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Page 31
It will not, perhaps, be irrelevant to this subject to advert to the story
of Albertus Aquensis (in _Gesta Dei per Francos_, p. 196.), regarding a
_Goose and a Goat_, which in the second crusade were considered as "divino
spiritu afflati," and made "duces vi� in Jerusalem." Well may it be
mentioned by the histoian as "scelus omnibus fidelibus incredibile;" but
the imputation serves to show that the Christians of that age forgot what a
heathen poet could have taught them,--
[Greek: "Eis oi�nos aristos amynesthai peri patr�s."]
T.J.
[Footnote 9: With this solecism in the printed _Flores Historiarum_ I find
that a MS. in the Chetham Library agrees, the abbreviative mark used in the
Hundred Rolls of Edward I. for the terminations _us_ and _er_ having been
affixed to this participle.]
[Footnote 10: To the passages I have elsewhere referred to on _The Concert
of Nature_, from Ausonius, Epistle 25., and Spenser's _Faerie Queen_, book
ii. canto xii. st. 71., "divine respondence meet" is made by the last lines
in Tennyson's _Dying Swan_.]
_Swearing by Swans_ (Vol. ii., p. 392.).--The quotation given by your
correspondent E.T.M. (Vol. ii., p. 451.), only increases my desire to
receive a reply to my query on this subject, since he has adduced a
parallel custom. What are the earliest notices of the usage of swearing by
swans and pheasants? Was the pheasant ever considered a _royal_ bird?
R.V.
_The Frozen Horn_ (Vol. iii., p. 25.).--I am quite angry with J.M.G. for
supposing my old friend Sir John Maundevile guilty of such a _flam_ as that
which he quotes from memory as the worthy knight's own statement. There is
no such story in the _Voiage and Travaile_: nay more, there is not in the
whole of that "ryght merveillous" book, a single passage given on the
authority of Sir John as eyewitness that is not perfectly credible. When he
quotes Pliny for monsters, the Chronicles for legends, and the romances of
his time for narratives of an extraordinary character, he does so in
evident good faith as a compiler. His most improbable statements, too, are
always qualified with some such phrase as "men seyn, but I have not sene
it." In a word, I believe Sir John Maundevile to have been as truthful in
intention as any writer of his age. I am afraid that J.M.G.'s knowledge of
our old "voiager" is limited to some jest-book of more modern times, which
attributes to him sayings and doings of which he is perfectly guiltless.
MARK ANTONY LOWER.
Lewes.
_Cockade and True Blue_ (Vol. iii., pp. 7. 27.) both owe their origin to
the wars of the Scottish Covenanters; and the cockade appears to have been
first adopted as a distinguishing emblem by the English army at the battle
of Sherra-muir, where the Scotch wore the blue ribbon as a scarf, or on
their bonnets (which was their favourite colour). The English army then, to
distinguish themselves, assumed a black rosette on their hats; which, from
its position, the Scotch nick-named a "cock'ade" (with which our use of the
word "cockscomb" is connected) and is still retained.
An old Scotch song describing, "the Battle of Sherra-muir" (which name it
bears) in verse 2., line 1., speaks of the English as--
"The red-coat lads, wi' black cockades;"
verse 3., describing the Scotch and their mode of fighting, says,--
"But had you seen the philibegs,
And skyrin tartan trews, man,
When in the teeth they dared our Whigs,
And Covenant TRUE-BLUES, man;
In lines extended lang and large,
When bayonets opposed the targe,
And thousands hasten'd to the charge,
Wi' Highland wrath, they frae the sheath
Drew blades o' death, till, out o' breath,
They fled like frighted doos, man."
The song, which is rather a long one, carries you with the army to the
Forth, Dumblane, Stirling, Perth, and Dundee. Oft referring to the "Poor
red-coat," and to the "Angus lads."
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