shall merely limit myself to mention one individual of this Franco-Irish family, Le Vicomte Joseph Walsh, himself an alumnus of the Jesuits' College, Stonyhurst, in after life the enthusiastic author of the 'Lettres Vendéennes,' Tableau des Fêtes Chrétiennes,' the elegant and forcible Legitimist writer we all know.

This gentilhomme achevé, in every sense of the word-founder, moreover, of the pungent Royalist review La Mode—was fifth in descent from the first emigrant of the name in France, James Walsh (son of John), of Ballynacully, where his eldest son, Phillippe, by Margaret Walsh of Carrigmaine, was married at St. Malo (Brittany) in 1695 to Anne Whyte, daughter of James Whyte and of Thomassine Cranesborough, of Waterford City, a rich beiress, but belonging to the family of Whyte of Kingsmeadow or Monaree, near that city, now of Loughbrickland, county Down, and originally from Waterford and Limerick, not without illustration or eminence in Anglo-Irish history.

The eldest son, issue of this marriage, Antoine Vincent, born at St. Malo, 1703, was created by the Pretender Lord Walsh, 1745, title unrecognized in this country. His "noblesse d'extraction" confirmed 1754; and after the "lettres patentes "creatives of the Comte de Sérent it was expressly declared, following a previous decree of the Council of State, August 15, same year, "qu'il avait justifié dans les formes les plus authentiques, qu'il était issu, au dix-huitième degre de Phillippe Walsh, surnommé le Breton,' établi en Irlande." His nephew and elder brother to Vicomte Walsh above mentioned, Comte Théobald Walsh, killed at St. Domingo, 1792, had the honour, 1787, as others of his name, to "monter dans les carosses du Roi,"-envied distinction, reserved only to members of the "haute noblesse," and to obtain which a 'noblesse d'extraction," without any known "annoblissment," was imperatively demanded. At that time Messire Bernard Chérin, Chevalier, was one of the kings or judges of arms delegated in this matter in France, Yet I have seen a memoir tracing them up to the time of Alfred the Great-a rather problematic origin.

have become not only a matter of history, but also the source of infinite satisfaction and security to those families, either French by birth or naturalization, who had their proofs of gentility submitted to his conscientious supervision, and it was under his unexceptionable direction that Messieurs Walsh made out the necessary proofs required of them. The Walsh pedigree is to be found most voluminously traced in the following work, thus entitled, Histoire Généalogique et Héraldique des Pairs de France, des Grands Dignitaires de la Couronne, des Principles Familles Nobles du Royaume, et des Maisons Princières de l'Europe,' par M. Le Chevalier Jean Baptiste Pierre de Courcelles, ancien magistrat, Paris, 1822. In this work, which has met with a deserved success, every generation from Sir Phillip Walsh, the Strongbownian knight, is duly accounted for.

Also, more briefly told by M. Borel d'Hauterive, in his Annuaire de la Noblesse (Paris), now in the forty-fourth year of its existence, 1864, 1865, sub voce Wyse," 1869. He even mentions a newly discovered Walsh, a Crusader, whose arms, the same as those of the family we are now treating of, figure, somewhat hastily, perhaps, in the "Salle des Croisades " at Versailles.

Yet if there is not sufficient evidence to connect the Irish Walshes with this Crusader of the same cognomen, there is nothing either to disprove that he may not really have been some adventurous and pious scion of the race. I subjoin the document of the year 1191 in the original Latin, base of this assertion or belief. The reader will hence have an opportunity to form a correct opinion thereupon:

"RICARDUS,-Dei gratia, Rex Angliæ, Dux Normanni et Aquitania, Comes Andegavensis, universis præsentes litteris inspectures, SALUTEM. Sciatis, quod cum quosdam fideles nostros, pro negotiatorum nostrorum opportunitate, ad transmarinas partes remittendos duxerimus nihil autem de proprio, in hoc casu secundum perigrinationis solum, alienare possimus, dilecto nostro Jacobo de Jhotes [sic] curam potestatemque commissimus, dictis fidelibus nostris, quorumdam quantitatem mutationem procurandi videlicet, quingentarum marcarum ad munus, Willelmo de Gorram, septingentarum marcarum, ad Gaufrido de Haid, sexcentarum marcarum, ad munus, munus, Phillippo Walensi, et mille marcarum, ad munus, Mercadaro, promittens autem interpositione sacramenti, et fides, nos quoslibet convenciones, super hoc eam dicto Jacobo, vel præfatis fidelibus, nostros mitar ratar, confirmatasque integrè habituras, et fideliter servaturos. Teste me ipso apud Accon,-tertia die Augusti (1191)."

Nor is this conjecture altogether improbable. The Tuites of Mannylea, and subsequently Baronets (1622) of Sonna, Westmeath, bear for motto or war-cry "Allelulia," bestowed upon them, it is said, by the same Richard Coeur de Lion, immediately after the siege of St. Jean d'Acre, which, A.D. 1192, fell into Christian hands.

In those days the Anglo-Norman, Welsh, or Strongbownian gentry of the Pale were generally too much engrossed with their constant struggles against the Celtic clans, whom they were pleased to style the "Irish enemy," to think of carrying their arms into the extreme East, even for an object of such paramount importance as the recovery of the Holy Land from the iron grasp of the Saracen. Few, very few, Anglo-Irish or purely Celtic families could have applied to any one of their members in former days the proud boast of many a French, German, English, or Italian knight :

Dal sepolcro del Signore

Io ritorno vincitor.

In this genealogy amongst other names L. W. will find that of an illustrious lady, Madame Valentine de Walsh-Serent, daughter of Antoine Joseph Phillippe, Comte de Walsh-Serent, and through the noted French and Irish houses Rigaud de Vaudreuil, (mother) Harper, and Whyte, fourth in descent from the first emigrant of the name at Nantes, afterwards at St. Malo, but since 1839 widow of Prince Charles Marie-Bretagne, Duc de la Trémouille, Vicomte and Duc de Thouars, Prince de Tarente and Talmont, &c., head of one of the grandest houses of feudal France, often allied with royalty, surmounting the historical escutcheon, Or, a chevron gules, between three eagles displayed sable, quartering Thouars, France, Brittany, Amboise, &c., with the royal Sicilian crown, and immediately after the princes of Lorraine and Savoye, holding an acknowledged precedence at the Court of Versailles before all others, even those princes of Rohan who, considering themselves as such "de droit, de sang, et de possession d'état," derived from that British Regulus, Conan Meriadek, a descendant of Caractacus or Caradawg, who 380 settled in Armorica, the betrothed of the virgin martyr St. Ursula, daughter of Dionocus, King of Cornwall, but in reality husband of Darerca, sister of St. Patrick (our national apostle), who, being the son of Calphurnius, a Roman of high degree, was naturally supposed to be of noble and patrician blood.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE-WYSE.

(To be continued.)

THE JUBILEE, JUNE 21, 1887.-" Jubilee, literally a shout of joy; the year of release among the Jews every fiftieth year; any season of great public joy and festivity." So says Chambers's Etymological Dictionary'; and the reminder is almost necessary, so much is the word jubilee associated with a celebration of fifty years. It is customary to say that only three jubilees have been held before in England. As a matter of fact this is, I believe, the only one of stately ceremony that was ever actually held, though there might have been four.

The first was that of Ethelbert of Kent, the first Christian king in England. He reigned for fiftysix years, and, being Bretwalda, was in some sort

King of England; yet he did but hold immediate sway over a seventh part of England alone, while our Queen's authority is acknowledged over a seventh part of the whole world.

Henry III's reign was nominally of the same length as Ethelbert's; but as he came to the throne when only nine years old-the kingdom then being in the hands of a foreign prince-he was for several years a minor. Nor was he ever, I believe, crowned at Westminster, but first at Gloucester, and when only thirteen, again at Canterbury; but at the time of his jubilee, the year 1266, he was at war with his own people, and a stately ceremonial, even could it have been held, would have been a solemn mockery.

Edward III.'s jubilee was recognized by a general pardon-from which, strange to say, for some personal spite of John of Gaunt, William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, was excluded. But the glory of the king's reign had departed, his illustrious son the Black Prince had died the year before, and the king was sunk in sensuality and vice. He only outlived it six months.

War abroad and domestic trouble at home marked the Jubilee year of the good old king George III. The war with France was at its height, and the disastrous expedition to Walcheren took place in the year 1809, for George III., unlike our Queen, elected to keep his festival at the opening instead of the close of the fiftieth year. That year was scarcely ended when insanity, which had shown itself more than once, became confirmed, and darkness, both mental and physical, settled down upon the good old man.

But such a Jubilee as we have been privileged to take part in has never before been witnessed. In a Roman triumph conquered kings and queens followed the chariot of a victorious emperor or general; but here five independent sovereigns from Europe and the distant isles of the great Pacific Ocean, with the heirs or representatives of the greatest monarchies upon earth, were present to do honour to the virtues, public and private, of our Queen and Empress, while dependent princes swelled the triumphant procession. Her magnificent body-guard of princes of her blood or allied by marriage was in itself a unique feature. And amidst all this pomp sat the Queen, simple and quiet, like-as indeed she is the mother of her people, receiving their enthusiastic homage gratefully and joyfully; and one could not but remember, to add to the peaceful triumph, that a universal peace reigns throughout her wide dominions. Surely the words of King Lemuel are true of her if ever they were of any woman :

"Strength and honour are her clothing, and she shall rejoice in time to come.

tongue is the law of kindness. "She openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her

"Her children rise up and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praiseth her.

ور

peculiarities of type, lines, &c., identical with that of 1636. He also observed that one of the Museum copies, either 643 c. 17 or 161 a. 36, crown, I forget which, had had 1636 added to it, and apparently by types applied by the hand some little time after it had been printed off. I verified all this for myself, with this exception, that in my undated copy and in that which had been undated "Hippolyta and "Penelope were separated by a larger space than any other of the names of the dramatis personce, and in the 1636 copy they were more closed, though the peculiar bracket binding them together for the purpose of giving one line of explanation was clearly the same in both sets of copies. Hence, and from the after-printed 1636, it is evident that the undated copies were first printed off, the insertion of the date having been forgotten, and that the 1636 dated copies were a second issue from the same setting-up thus far emended.

BR. NICHOLSON.

"WHISKAM DANDY."-On the side of a steep hill overlooking the town of Halifax there is a place having this singular and whimsical appellation, which at first sight appears to defy all etymological research, but on analysis yields the startling result of being pure Welsh. In that language wisc is a stream, cum is a valley, dan (or tan) is fire, and dhu (pronounced dee) is black. It is a well-known feature in the Welsh language that the names of places are descriptive of the locality, and also that in Welsh grammar the adjective generally follows the substantive. Now let us see the meaning of this name Wisc-cumdan-dhu. It is literally "the stream in the valley of black fire." There was in my recollection a stream at the spot in question, which looks down the Hebble Brook valley, and coal is worked within a few hundred yards of the spot. It will be admitted that black fire is a very expressive description of coal. Altogether it is a genuine Welsh description, suitable to the locality. But how came it to have such a name? That is a puzzle. About fifty years ago there was an ancient house there, apparently of the sixteenth century, and the stream ran near it. But the house has been pulled down, and the stream blocked by rubbish and earth from a new road. I am aware that the authorities in lately putting up the names of streets and places have spelt the above "Wiscombe." But I have taken my spelling from the diary (nearly a century old) of a learned lady who was familiar with the spot and had property close by. I rather think combe is Saxon, but I cannot suggest that there is anything Saxon in the rest of the word. On the other hand, one does not expect to meet Celtic names in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

M. H. R. VAN DYCK.-Mr. Carpenter's extract from the order-book of the Exchequer with reference

|

to Vandyck's "reward for service," which has been copied in other works, contains a few errors which a personal inspection of the book referred to enables me to correct. The order-book is one for 16201621. The entry is :-

"Jovis xxij February, 1620.-Anthony Vandike in reward for service. By Order dated xvij Febry, 1620, to Anthony Vandike the some of one hundred poundes (C) by way of reward for speciall s'vice by him p'formed for his Mate without accompt, imprest, or other charge to be sett uppon him for the same or for anie part thereof 7 l'res genale dat vi Novembris, 1608.-H. Mandeville ffulke Grevill."

It will be seen that the cause of Mr. Carpenter's error in the date arises from the third numeral being joined by a thin up-stroke with the fourth. That this is so the fact that the 22nd, and not the 26th, was "Jovis" in the year 1620-21 proves. The second error is owing to the omission of the last stroke of the Roman numeral for 17. The other differences are slight, but exist. V. A. N.

Sometimes we substituted "Burton ale," which was not so good in effect. THOS. RATCLIFFE. Worksop.

CIDER (HERETICAL) VERSUS WINE (ORTHODOX). I have just now come across the following droll passage in 'Ebrietatis Encomium' (London, 1723) :—

'Cardinal du Perron tells us 'That the Manichæans

said that the Catholicks were People much given to Wine, but that They [the Manichæans] never drank any." fends them than by Ricrimination. He answers 'That it "Against this Charge St. Augustin no otherwise dewas true, but that They (the Manichoeans) drank the Juice of Apples, which was more delicious than all the Wines and Liquors in the World.' And so does Tertullian; which Liquor pressed from Apples,' he says, 'was most strong and vinous.' His Words are, Succum ex pomis vinosissimum.

"Here we may observe also, That the Use of Cyder was very primitive and antient; but, as strong and delicious as it was, the Catholicks stuck close to the Juice of the Grape, as what was intirely orthodox and no wise conversant with the Hereticks of those Days." JOHN W. BONE, F.S.A.

AN ANCIENT MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE.

This l're made at Cristchurche in the shire of South' the laste day of Decemb'r the yere of oure lorde king herry vjt xxxiij yere berith wittenesse that John Simon ffuller otherwise called John Grice in the towne of Wycombe in the shire of Buckinghm sumtime the s'vaunt of John Righe of the said towne of Cristchurch maried