244
NOTES AND QUERIES. 19* s. n. SKPT. 24, >9s.
some liquor she was carrying, rashly tasted
it and immediately died.
Hector Munro, the younger son of the Baron of Fowlis by his first marriage with Margaret Ogilvie, and afterwards seventeenth baron, was not only one of his stepmother's prosecutors, but, for reasons of his own, active in a similar conspiracy against the life of his own brother Robert. Hector, being taken ill, consulted the witches, who declared he must die unless the principal man of his blood should suffer death in his stead. It was agreed that the substitute for Hector must mean his half-brother, George Munro of Obis- dale, the eldest son of Katherine Munro, the Lady Fowlis before mentioned. The pro- ceedings of the witches were peculiar in the extreme. The time being January, 1588, Hector, arrayed in blankets, was interred alive at night, in a grave dug not far from the seashore. After sundry incantations he was carried home, and, strange to relate, Hector recovered, while, after an inter- val of twelve months, George Munro, his half-brother, died. Though several inferior persons suffered death on account of the sorceries practised on this and former occa- sions, the two principals, Lady Fowlis and her stepson Hector, were both found not guilty. Hector and George had married two sisters, their cousins, Janet and Katherine, the daughters of Andrew Monro of Milntoun. George Munro of Obisdale and Katherine Monro his wife were ancestors not only of the present head of the clan, but also of Mr. Gladstone. Their great-granddaughter, Re- becca Munro, married Colin Robertson of Kindeace. The latter's elder son, William Robertson of Kindeace, a cavalry officer, married his first cousin Ann Munro, sister to Sir Robert Munro, fifth baronet of Fowlis ; while the younger son, George Robertson, commissary of Ross, by his marriage with Agnes Barber, was grandfather to Ann Robertson, who, marrying Sir John Glad- stone, Bart., of Liverpool, had, among other issue, William Ewart Gladstone.
The family of Robertson of Kindeace, co. Ross, branched off, about 1544, from the Robert- sons of Inshes, themselves an offshoot of the ancient family of Robertson of Struan.
A. R. BAYLEY.
FUSIL. In defining this heraldic term the
1 H.E.D.' says :
"A bearing in the form of a^ elongated lozenge ; understood to have been origin,-/ ^y a representation of a spindle covered with tow " ;
and it shows that the derivation is fromfusus, spindle, the French form being fusee. A quo-
tation is supplied from Bossewell's ' Armorie,'
1572, "Fusilles are so termed for that they be
made like spindles " (cp. fusee of a watch).
In confirmation of this, and in proof of the
minute accuracy of the great dictionary, I
can cite some not uninteresting evidence. In
the church at Norton, near Evesham, is the
tomb of Thomas Bygg, who died in 1581 ; his.
wife was the sister of Sir Philip Hoby, and
on the wall above, carved in stone, are the
arms of Bigg and Hoby impaled. Those of
Hoby are three "fusils" in fess, and are
represented as balls of thread in the shape of
upright ellipses. They correspond almost
exactly with the grant and drawing of Hoby
arms, 1561, in Misc. Gen. et Her., i. 141-3,
where they are called "clewes or bottoms."
These balls are really gold thread wound
upon oval red bobbins.
In 1680-4 Thomas Dingley, with whose family the Biggs were connected by marriage, described the tombs and heraldry at Norton, of some whereof he gives drawings. A few very slight alterations have been made since his time, but it is manifest that he finished his sketches from memory. He thrice draws the Hoby coat, first as three mere lozenges but in the two other cases showing spindles passing longwise through balls of thread, of which spindles there is not the faintest sign in the carving on the stone. His description is "three fusils upon slippers transposed y e
points downwards called fusils fromfucus
signifying a spindle of yarn " (' History from Marble,' Camd. Soc., vol. ii. pp. cclxxxviu cccxviii, cccxxiii). That which we should now call a bobbin, reel, spindle, or winder, he calls a " slipper." W. C. B.
ROMAN ENGLAND. Why do not some enter- prising antiquaries get up a Roman Exhibition at Earl's Court, and show us a practical illustration of houses, &c., done from models or from Pompeii ? We have seen " Old London," colonies, naval and military, arts and crafts, &c. Perhaps this idea maybe taken up, so I offer the suggestion.
EMMA ELIZ. THOYTS.
Sulhamstead Park, Berkshire.
OLD-STYLE Civic HONOURS. The records of Shrewsbury describe a feast of St. George held by Sir Philip Sidney in 1581 as President of the Marches, during which " the Cheiftains of the several Companies did in most decent
Sort, attend upon the Lord President
together with the Aldermen and Bailiffs, Peers in their scarlet Robes and other Cheif- tans." Copied verbatim. The chieftains we call masters of a company or guild; the peers answer to our aldermen, originally
