264
NOTES .AND QUERIES. [9 th s. VIIL SEPT. 28, 1901.
to several readers of N. & Q.' for answers con-
veying valuable information in reply to my
previous query on 'Little John's Remains.'
I may add that the works referred to by Mr.
Gutch are reckoned as additions to my list.
J. B. McGovERN.
St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester.
[See the authorities mentioned in Mr. Sidney Lee's article in the ' D.N.B.' Several references will be found in Poole's 'Index to Periodical Literature.' E. Gilliat's 'In Lincoln Green: a Merrie Tale of Robin Hood,' was published by Seeley in 1897.]
ARMS OF CANADA. I shall be obliged if some one will describe these, and also say if any of the Canadian provinces have the goat or swan introduced in their arms.
J. M. LAWRENCE.
AUTHOR OF EPITAPH. The following lines were discovered on a tombstone, and anony- mously forwarded to a parent who had re- cently lost his son after a short illness :
Better so. The world in growing Might have soiled him with its breath. Surely God, in dearly loving, Gave him young His gift of death.
Author of the above wanted. J. D.
"NiCK THE PIN." Mr. E. Coles, school- master, says in his ' English Dictionary ' (London, 1696), under the letter P, "'Nick the pin,' drink just to the pin placed about the middle of a wooden cup. This caused so much debauchery that priests were forbidden to drink at or to the pins." Where may the earliest and the latest quotation showing the use of this phrase in English manuscripts or printed books be found ] E. S. DODGSON. [See ' Pin,' 8 th S. vi. 7, 76, 117, 174.]
LARKS FIELD : BARONS DOWN. The former is a field-name ; the latter comprises a small tract of country in this district. Both occur elsewhere in the Home Counties. Can any one suggest a clue to the origin and meaning of these names ? W. B. GERISH.
Bishop's Stortford.
[May not the former be from larks nesting in particular Melds ?j
MONKS OF TINTERN ABBEY. Where can I find a list of the monks of Tintern Abbey at the Suppression? 1 shall be much obliged for references either to manuscripts or printed books. JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS
Town Hall, Cardiff.
"BELAMOUR," PLANT-NAME. In Spenser's sixty-fourth sonnet the poet compares his lady love's "snowy brows" to "budded bellamoures" (so spelt). My grandfather, in
his 'Glossary of Archaic and Provincial
Words,' after defining the Spenserian word
belamour, " a fair lover, and a fair friend,"
adds, " In Spenser's time this word must also
have been the name of some flower ; and as
Mr. Mason thinks, of Venus' looking-glass."
He then quotes the lines from Spenser's
sonnet mentioned above. Do your botanical
readers agree with this 1 What is the botanical
name of "Venus' looking-glass," and is it a
well-known flower 1 Is the Mr. Mason men-
tioned by rny ancestor Gray's friend William
Mason, who I see wrote a poem called 'The
English Garden ' ? May I appeal specially
to my friend C. C. B. ?
JONATHAN BOUCHIER. Ropley, Hampshire.
[The 'H.E.D.' says, s.v. 'Belamour': "Applied to some unidentified flower." Annandale's four- volume Ogilvie identifies Venus's looking-glass as Campanula speculum.]
BROMBY. In 'The Diadein : a Selection of Poetry, chiefly Modern,' seventh edition, no date, p. 108, are six lines on ' Milton's Blind- ness ' signed Bromby. Who was the writer ]
W. C. B.
ST. MARCELLA. What is the legend of this young martyr, whose beautiful image I have seen of life size in wax in several French churches? ST. SWITHIN.
[A Celtic saint named Marchell or Marcella is mentioned by Baring-Gould, vol. xvi. p. 271. No legend is connected with her, nor is there any mention of martyrdom.]
MAN MADE IN THE FORM OF A CROSS.
The following beautiful lines are to be found, I am informed, in Robert Stephen Hawker's poem ' The Quest of the Sangrail,' published in 1864 :
See ! where they move, a battle-shouldering kind ! Massive in mould, but graceful, thorough men : Built in the mystic measure of the Cross : Their lifted arms the transome : and their bulk The Tree, where Jesu stately stood to die.
R. S. Hawker, the " Vicar of Morwenstow," died in 1875. In 1859 J. M. B. Vianney, the " Cure d'Ars," paid the debt of nature. In one of his ' Catechismes ' he is reported to have spoken as follows : " Tout nous rap- pelle la croix. Nous-memes nous sommes faits en forme de croix" ('Esprit du Cure d'Ars,' par 1'Abbe A. Monnin, p. 29, seventh edition, Paris, 1872). I should be grateful for references of an earlier date to this striking comparison as it is employed in these two quotations. As a strange coinci- dence, I may mention that the first edition of the Abbe Monnin 's book appeared in the same year as 'The Quest of the Sangrail.'
