108
NOTES AND QUERIES. m s. vm. AUG. 9, 1913.
ARTHUR ONSLOW : SEYMOUR,. In Child-
wall Church, co. Lane., there is a hatchment
bearing the arms of Onslow (Argent, a fesse
gules between six Cornish choughs proper)
impaling Seymour (Or, on a pile gules,
between six fleurs-de-lis azure, three lions
passant guardant of the field). The sinister
side is sable, and therefore it was put up on
or after the wife's death.
Arthur Onslow of Childwall died there on 26 Oct., 1807. aged 80, and administration was granted on 27 May, 1808, at Chester, to his son and only child, Arthur Onslow, serjeant-at-law, of the Middle Temple, who was created King's Serjeant in 1800. It is desired to identify the wife who bore the Seymour coat.
The Gentleman s Magazine for 1807, part ii. p. 1081, in an obituary notice of the de- ceased, who was Collector of Customs of the Port of Liverpool from 1785, states that he was the representative of the eldest branch of the ancient family of Onslow in Shrop- shire, from a younger branch of which the Earl of Onslow was descended.
R. S. B.
FONTS : WARGRAVE - ON - THAMES. Can any reader give any details of the two fonts in the churchyard of Wargrave ? One is near an entrance to the graveyard, and another in an obscure corner. One, the older, is evidently of great antiquity, and is built up on a base of masonry; the other is in good order. The books state they are Norman and Perpendicular. I always regret to see these venerable sacred relics turned into flower-vases, the use to which I recently found these two apparently now put. I was unable to inspect the present font in use, the church being locked, but am told it is modern. The Perpendicular font, relegated to the graveyard, appears quite fit for the church. INQUIRER.
LACIS OR FILET- WORK. Can any reader give me information as to the underlying idea of lacis or filet-work ? It is a mediaeval in- vention, and designs are mostly heraldic or geometric : symbolical beasts, and later on fruit and flowers. The designs are darned on a hand-netted ground. So difficult is it to " carry " one's thread correctly that I have invented diagrams showing how to do the work, and from the marvellous way in which one is able to follow the intricacies of a maze, I feel sure that some (to me un- known) problem was at the root of this work. The different designs have holes in them ; for instance, a lion or stag, bird or
dragon, will have variously shaped holes-
in his body, and the difficulty consists in
deciding which way to go when one gets to
each hole. I arrive at it by repeatedly
trying, but I feel sure that the whole scheme
of the work had a key in those far-off days,
when we know people were fond of problems.
It is almost, if not quite the earliest form of
lace, and the threads cross each other as in
darning, or in weaving of linen. We have
old pattern-books (Vinciolo and many
others), but no literature. The old Celtic
interfacings are very similar. CARITA.
BALLAD OF " BOLDHANG'EM." I wonder if any of your readers have met with a ballad about " Boldhang'em." A servant from Essex used to sing it to me about 1850, and it made a great impression upon me, but I can remember only a few scraps. The characters were Boldhang'em, a lady and her baby and its nurse. Boldhang'em and the nurse aro in league to kill the lady and child. The ballad opens thus, the lady speaking :
Who cares for Boldhang'em or any of his men When my doors are all fastened and my windows pinned in ?
Night comes, and the wicked nurse pinches the baby downstairs and makes it cry. She then calls out :
O lady, O lady, why don't you come down ? The lady answers :
How can I come down in the dead of the night, No fire a-burning, no candle alight ? The child continues to cry, and the lady comes down to find Boldhang'em and the nurse, the former with a dagger and bowL Boldhang'em tells the lady he has come " to drink her heart's blood." She pleads in vain for mercy, and both mother and child are killed.
All else that I remember are the last three lines :
Boldhang'em shall be hung on a gallows so high, And the nurse shall be burnt in a fire close by, While the lady and the baby lie dead on the
ground. The ballad is clearly very old.
A. McDowALL.
WATER-COLOUR BY JOSEPH JOHN JENKINS, 1838. I shall be glad if any one can inform me as to the subject of a water-colour draw- ing by J. J. Jenkins (1811-85), who was secretary of the Old Water-Colour Society from 1854 to 1864. It bears the artist's signature, with date 1838, and represents the interior of an old-fashioned square pew in an old church, with two figures, male
