Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/383

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

io» s. iv. OCT. 14.1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 317 said to be a fish of the shark kind; but in neither of these latter authorities is tintorera to be met with. ROBERT CRAWFORD. GEORGE BUCHANAN (10th S. iv. 147, 234).— There were, as MR. PIERPOINT surmises, two George Buchanans. The one was the poet and historian, who instilled scholarship into James I., and the other was the monarch's jester. Owing to the influence of chap-books, legends of the latter continue to float among the Scottish peasantry, and lie is the only George Buchanan of whom they have any knowledge. Even scholars, imperfectly in- formed, sometimes confound the activities of the two men. The following riddle on a bottle of ale perpetuates the jester's per- sonality among the schoolboys of to-day :— As I cam' ower Stirlin" brig I met in wi' George Buwhannan ; I took aff his head and drank his blude, AD' left his body stannin'. THOMAS BAYNE. In a note to ' The Household Book of the Lady Marie Stuart' (1815, p. 37), Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe observes :— "In the year 1637 professed fools were on the decline James the Sixth, besides Archie and George Buchanan the historian, whom vulgar tra- dition classes with these sages, possessed another fool, David Drummond." R. L. MOEBTON. THE ORIGIN OF ' SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER ' (10th S. iv. 261).—Excepting the substitution of " Fetherston " for " Featherston " as the name of Mr. Hardcastle's prototype, there is nothing new in MR. EDWARD MANSION'S communication. Goldsmith's juvenile blunder and the trick played upon him by Lord Clare's daughter are mentioned by most biographers. As regards the former, how- ever, MR. MANSON will be able to correct some of his details by a reference to Forster's admirable' Life and Times of Oliver Gold- smith,' bk. i. ch. i. E. RIMBAULT DIBDIN. DUDLEY ARMS (10th S. iv. 230).—The efforts •which Sir Robert Dudley made to prove his legitimacy as son of Robert Dudley, Earl Ot Leicester, would certainly not afford any ground for supposing that he repudiated, o'r . ..-ii modified, the arms of his father, although -1 je latter used to speak of him as his " base son." The son's arms were probably there- fore identical with those of his father, who, on his appointment by Elizabeth to the governorship of the Low Countries, gave a Significant indication of his ambitious cha- racter by relinquishing his own crest of the lion with two tails, and signing all with the more ancient one of the bear and staff, to which he was entitled through deriving his pedigree from the illus- trious Earls of Warwick. Now when Sir Robert Dudley was outlawed and went to Florence, he tnere assumed the title of Earl of Warwick, and it is highly probable that he also adopted the bear and staff of his ancestors as arms, badge, or crest. The green lion with two tails, quartered with the bear and staff, may be seen carved in the very interesting and artistically executed device of John Dudley, the grandfather of Sir Robert, on the right of the fireplace in the Beauchamp Tower of the Tower of London. J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL. The following is from 'A Help to English History,' by P. Heylyn, D.D., London, 1680: " A.D. 1551. John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, and Lord Admiral, Duke of Northumberland, beheaded by Queen Mary. O. a Lyon Ram- pant, az., double quivee, vert." MONKBARNS. 'THE FIRST EARRING' (10th S. iv. 228).— This painting by Sir David Wilkie, which now hangs in the Tate Gallery, Westminster, represents, I believe, certain members of the Bedford family in the reign of William IV. It is, I should say, a study in expression, that on the child's face being divided between a natural fear of the operation which she is about to undergo, and a pleased anticipation of wearing the jewels which are seen in the elder lady's lap. But in my opinion, although the phrase "ilfaut souffrir pour etre belle" may justly be applied to the pain of ear- boring, it is even more applicable to the suffering endured by those who strive to acquire a slim waist or small feet by artificial means. By the way, your correspondent would, perhaps, like to know that a rather clever little poem descriptive of Sir D. Wilkie's picture appeared in The Lady a few years ago. F. W. WATTS. ROBERT HARLEY, EARL OF OXFORD (10th S. iv. 206).—'D.N.B.,'vol. xxxvi. p. 410, says: "The actual relationship, however, between Robert Harley, first Earl of Oxford, and Abigail Hill has never been discovered." The Duchess of Marlborough asserted that her aunt, Mrs. Hill, told her that " her hus- band was in the same relation to Mr. Harley as she was to me." Nathaniel (1665-1720), third son of Sir Edward Harley, and younger brother of Oxford, was a merchant. A. R. BAYLEY. " PICCANINNY" (10th S. iv. 27,128, 255).—At the last reference it is suggested that we