146
NOTES AND QUERIES. tn s. i. FEB. 19, 1910.
as has arisen from not perceiving this results
in a flaw to the verse ; and the latter, owing
to its fragmentary quality, is far less able
to bear that kind of flaw than a complete
poem would be. L. KREBS.
" MORAL POCKETHANDKERCHIEFS.'* (See 9 S. v. 147, 423.) An article upon ' My New Dickens Discoveries,* by Mr. C. Van Noor- den, w^hich appeared in The Evening News for 1 Nov., 1909, thus concluded :
" What I have not yet found is a ' moral pockethandkerchief.' I have advertised and in- quired everywhere without result, but I yet live in hope of one day discovering one."
The writer is evidently not a student of
- N. & Q.,' or he would have found himself
supplied with the desired information at 9 S. v. 423 ; and there can now be added the fact that "political pockethandkerchief s" were in use as recently as the general election just past. The London correspondent of the Birmingham Daily Post noted on 31 December that
" in the shops one meets with Free Trade and Tariff Reform handkerchiefs, sprinkled with suitable mottoes, and calculated to inspire confi- dence when flourished before the eyes of an astonished electorate."
POLITICIAN.
HERTFORDSHIRE PARISH REGISTERS. For purposes of reference I have prepared an Index Nominum to Mr. W. P. W. Philli- more's second volume of Hertfordshire Marriage Registers, comprising the parishes of Ardeley, Bennington, Datch worth, Grave - ley, Knebworth, Shephall, Walkern and Watton. This index is freely at the service of any one calling, or inquiries will be .answered if a stamped addressed envelope is enclosed. W. B. GERISH.
Bishop's Stortford.
MOCK COAT OF ARMS. It is a not un- oommon thing nowadays to devise coats of arms for satirical purposes, such as those contributed to Punch some years ago by Mr. E. T. Reed. I have recently come across a seventeenth -century example of this form of wit, which will probably interest not a few readers of ' N. & Q. 1 It occurs in the commonplace book of Sir J. Gibson, a Royalist prisoner in Durham Castle under the Commonwealth (Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 37719, f. 212b). It reads as follows : The Coate of Armes of Sir John Presbeters Church.
She beares partie parpale indented Gods glory, and his owne interest, over all honor, profitt, pleasure counterchanged, ensigned with a helmet of Ignorance ; opened with confidence befittinge her degree ; mantled with Gules and
Tyrany, dubled with hipocrasie, over a wreatli
of pride and covetousnes. For her Crest, a
sinister hand holdinge up a solemne league and
Covenant, reverst and torne in a Scrowle : and
vnderneath the sheild these Word es for her Motto,
Aut hoc aut nihil.
This Coate of Armes is Impanelled with another of fower peices, signify eing thereby his fewer Matches.
The first is of the familie of Amsterdam ; She beares for her Armes in a field of Tolleration, three Jewes heads proper, with as many blew Capps in them.
The second is of the house of Genera ; She beares for her armes in a field of Separation marginall notes, and the Bible false quoted.
The third of the Countrey of new England ; She beares for her Armes a prick-eard preach-man, pearcht vpon a pulpit proper ; holding forth to the people a Schismaticall Directory.
The fourth and last is Scotland ; She beares in her Schuceon [sic], the field of Rebellion, charged with the Stoule of Repentance.
H. I. B.
" PLOUGH INN " AT LONGHOPE. On this inn sign, at the east end of the village of Long-hope, Glos., are the following inscrip- tions-. The house is situated at the foot of a hill. On one side the sign is :
Before the hill you do get up,
Stop and take a cheerful cup.
On the other side :
Down this hill, all danger's past ; Stop and take a cheerful glass.
The words " cup " and
sented by drawings.
glass " are repre-
R, B R.
BIRCH TREE FOLK-LORE. The subjoined
cutting from The Scotsman of 23 Oct., 1909,
may be thought worthy of preservation in
' N. & Q. 1 :
" Legendary Lore of the Birch. The silvery bark of this, our most beautiful, tree has attracted notice from the earliest times, for the birch tree is literally the bark tree. The Northern Europeans and the North American Indians made canoes of the bark, which is more durable than the wood ; and Hiawatha chants an invocation to the tree ere he strips it for his little bark. This word ' bark,' as applied to a boat, dates back to those days when birch bark, split in lengths, was lashed together to form a rather sketchy Dreadnought. Another interesting memento of the birch tree is the name ' Birch-legs,' applied to a political faction in Norway, the members of which wore greaves of the bark, a practice not uncommon in that country. The fragrance of a birch wood reminds us that it is to the oil contained in this tree that Russian leather owes its characteristic scent. Still another use of birch twigs is noted by Hugh Miller, who tells us that in the north of Scotland they were plaited to form both horse and ox harness.
" An old Scottish superstition has it that this tree grew at the gate of heaven, and allusions to this are found in some of our old ballads. The sudden appearance of any one adorned with a sprig of birch carried a dread significance of but
