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NOTES AND QUERIES.
[2nd s. NO 25.. JUNE 21. '66.
cannot but think that, for the feelings of the old
servant who exhibits the spots, it would be the
" unkindest cut of all " to refuse credence to the
story. Indeed, a hint at paint offends him as
much as it might have offended a belle passee of the
last century. T. H. P.
Mignonette the Badge of the Counts of Saxony (2 nd S. i. p. 454.) In reply to D. L. I send you the legend from Mrs. Loudon's Ladies' 1 Flower Garden of Ornamental Annuals, which she took from a little work called Le Langage des Flours. The Count Walsthein was paying his addresses to a beautiful heiress, who trifled with his affections, and who had a dependent cousin secretly in love with the count. One evening, while walking in the garden, the ladies each chose a flower, and the heiress gaily challenged the count to write the description of each in one line. She had chosen a wild rose, and the count, who had been piqued by her numerous flirtations, wrote,
" Charming, but evanescent."
The cousin had chosen mignonette, and the count's motto for this flower was,
" Your qualities surpass your charms."
The legend adds, that the count married the cousin, and in compliment to her inserted the mignonette in his coat of arms. (j ASTROS.
The Reader's Maxim (2 nd S. i. 19. 375.) If J. K. will consult Byrom's poems, he will find the passage he requires. The advice which Byrom gives is most valuable ; and public speakers would do well to read and study with attention the directions which the poet gives. CLERIC us (D.)
Matthew Buchinger (2 nd S. i. 429.) It is sur- prising what things are brought to light by " N. & Q." I have a good specimen of the writing and drawing of the above remarkable character of the date 1717, and it quite bears out G. N.'s descrip- tion of it, to whom I should be happy to show it (should he wish it), and have left a note for him at the publishers. J. W.
" A sunbeam passes through pollution unpolluted " (2 nd S. i. 114. 304. 442.) S. Augustine, I be- lieve, is the originator of this idea. It occurs in his Works (in Joan. tr. 4.), where he says :
" Lux, etsi per immunda transeat, non inquinatur."
ALFRED T. LEE.
Tetbury, Gloucestershire.
" Holly, the only indigenous Evergreen " (2 nd S. i. 443.) I should perhaps have said that the holly was the only indigenous evergreen tree, for of such small plants as spurge laurel, butchers' broom, gorse, and ivy, I did not intend to speak. The yew and box have, I believe, been proved to be imported trees. It is true, on congenial soils
they grow freely from the seed; but of the yew the
first specimens, probably, yet remain planted singly
in churchyards, and the box, with only one or two
exceptions, remains to this day the inhabitant of
the garden only. I maintain, therefore, I was
right in calling the holly our only indigenous ever-
green, to the exclusion especially of the yew and
box.
For further information on this subject I beg to refer MR. FRERE to some papers in the Gent. Mag., written by my grandfather under the sig- nature T. H. W., in the years 1784, pp. 21. and 970.; 1786, p. 940.; 1787, p. 666.
A. HOLT WHITE.
Popular Names for Live Stock (2 nd S. i. 416.) Is MR. STEPHENS sure that a three times shorn ewe is a twinter ? In the North of England we apply the term to two year old cattle, and it is supposed to be a contraction of two winter. We don't say a quey, but a why or wye calf, and a dry cow is a drape. In Craven they call a colt a stagg, and a pony a highty. P. P.
Ancient Origin of Phrases now in Common Use (2 nd S. i. 283.) With the expression " If the sky were to fall we should catch larks," cf. Ter. Heuut. iv. 3. 41. : Quid si ? Redeo ad illos qui aiunt : Quid si ccdum ruat ? P. J. F. GANTILLON.
Chalices (2 nd S. i. 211.) Some ten years since there was a Mr. Edward Edwards, in Shrews- bury, who had the glass " cup " which was for- merly in use in Battlefield Church. How it came into his possession I do not know. My impres- sion, however, is, that he obtained it for a mere nothing.
Perhaps some of your numerous subscribers and readers are acquainted with this gentleman ; if so, would they use their influence to induce him to present it to the authorities of Lichfield Cathe- dral for safe and proper keeping ?
H. AP ADAM.
Urceola elastica, SfC. (2 nd S. i. 454.) MR. HANCOCK will find a figure of Urceola elastica of Roxburgh, in that author's Asiatic Researches, and another in Wight's Icones, t. 473.
Siphonia Cahuchu, Richard, which is the Jatro- pha elastica of Linnseus and the Hevea gujanensis of Aublet is figured in Aublet's Guyana, t. 335.
R. H.
Kensington.
Hangman Stones (2 nd S. i. 282. 402. 435.) At a picturesque angle in the road betwixt Sheffield and Barnsley, and about three miles south of the latter place, there is. a toll-bar called " Hangman- Stone Bar." Attached to this title is the usual legend of a sheep-stealer being strangled by the kicking animal, which he had slung across his shoulders, and which pulled him backwards, as he
