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The stone upon which this device is found is in the old Grey Friars' burial ground at Perth, bearing this inscription-Heir lyis ane

ARMOURERS' ARMORIAL INSIGNIA.

The original seal of the Company of Armourers, is of the time of King Henry the Sixth. The matrix of silver

KD Honorabil Woman Helena Colt is still in the possession of the Company, but has long

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quha dyit 8 Iunii, 1618. In conclusion I may observe that the merchants in large manufacturing towns were not the only parties in Scotland who used these marks. I have seen them in many country churchyards and villages, mostly similar in design to this, which is quite a common device, and is from a stone in memory of Alexander Buchan, a burgess of Perth, who died in 1758. In the village of Dunblane, in Perthshire, many of the old houses have these marks over the door, with the initials of the owner of the house and those of his wife, with sometimes the words:

WE LOVE EQUITY.

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A. J.

Early in the last century there were but few newspapers printed, and their place was frequently supplied by what were then designated News Letters,' of one sheet folio; hence also much of the correspondence between private individuals, contained more generally particulars of passing events than are now detailed in letters of our time. In one from a William Pearse in the metropolis, to his sister Mrs. Elizabeth Pearse at Ashburton, in Devonshire, are the following particulars of a disastrous fire in Lower Thames Street, of which a contemporary printed account may almost be looked for in vain.

London, Jan. 20, 1714-15.

This day sennight att evening, broke out a dreadfull Fire near the Custome house, by the accidental blowing up of a house where was great quantity of gun-powder, and the fire burned exceeding fierce till near noon next day, notwithstanding all methods used to extinguish it both by engines and blowing up of houses to prevent its spreading. About one hundred stately brick houses are now only heaps of rubbish, and multitudes of Warehouses and others of merchants goods are consumed to the value of many hundred thousand pounds, and which is worse many scores of men, women, and children, have lost their lives. Abundance that I know, their houses are in ashes; the Custom House escaped, notwithstanding the fire reached to the very walls of it, and did some damage although it was a very dark night, yet the air seemed on fire, so that a pin might have been taken up many miles from hence.

since ceased to be used. In the field, St. George the Patron Saint of the Armourers, is represented piercing the Dragon with his spear. Two helmets respecting each other are placed, one on either side of the saint, and beneath each helmet, is a shield, the dexter charged with two swords in saltire; the sinister with a plain cross. The legend-SIGILLY' COMVNE ARTIS ARMVRARIO' CIVITATIS LONDON EA'.

In the Court Minute Book of the Company of Armourers, dated October 7, 1556, is an entry entitled-for the renewing of a letter patent of the Armes of our Companye, which notices the fact that the Master and one of the Wardens had been with the Chief King of Arms, and appointed him to make new Arms and Crest according unto our Arte and Mysterie,' for the sum of five pounds. The grant has never been printed, and is here submitted, from the original record.

hering, or seyng, THOMAS HAWLEY alias Clarencieulx, principall herauld and kyng of Armes of the Sowthe, Easte and Weste partes of this realme of Englande, from the Ryver of Trente sowthwarde, sendeth dew and humble commendacion and gretyng.

To all Nobles and Gentills these presente Letters reding,

Equite willeth and Reason ordeyneth that men vertuous and of Noble courage be by theire Merytes and good Reuoronce had in perpetuall memorye, And forasmuch as I the saide Clarencieulx, am surely enformed and understande for certeyne, that euery crafte of corporacion within this moste noble Citye of London doo compasse studye and deuyse with all theire dilligence, and namely such persons as haue in them a gentle and noble harte ar as compelled thereunto by very course of nature to seke the moste conuenient and laudable wayes to them possible to exalte and preferre theire saide Crafte, Mystereye, and Occupacion to thentent that and Occupacion through theire vertuous and commendable euerye person entryng or commyng into theire saide Mysterie disposition shulde effectually enforce and geue themselves towardes the maintenaunce, supportacion and long contynuance of the same to the laude and prayse of Allmightie God, and to the honor of the Kynge and Quenes Majesties, ouor Souereynes, and of this moste noble Citye of London.

Therefore in following the saide laudable wayes there hath ben with me the forsaide Clarencieulx, certeyne of the worshipfull companye the Maister and Wardeyns of the Fraternitye or Guylde of St. George, of the men of the Mystery of Armerors, of the Citye of London, that is to wete, WILLIAM GONN, at this presente tyme_beyng Maister; and ROGER TYNDALL and THOMAS BRUCE, Wardeyns of the same, instantly Requyrng me for that there hath ben of long tyme belongyng to theire saide Fraternitie and Mystery the token of honor, that is to saye Armes.

Neuertheles, they being uncerteine under what sorte and maner theire predecessors bare the same, with the dew difference, haue desyered me the saide Clarencieulx to ordeyn, assign and set furth theire Armes and Creste with a dew difference lawefully to be borne.

I therefore consideryng theire Request to be bothe juste

and resonable, and also the more worthier by reason of the Liberties and Aunciennitie of theire Corporacion graunted unto them by the most famous prynce Kyng Henry the Syxte of famous memorye by thauctoritie and power annexed attributed geuen and graunted to me and to my office of Clarencieulx Kyng of Armes, by expresse wordes under the most noble grete Seale, haue ratified, confirmed, assigned and set furthe to the hole bodye of the Fraternitie, Mysterie and Corporacion, the Armes and Creste with the dew difference in maner as hereafter foloweth, that is saye-Siluer, on a chevron sable, a attoney gauntelet betwene fower swordes in sawltere siluer, porfled, pomeled and hilted gold, on a chef sable in a plate betwene two helmetts siluer, garnyshed golde, a playne crosse gules. Upon the healme, on a Torse siluer and sable, a demy Man of Armes armed siluer, open faced porfled golde, holdyng in his hande a Mace of Warre, mantelled geules, dobled siluer, as more plainly apereth depicted in this margente.

To haue and to holde to all the hole bodye of the saide Fraternitie, Mysterie and Corporacion, and to theire successors in the same, and they it to use and enioye for euer

more.

In wittnes wherof I the saide Clarencieulx haue signed these presentes with my hande, and sete thereunto the Seale of my Armes, with the Seale of my Office of Clarencieulx Kyng of Armes.

Geuen and graunted at London the xvth daye of October, in the thirde and fowrthe yeres of the reignes of our Souereynes Phillip and Marye, by the grace of God, Kyng and Quene of Euglande, Spayne, Fraunce, both Sicilles, Jeru salem and Irelande, defendors of the faithe; archedukes of Austria, Dukes of Bourgundie, Myllayn, and Brabant, Counties of Hauspurg, Flandres and Tyroll.

PAR MOY CLARCOEULX ROY D'ARMES. 1556. Hawley's grant or confirmation of these arms to the Company of Armourers, has a richly floriated border on the top and both sides; in the centre (at the top) is a Tudor rose surmounted by a crown or, between two fleur-de-lis or.

The initial letter is richly illuminated, having within it Clarencieux in his tabard, etc. The armorial bearings of the Company are emblazoned on the dexter side.

To the grant are appended two seals, one bearing a plain shield charged with the arms of Thomas Hawley, a saltire engrailed. The other, the official seal of Hawley as Clarencieux king of Arms, with the legend— S. OFFICII CLARENCIAVX R. ARMORVM PT. AVSTRAL.

Arms; St. George's cross, in dexter corner a fleur-delis; and on a chief, a lion passant gardant. Subsequently, on the occasion of the uniting of the Company of Armourers, with the Braziers, the Master and Wardens again conferred with the Heralds' College, as appears from the following minute in their records : Feb. 28, 1708-9. The Master and Wardens are desired to treat and agree with the King at Arms for a new Coat Company of Armourers, and that a Common Seal be made thereupon at as reasonable a price as they can procure the

of Arms for the Braziers upon their being united to this

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ORIGINAL COMPILER OF ENGLISH BARONETAGE.

In Moule's Bibliotheca Heraldica, are some passing notices of the editions of the Genealogical and Historical Accounts of the English Baronetage, 1727 and 1741, both being ascribed in the main to the publisher, Thomas Wotton, at the Three Daggers and Queen's Head, against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet Street; but the work appears to have been commenced many years prior, by the Rev. William Holman, of Halstead, in Essex, as the following letter will determine :

Honored Sir,-As there is now preparing for the Press a Genealogical History of the Baronets of England, I doubt not but as you have the Honour to be of the Order, so you will take care to have the Memoirs of your Family inserted. I think that all persons who have any Manuscripts by them relating thereunto ought to encourage so laudable a Designe.

This is my case who am under a double obligation of promoting it, not only as a lover of Antiquities, but as having married a gentlewoman of your family. I have lived for several years at Halstead, in Essex, and have made it my business to collect whatever I could meet with of the Fitches family, and I think I may say, without vanity, that I know more of it than any gentleman in England, especially since it hath been fixed in Essex.

I should be very glad to know from what branch of the Fitches you are descended; I find the first of the family at Linsell in this county, and at Bumsted, Danbury, Bocking, Twinsted, and several other places, for about three hundred years past, and they had formerly two coats of arms with some little difference.

I should be very ambitious of surving you and illustrating your family; I hope you will excuse this interruption from, Sir, Your most humble servant, WILLIAM HOLMAN.

December 11, 1711.

I have some designe to publish the History of Hinckford Hundred, a worthy Gent. Mr. Morley of Halstead (my very good friend) will inform you farther.

Addressed-For Sir Comport Fitche, Bart., to be left for him at Madame Outram's, at her house in Old Palace Yard, att Westminster.

CREATION OF PEERS FOR LIFE.

family of Gardner, Lord Gardner, Brydges' Collins, 1812, A correspondent who refers to the pedigree of the vol. ix. pp. 381-384; repeats for solution in Current Notes, the query of G. H. W., in the Gentleman's Gardner has become extinct, though the late Viscount Magazine, April, 1823, p. 290, why the Viscounty of Gardner, was gazetted Sept. 30, 1815, Viscount Gardner, left legitimate male issue. Alan Hyde, second Baron and died Dec. 27, in that year. His son, Alan Legge, succeeded to the baronial honour only. Two reasons have been assigned as probable, viz., either that Lord Gardner died before the completion of the patent of the Viscounty, or else, that he was created Viscount without any remainder; the latter supposition seems warranted on reference to the gazette of 1815.

The recent discovery in Lincoln Cathedral library of a French Psalter printed in 1546, with the grand musical notes to the old Hundredth Psalm, has disposed of the long disputed question whether Purcell who died in 1695, or Handel who died in 1759, was the composer. The music in the old psalter being precisely as it is now sung is sufficient argument against the supposed claims of either of these distinguished masters, to one of whom the composition has long been attributed.

JACK AND THE BEAN-STALK.

For eleven Cock Turkeys and Sauce.
For eight Chines, Sauce and dressing
For twelve Geese and Sauce.
For twelve Dishes of Mincepyes
For eleven Custards and Florindines.

For three Dishes of Chickens, three each
For nine Dishes of Rabitts, two each
For nine Dishes of Chickens, two each
For twelve Large Pippin Tarts*.
For the Musicks Dinner

Can you help me to information on the History of For Wood and Coales that notable tale of Jack and the Bean-stalk?

Hull, Dec. 27.

HENRY S. BRIGHT.

Jack, commonly called the Giant-killer and Tom Thumb landed in England, from the very same keels and war ships which conveyed hither Hengist and Horsa, and Ebba the Saxon; but for further information respecting Jack, who after all was an unprincipled young dog,' our correspondent is referred to an admirable article on the Antiquities of Nursery Literature, in the Quarterly Review, May 1819.

DERIVATION OF THE TERM COWARD.

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At a recent meeting of the British Archæological Association, Mr. Carrington communicated some remarks on the derivation of the word Coward,' and deduced it from an occupation in former days of much importance, namely, a Cowherd, one having charge of the cattle; as no report of the transactions of the Association, that I have seen, contains even a synopsis of Mr. Carrington's paper, I cannot of course say how far I might agree with that gentleman's philological deductions; but I am inclined to differ with Mr. Carrington on Cow-herd,' the derivation he has adopted. I would rather be of opinion that Coward,' is derived from Cow-heart, as a term of reproach for the absence of either moral or physical courage. Indeed, I once heard a gentleman of Cheshire, say that he was not Cow-hearted.'

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Downpatrick.

·

JAMES A. PILSON.

BARBERS AND SURGEONS BANQUETS.

The following brief notices may serve as mementoes of Civic Festivities, a century since, but their apparent simplicity would not now be deemed satisfactory to the members of the Company, who amid the blandishments of modern refinements, seem delighted to partake of dishes, the viands of which are disguised under foreign appellations of no meaning, and of sounds solely calculated to tickle the ear of the unwary. They are printed from the original bills.

The Dinner on the Lord Mayor's Day, Octob. 29, 1742, for the Worshipfull Company of Barbers and Surgeons.

For seventeen Dishes of Fowles, Oysters,
Sauceages and Bacon

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For three Large Sir Loynes of Beef
For eleven Tongues, eleven Udders

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for James Horsley.

The Dinner for the Court of Assistance and there
Ladys, att Barbers and Surgeons Hall, July 19th, 1744.
Eight Turbot, Soles, with Lobster and Shrimps.
Seven Dishes of Venison.
Three Hams.

Two Sr. Loynes of Beef.

Seven Dishes of Boyld fowles, three each.
Seven Marrow Puddings.

Ten Dishes of Ducks, two each.
Eight dishes of Turkey Pouts, two each.
Eight Dishes of Green Peas.
Seven Coldling Tarts, Cream".
The Musickes Dinner.
Wood and Coales.

Cooks and Laborers.

Agreed for Twenty Nine pounds. Marrow-puddings, which have sent many a Citizen to his last home, seem here to be an advance of refinement upon the former bill of fare.

Pippins were formerly in the City in high vogue. The Rev. A. B. Suter, in his recently printed interesting paper entitled, 'The Worthies of St. Dunstan's, Fleet Street,' discovered among other causes of popularity which attended the honest, gentle and courteous William Stampe, Clarke of that parish church, whose burial is noticed in the register, March 6, 1643-4; an item in his bill for wages and other dues, due to him at Midsummer, 1637 For two hundred and fifty Pippins for perambulation day 070 Which charge it appears the churchwardens did not object to pay.

Gay, too, in his Trivia, printed in 1716, pathetically deplores among the vicissitudes caused by the breaking up of the ice on the Frozen Thames, the fate of Doll the Pippinwoman, who passing from booth to booth, the ice broke while she was crying Pippins, and she slipped in; in the fall her head was struck off, and as it flew with velocity above the surface the quivering lips repeated in accents 8 Soft as the breath of distant flutes; 1 6 1 16 0 the abbreviated pip, pip, pip, till lost in the distance, 360 was hushed for ever her swan-song or dying note.

TOUCHING FOR THE KING'S EVIL.

Stow in his Survey of London, notices among the

When began the practice of touching for the King's monuments formerly in St. Botolph's Church, BillingsEvil, and by whom was it discontinued?

Salisbury, Jan. 14.

M. V.

Dr. Paris, in the Historical Introduction to his Pharmacologia, 1822, p. 27, states-Edward the Confessor was the first English King who touched for the Evil, and the foolish superstition has been wisely laid aside, ever since the accession of the House of Hanover. The deceptions generally practised on these occasions are also exposed by that late eminent physician.

SURNAMES ENDING IN WELL.'

The study of the derivation of names will admit of much interesting conjecture and research, notwithstanding Dean Swift has advanced some amusing speculations on this subject. For instance, he says, the king of Macedon being very partial to roasted eggs, his servants when they saw him returning homeward, called lustily to the cook to have all eggs under the grate,' thence his name of Alexander the Great; and that his horse Bucephalus was so named from the number of grooms who assiduously surrounded the animal, and thus obtained the appellation of 'busy fellows.'

In answer to Mr. Langmead's enquiries, Current Notes, p. 101, the instances there given prove that many names since the Conquest have become altered in their terminations from 'ville' to well.' In support of Verstegan's statement respecting some names ending in 'well,' having been assumed by our ancestors from their residing in the neighbourhood of a well, the following extract from Blomefield, will I think account for the origin of one of the names enumerated by your correpondent.

While noticing St. Anne's chapel, in the south aisle of the parish church of Fersfield, he observes—

The windows of the aisle, and in particular the east window of the chapel, were formerly beautifully adorned with paintings on glass, of the Twelve Apostles, the Blessed Virgin, and St. Anne her mother, to whom the chapel was dedicated. She had a famous image standing in it, and a large gild kept to her honour, to which most who died in this and the adjacent towns generally gave something, and often left money to find wax candle and lights to be continually burning before it. From this place processions were usually made to a well or spring at the foot of the hill, about sixty yards from the north gate of the church yard, which is still called Tann's Well, being a corruption of St.

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gate, one to William Rainwell, fishmonger, and John Rainwell his son, fishmonger, Mayor in 1426, and who on his decease in 1445, bequeathed large possessions to the Commonalty of London. The derivation of this name would seem to be sufficiently clear.

Howell at the close of his Familiar Letters, the whole of which are fictitious, having been fabricated by him, while confined in the Fleet prison for debt, has the following:

gLorIa LaVs Deo sæCV LorVM In sæCVLa sVnto. a Doxological Chronogram including the present year 1655, and hath numeral letters enough to extend to the year nineteen hundred and twenty-seven, if it please God the world should last so long.

KENTISH EPITAPHS.

In this County are the following Epitaphs, if sufficiently amusing perhaps you will insert them. Rochester, Jan. 17. F. M. WEBB. Epicedium on a Blacksmith, in Aylesbury church

yard.

RICHARD AUSTIN,

Died August, 1745, Aged 36 years.

My Sledge and Hammer lyes declind,
My Bellows too have lost their wind,
My Fire's extinct, my Forge decaid
And in the dust my Vice is laid.
My Coal is spent, my Iron's gone,

My Naills are drove, my Work is done.

In Frindsbury church yard, near Rochester, are the following lines on Geratt Pearson, who departed this life August 28, 1801. Also of Alexander Norwood, aged twenty-three years.

Tho' in the waters, our lives we left,

The Lord has spar'd our bodies to the dust,
Those two bright youth's was dutiful son's,
Alas! how soon their glass was run.

MODERN ANTIQUITIES.-Flint arrow heads when found are considered of very remote antiquity, but at a recent meeting of the society of Antiquaries, a letter was read from Mr. W. A. Franks, accompanying various flint arrow heads, the fabrications of a man in the East Riding of Yorkshire; who had also made combs, fishhooks, and other objects in flint, imposing them as the rude productions of days long since passed. J. A. P.

The Sixth volume of Current Notes, with Index, in extra cloth boards, uniform with the prior volumes, may now be had, price THREE SHILLINGS.

Subscribers are respectfully reminded that their subscriptions for the forthcoming twelve months, which are now due, can be forwarded in Postage Stamps.

WILLIS'S CURRENT NOTES.

No. LXXIV.]

"Takes note of what is done-
By note, to give and to receive."-SHAKESPEARE.

SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIES UNDER WILLIAM III.

On Nov. 13, 1690, a Commission was appointed by the General Assembly, for visiting the whole Presbyteries of the North side of the Tay, etc. In reference to that visitation the following hitherto unpublished letter from Major General Hugh Mackay, of Scourie, the well known Commander of the Forces in Scotland under King William III.; distinguished not only by his personal piety, but by his attachment to the Presbyterian faith; addressed to Ludovick Grant of that ilk, a member of the Scottish Privy Council, and one of the powerful and zealous supporters of the Presbyterian interest in the north, will doubtless be read with much interest for the developement it affords on the comparative strength of religious parties in Scotland at the period of the Revolution. It is dated at London, Dec. 4, 1690, and proceeds thus

Continue in your zeal for the Government, and I exhort you to study moderation in your present commission, which will do the Presbyterian interest more good than men generally there are aware of. The King's intentions are certainly to maintain that government, as the fittest for that nation; but it is also his earnest desire that it may be made as supportable to those who seem to dissent from it, that even they may fall in liking with it, and so the Kingdom become one body, which surely is the likeliest way for the subsistence of that which is so newly established. Many are of opinion that you, Brody, Foulis, and Grange, being upon that northern commission, nothing is to be expected but severity; but I am sure that no man who will duly weigh all circumstances but will confess with me, that, humanly, the standing of that government doth consist in the making it supportable to the King and Kingdom. For, let men flatter themselves as they will, I tell you, who know Scotland, and where the strength and weakness of it doth lie, that, if I were as much an enemy to that interest as I am a friend, I would without difficulty engage to form in Scotland a more formidable party against it, even for their Majestys' Government, than can be formed for it. I therefore pray

you gentlemen, take a friendly advertisement, and let your zeal be tempered with prudence, for no man in England or Scotland can judge of your circumstances better than myself.

[FEBRUARY, 1857.

ST. PETER'S CHURCH, DORCHESTER.

I observe announced in the newspapers the death of the talented water-colour artist, Mr. Frederick Nash; and in the Art Journal, for February, we are favoured with a very interesting biographical sketch of him. In 1802, Mr. Nash painted a view of St. Peter's Church, with the Market House, etc., in Dorchester, from which an engraving was made by Birrell, and published by Mr. Frampton, then a bookseller in this town. The annexed woodcut is a reduced copy of the print, a facsimile of the painting.

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Mr. Nash commenced another painting of a view embracing the church of the Holy Trinity, etc., but in consequence, I imagine, of the prints of the first not selling well, the painting was never finished. Fortunately, I possess both paintings, the plate of the first has been The significance of this language will be best under-destroyed, and the prints are in consequence very scarce. stood by comparing it with what is said on the subject Dorchester, Feb. 2. JOHN GARLAND, F.L.S. by Mr. Macaulay in the thirteenth chapter of his History of England; and by Mr. Burton, in the fifth and sixth chapters of his History of Scotland.

R.

Roman Catholics who refuse to believe in the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, are now, by Ultramontanists, considered and denounced as Protestants.

VOL. VII.

A correspondent observes the Blacksmith's epitaph, in Current Notes, p. 8, is incomplete, and consists of eight lines, the two last being

My fire-dried corps lies here at rest,
My soul, like smoke, soars to be blest.

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