Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/79

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12 . in. JAN. 27, i9i7.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


73


was M.P. for Hereford city, 1747-54. Danie Leighton appears in Thomas Wotton' 'English Baronetage,' 1741, vol. iv. p. 43, a the fourth son of Sir Edward Leighton, firs Baronet, being " now [1741] lieutenant colonel of general Evan's [sic] regiment o horse." See 12 S. ii. 86. W. Evans the colonel of the, now, 4th Hussars, nex before Sir Robert Rich.

Daniel and Francis were, according Wotton, fourth and fifth sons respectivel of Sir Edward Leighton, Francis bein described as " major of a regiment of foot unmarried." In Debrett's ' Baronetage ' 1808 his description is " lieutenant -genera and colonel of the 32nd regiment of foot." ROBERT PIERPOINT.

(12 S. ii. 525.)

For Mel. Guy Dickens see 10 S. iv. and v. where it is stated that the name should b Guydickens. Melchior Guydickens was am bassador to Russia.

A Gustavus Guydickens appears in list o officers of 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards May 1, 1761, lieutenant and captain.

R. J. FYNMORE. Sandgate.

NATIONAL FLAGS: THE GREEK FLAG (12 S ii. 289, 358, 455, 537). I am able to reply to my own query as to the genesis of the national flag of Greece, by sending a trans- lation of part of a pamphlet which circulates amongst the newly instituted corps oj " boy scouts " in Greece :

PRIMARY KNOWLEDGE FOR ASPIRANT BOY SCOUTS.

B. (Part II.) The National Badge (Flag).

The ancient Greeks had no standard, although they venerated the emblems on their shields as we do our national symbol. The Byzantines had the Labarum and two-headed eagle.

The first flag which was raised by our forefathers, according to the historians, was decorated with a two-headed eagle, and was displayed by Klades [sic] in 1464 during a revolt against the Turks.

In the revolution of 1769 Mavromicheli raised a white flag on which was a blue cross.

In 1803, when Ali Pasha was ravaging Thessaly, John Stathas led a flotilla into Skiathos under a' flag which was the same as that in use at the present day, i.e., blue with a white cross.

The first flag of the great revolution was raised by Marco Botzaris on Oct. 25, 1820. It was white with an icon of St.- George.

The national poet Bega Feraio suggests as badge of the Greeks : white and black, with the club of Hercules and three crosses.

The gallant Ypsilanti, hero of Dragatzino [June 19, 1821], bore a standard of white, red, and black!


On one side were SS. Constantino and Helena with the EX TOTTOI NIKA. On the other was the


symbolic bird the 4>ow, with the inscription K TT/S icdvedis fj.ov oLvayevvu/^ai. By the white colour is signified purity, by the red BufenTw?) iro/)0i'pa, and the black represents those who die for their country. This flag was preserved in the monastery of the "Three Saints" at Jassy.

Germanos, Bishop of Old Patras, raised on March 25, 1821, the Ad.-3a.pov of revolution : it was the curtain [Tra.pair^Taff/j.a] of the Holy Doors of the iconostasion in the monastery church of the Holy Laura.

The different leaders of the revolution had each of them their particular flags.

On Jan. 1, 1822, the National Assembly in Epidaurus, at the foundation of the inde- pendence of Greece, defined the Greek flag as follows :

On terra flrma : a plain blue flag in four - quarters, with a white cross in the middle, to be called the " land flag."

On the sea : 9 horizontal stripes, 5 blue and 4 white, with a blue square in the corner, in four- quarters on which is a white cross.

Merchant ships : Blue with a white square in the upper corner containing a blue cross.

The islands Spetsia, Ipsara, and Hydra had each a private flag.

As it was thought merchant ships should have the privilege of flying the same flag as the war- vessels, they were permitted so to do. After the- establishment of the free kingdom of Greece the arms of the king were added to the white cross.

The colours of our flag are said to have been worn by our Saviour Jesus Christ and His Apostles, whose dresses in these colours were- called on that account " e\\-rivlfovTes.'

The Byzantine Emperors had magnificent. blue and white flags in contradistinction to the Bxnnans, whose colours were red and green.

The proportions of the flag should be as 2 n height to 3 in length.

The official flag of warships is the same as the 'land flag" ; the king's flag is the land flag with

he royal coat of arms in the centre ; and the

army flag is the land flag with the St. George in ' e middle.

G. J., F.S.A.

TILLER BOWE : BRANDRETH : GAVELOCK : VLATJBRE (12 S. ii. 430, 516). I am obliged o your correspondents for their replies. As o " gavelock," I have, since my previous ommunication, met with the use of the word in the nineteenth century in the sens&- f a crowbar, as a tool in the slate quarries f the district.

It did occur to me that, as suggested,, maubre " might mean marble, but I could ot imagine, nor can I yet, what slab or essel of this material of such value as 20s. i.e., one-fifth of that of a yoke of oxen) would be likely to be in the possession of a Westmorland yeoman of 1620, unless, per- aps, it were a tablet for recording his-


worth, to be placed in the church.


H. W. DICKINSON.