u
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XIL JULY 3, 1909.
GREEN DRAGON (10 S. xi. 129). As in
variably is the case with heraldic signs, the
colour (in this instance vert), is no mere
fancy of the sign artist, and furnishes an
important clue as to the origin of the
" Green Dragon," which, as well by its
colour vert as by its ubiquity in town
and country, may be recognized as the
badge of that celebrated nobleman and
sagacious statesman William Marshall, Ear
of Pembroke, Regent during the minority
of Henry III. It is, in fact/ so described in
a list of signs which had their origin in the
heraldic badges of the nobility, or of royalty,
compiled by Bagford in his MS. notes about
the art of printing (Harl. MSS., 5910, vol. ii.
p. 167). By his peaceful, but vigorous
administration in reducing the turbulent
barons to allegiance, the Earl of Pembroke
became extremely popular, the sagacity of
his statecraft filling England with wealth
and luxury, by her commerce with the south
of France (Strickland's ' Queens of England').
Probably the " dragon " is strictly a wyvern,
-a kind of flying serpent, the upper part
resembling a dragon, and the lower an adder
or snake, for the crest of the present Earl of
Pembroke is a wyvern, wings elevated, vert,
holding in the mouth a sinister hand, couped
at the wrist, gules. The Earl, however,
traces his descent from William Herbert
ap Thomas, who was advanced to the earl-
dom of Pembroke in the eighth year of
Edward IV., about 250 years after the three
years of the Regency of William Marshall,
Earl of Pembroke.
J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.
'THE DIABOLIAD,' BY WILLIAM COMBE
S. ix. 227; xi. 458). In case some
budding bibliographer should be led astray
J ? y n5i e Wel1 to record th t copies exist
Lb77, a printer's error for 1777. One
of these is in the writer's possession, with
the blank names identified. The name
' itzpatrick is added to the initial " F. on p. 3, line 14, in this exemplar. There
| no name blank (or annotation) on p 20 Possibly the Dublin edition was revised or
< T T her * ^ a . very interesting reference to
The Dmbohad L ' in a letter from George
Selwyn to Lord Carlisle, February, 1777-
see Hist. MSS. Com., Fifteenth Report,'
Appendix, Part VI. 320 : " The author
would,
very
much into question what he asserts with any
reasonable man. I do not know if you have
received this performance. If I thought you had
not, paltry as it is, I should send it to you. The
work I mean is called ' The Diaboliad.' His hero is
Lord Ernham [sic]. Lord Hertford and Lord
Beauchamp are the chief persons whom he loads
with his invectives. Lord Lyttleton [and] his
cousin Mr. Ascough are also treated with not much
levity ; Lord Pembroke with great familiarity, as
well as C. Fox ; and Fitzpatrick, although painted
in colours bad enough at present, is represented as
one whom in time the devil will lose for his disciple.
I am only attacked upon that trite and very foolish
opinion concerning le pene e le delitte led i delitti],
acknowledging [itj to proceed from an odd and
insatiable curiosity, and not from mauvais cceur. In
some places I think there is versification, and a few
good lines, and the piece seems to be wrote by one
not void of parts, but who with attention might
write much better.
"I forgive him his mention of me, because I believe that he does it without malice, but if I had leisure to think of such things, I must own the frequent repetition of the foolish stories would make me peevish. Alas, I have no time to be peevish."
Besides corroborating a large portion of the key that I have already inserted in ' N. & Q.' this letter is interesting because it gives Selwyn' s views with regard to the popular opinion that he was fond of attend- ing executions. Simon Luttrell, Baron Irn- ham, afterwards first Earl of Carhampton, the hero of ' The Diaboliad,' was, in con- sequence, known as the " King of Hell."
HORACE BLEACKLEY.
JOHN SLADE, DORSET (10 S. xi. 488). He was usher of Magdalen College School, Oxford, 1546-8 ; master 1548-9 ; ordained deacon in London April, 1554, being then M.A. ; the master of Bruton School before 1559 ; Rector of Clifton Maybank, Dorset, 1554 ; Vicar of Stogumber 1556-9 ; Rector of Thornford 1559 ; and of South Perrot 1561. He supplicated for the B.D. degree 2 Nov., 1570. (See Macray's ' Magd. Coll. Register,' ii. 88, 89 ; Frere's ' Marian Re- action,' p. 270.)
The Catholic martyr John Slade, who suffered at Winchester 30 Oct., 1583 (as to whom see Father Pollen's ' Acts of English Martyrs,' pp. 49-62 ; Cath. Rec. Soc. v. 8, 39, 48-50, 395), was taken in Dorsetshire, which was reported to be his native county. Was le a son of the Rector of South Perrot ?
JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.
For Matthew Slade see ' Diet. Nat. Biog.,' ii. 365. His elder brother Samuel (1568- 1612 ?) was M.A.Oxon. 1594, then Vicar >f Embleton, Northumberland, but re- igned the living to travel in search of MSS., ind died in Zante. Their mother was Joan
