NOTES AND QUERIES.
481
8cutum=a> shield. Parker, in his 'Glossary
of Terms ' (architectural), says " scpinson " is
an old word for the angles of buildings or
parts of buildings, such as window jambs :
and under ' Sconce ' remarks that small
arches or projecting courses of stone formed
across angles of towers, &c., in Gothic ar-
chitecture to support the alternate sides of
octagonal spires, &c., above are so called.
He adds that the corresponding word among
French stonemasons is trompe.
HARRY HEMS. Fair Park, Exeter.
[Many other replies are acknowledged.]
POET'S IMMORTALITY PREDICTED BY HIMSELF (9 th S. iii. 84 ; iv. 33, 172, 507). Was Cowper one of the poets who predicted that his fame would long survive him 1 A morning paper, on the occasion of his centenary, has credited him with thus doing ; but it must be ad- mitted that the poet, if he did so, put forth his claim in a very modest fashion. The following is the passage :
Posterity will ask (If e'er posterity see verse of mine) Some fifty or an hundred lustrums hence, What was a monitor in George's days ?
- The Time-Piece.'
It may be noted that Milton hints at a similar distinction in a like unassuming manner :
Forsitan et nostros ducat de mar more yultus Nectens aut Paphia myrti aut Parnasside lauri Fronde comas. At ego secura pace quiescam.
Milton, in 'Manso.' Which Cowper translates :
Me too, perchance, in future days, The sculptured stone shall show, With Paphian marble or with bays Parnassian on my brow.
But I, or ere that season come,
Escaped from every care, Shall reach my refuge in the tomb And sleep securely there.
T. P. ARMSTRONG. Timperley.
'THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN' (9 th S. v. 415). This poem appeared in the Times of 4 February, 1899. I enclose a copy, to which A. P. is welcome. W. S.
[Many similar replies and copies of the poem acknowledged.]
G. E. DE CARDONNEL (9 th S. v. 247). In all probability this was George Rice Trevor, fourth Lord Dynevor, born in 1795, died in 1869. An old contemporary of his at Westminster School told me that he was then called Mr. De Cardonnel. He figures as the nobleman amongst the academical por-
traits in Ackermann's * Oxford,' published in
1814. See ' N. & Q.,' 5 th S. x. 18, for a note on
this subject. He was buried in a mortuary
chapel which he had constructed at Bromharn
Church, near Bedford, a parish of which I
once was curate. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.
Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.
" LA FE ENDR^CZA AL SOBEIRAN BEN "
(9 th S. v. 187, 258, 421). In my query the word sobieran was a misprint ; it is sobeiran on the seal. My thanks are due for the replies, especially to the REV. PROF. SKEAT, who confirms my surmise as to the language being Provencal. I should like to have seen endrycza settled, but, in addition to the probability of a provincialism, there is the chance of there being an engraver's mistake.
CHEVRON.
THE KINGSTON CORONATION STONE (9 th S. v. 391). Whilst archaeologists are endeavouring to find evidence of the uses to which this stone may have been put, it might be well if geologists examined the stone itself. I lay no claim to be a geologist, but I am familiar with the large sandstone boulders which occur here and there on, or imme- diately below, the surface of the London clay in Middlesex, and which are considered to be the relics of some formation that once covered the London clay, and was removed, perhaps by glacial, at any rate by some agency. I have not been able to examine the Kingston stone carefully, but on a super- ficial glance it has so much of the appearance of one of the boulder stones to which I have referred, that I fully expect that on examination it will prove to be one. Possibly the London Stone in Cannon Street may be of similar origin, but it is so begrimed that it is not easy to form an opinion.
The usually stoneless character of the London clay causes the more attention to be paid to these boulders when they are found. They are occasionally used as mounting blocks for the convenience of riders. Of course they must not be confounded with the Septaria stones which are familiar to every metropolitan geologist.
MAXWELL T. MASTERS.
LIFE IN SOUTH AMERICAN REPUBLICS (9 th S. v. 396). During the last few months of 1896 several articles were published in the Revue des Deux Mondes bearing the title 'Chili et Bolivie.' The writer had visited these countries mainly with a view to in- specting the mines there, and though mines and metals are the subjects which he treats most fully, yet he manages at the same time to give many picturesque descriptions of the
