9s. vm. JULY 2o, 1901.) NOTES AND QUERIES.
67
nese names, to which any one desirous o:
further information on this rather intricate
subject should refer. 11. B. McKERROW.
BUTTON AND SEAMAN FAMILIES (9 th S. vii 408, 513). If H. C. is in possession of further information regarding the Seaman family will he be good enough to declare if these Button Seamans belong to the same family as John Seaman, B.C L., Chancellor of the Biocese of Gloucester, who died at the Court House, Painswick (which he built in 1605), in the year 1623, and is buried in the chancel of Painswick Church ? His will (proved in 1623) shows that he possessed a property at Pan field, in Essex. His grandchildren lived in his house at Painswick as late as 1680. He, however, had no son named Button, albeit Button property at Standish almost adjoined certain lands and tenements of his own. It is usually said that this Court House at Painswick owes its designation to the fact of Charles I. having stayed in it on his way both to and from the siege of Gloucester in 1644 ; but no doubt it served Br. Seaman before that date for his diocesan court.
ST. CLAIR BADDELEY. Castle Hale, Painswick.
THE NATIONAL FLAG (9 th S. v. 414, 440, 457, 478 ; Supplement, 30 June, 1900 ; vi. 17, 31, 351, 451, 519 ; vii. 193). There appears to be a very glaring error in MR. ST. JOHN HOPE'S proposed new blazon for the union flag, to which none of your correspondents have hitherto drawn attention. MR. ST. JOHN HOPE in his interesting and valuable note suggested that the saltires of St. Andrew and St. Patrick should be described as "dimidiated per saltire." Surely this would be a contradiction in terms, and a feat as difficult to perform as to halve into quarters ! MR. ST. JOHN HOPE could dimidiate per pale, per bend, or per fess, but surely not per saltire nor per quarter.
I pointed out this error (which should not be allowed to pass unchallenged as an ex- ample of co-temporary heraldry) at the time, but owing to the great number of letters on the subject my note was not inserted.
ARTHUR F. HOWE. Walton-on-Thames.
"TOUCAN" (9 th S. vii. 486 ; vm. 22). PROF. NEWTON does me a double injustice. First he misinterprets me, and then adversely criticizes me upon his misinterpretation. Nobody seems to have taken the trouble, I said, to find out whence Buffon derived his information that toucan means " feather." PROF. NEWTON, on the principle that the less
includes the greater, expands this into a
statement that nobody has found out whence
Buffon derived any of his information con-
cerning this bird, and naturally has little
difficulty in showing that parts of it (not the
part in* which I am interested) have been
" traced completely." I never said they had
not. What I said (and say) is that the above
etymology of toucan is cited by Littre as
"d'apres Buffon" (not "d'apres Lery "), and
by Prof. Whitney as "according to Buffon,"
not "according" to Lery." PROF. NEWTON
cannot deny that I am the first writer to
draw attention to the facts. By the way, he
alludes to Thevet's ' Singularitez de la France
Antarctique.' It is perhaps worth adding
that in the translation of this, 1568, p. 73,
" a birde named toucan " appears for the first
time in English. A fragment of Lery was
translated by E. Aston for his * Manners and
Customes,' 1611, p 488, where the name ap-
pears for the second time in English.
JAS. PLATT, Jun.
SIR HENRY GOODYERE (9 fch S. vii. 447). I have recently given this information to another inquirer, 9 th S. vii. 151. The date of Sir H. Goodyere's death is 18 March, 1628.
PERCY SIMPSON.
GEORGE SAUNDERS, F.R.S., F.S.A. (9 th S. vii. 307). There is a short reference to the above in Redgrave's 'Bictionary of Artists of the English School ' (1874). H. B.
COWLEY'S POEMS SET TO Music (9 th S. viii. 16). This book, I think, must be very rare. [ have a copy, without title, and I have never seen another, with or without a title. E. L. may find one in the library of the Royal College of Music, and, failing that, will be most welcome to inspect my copy by ap- pointing a time. JULIAN MARSHALL. 13, Belsize Avenue, N. W.
THOMPSONS OF YORK (9 th S. vii. 468). A ufficient account of Edward Thompson, who
during twenty years, from 1722 to 1742, sat ? or York in four successive Parliaments, will >e found in % Parliamentary Representation f Yorkshire,' compiled by G. R. Park (1886).
On Thompson's election his vote became
worth purchasing, and, according to the cor- upt practice of the time, he was placed on he Irish establishment as Commissioner of he Revenue in Ireland, an appointment
which he held for seventeen years till his leath on 25 July, 1742; and he was honoured
- >y a seat in the Privy Council. Sir Henry
^hompson sat for York from 1674 till his
"eatli in 1683 ; and his son Henry Thompson,
who was returned in 1689, was Lord Mayor
