Nicholsons.

Margaret Craggs (?) (afterwards Nicholson) was born in November, 1718, and must have belonged to some other generation, for Ferdinand (b. 1671, d. 1749) and the Rt. Hon. James (b. 1657, d. 1721) were the only sons. The father of the two latter was Anthony. He had four brothers: Thomas, John, George, and William. Thomas died s.p. Was Margaret not a grandchild of one of the other three? I cannot follow their descent. Thomas, the father of Anthony, registered his pedigree in 1615, but Anthony did not do so in 1665. As Margaret is called first cousin of Secretary Craggs, it is more than probable that her surname was not Craggs. J. W. FAWCETT.

Consett, co. Durham.

ARISTOTLE ON THE GREEK TEMPERAMENT (12 S. iv. 302). In the 'Politics,' book iv. (=vii. formerly), chap. vii. (vol. iii. p. 46 of W. L. Newman's edition), Aristotle affirms that the races who live in cold districts, and in particular those in Europe, abound in spirit (Ovuós), but are deficient in intellect (Stávola) and skill (Téxvn), while those in Asia are Siavonтikà μèv Kai TeXVIкà τὴν ψυχήν, ἄθυμα δέ. The Greeks, he goes on to say, being between the two divisions geographically, share the qualities of both, for they are spirited and intellectual. This is presumably the place referred to in

Jebb's' Primer of Greek Literature.'

EDWARD BENSLY.

66 HEATER-SHAPED "" (12 S. iv. 270).-In the Trans. Hist. Soc. Lancs. and Ches. for 1888 (vol. xl.), in a paper on 'Book-Plates, with a Proposed Nomenclature for the Shapes of Shields,' Mr. J. P. Rylands, F.S.A., states (p. 13) that it was troublesome to be obliged, when describing the shape of a shield, to sketch it, and it had occurred to him that by inventing a nomenclature for the forms of shields trouble might be saved. He gives a plate showing various shapes of shields, "and the arbitrary names which I suggest should be assigned to them.' Shield 5 is the shape of the heater in a hot iron, and is labelled " heater." In the next volume (xli.), in a paper by George Grazebrook, F.S.A., on the shapes of heraldic shields, the writer states (p. 11) his intention

In Monumental Brasses and Slabs,' by the Rev. Chas. Boutell, 1847, p. 37, the shield of Sir de Bacon, Gorleston, Suffolk, is described by this word.

H. K. ST. J. S.

ANCIENT ORDER OF FORESTERS: BLUE EYE (12 S. iv. 300). The all-seeing eye has come down from the Egyptians as a symbol of providence; and in heraldry it signifies provident government, in which sense it has been appropriated by benefit societies, &c. Somewhat fancifully, blue is said to indicate wisdom; green, power; and red, love; elsewhere the equivalents are given as red, fire; blue, air; and green, earth; but no meaning seems to attach to any colour chosen as tint of an eye. W. B. H.

MERCHANT MARKS AND ANCIENT FINGERRINGS (12 S. iv. 301).-Rings for the Finger,' by G. F. Kunz (Lippincott, 1917), Well-to-do merchants of medieval times, may serve your correspondent's purpose. not entitled to armorial bearings, often had special individual marks or symbols engraved upon their signets. This custom obtained on the Continent as well as in · Piers England, and allusion is made in Plowman,' a poem of the fourteenth century, to merchantes merkes ymedeled in glasse." Probably emblems of this kind came to have a certain association with the business, which in many cases descended from father to son through a number of generations. ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

MR. SWITHINBANK will find many hundreds of marks figured in the publications of tho Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society (1850), vol. iii. part ii. ; the British Archæological Association (1893), vol. xliv. part i.: the Clifton Antiquarian Club, vols. iii. and vii.; the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science (1891), vol. xxiii. ; and the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire (1910), vol. lxii., where references are given to various British and foreign works on marks. In the Guildhall Library, London (MSS., Nos. 1105 and 1106), there are the large collections of merchants' marks formed by the late Dr. J. J. Howard and Mr. Frost.

J. P. R.

Some well-illustrated information on the subject of merchant marks is given in a paper read in October, 1915, by Mr. Arbuthnot Murray, and published in the Proceedings of the R. W. Masters and Past Masters Association, under the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Scotland. Another source of information which might prove useful is 'The Lost Language of Symbolism,' by Harold Bayley (Williams & Norgate, 1912).

Is the querist satisfied that the mark is "merchant's mark," and not one of the innumerable symbolical devices used in other connexions ? A description of it would perhaps help in deciding the point. ARTHUR BOWES.

Newton-le-Willows, Lancs.

Two papers on the subject of merchant marks have been read before the Clifton Antiquarian Society: one is printed in vol. iii. pp. 1 to 4, and the other in vol. vii. pp. 97 to 194. I have not read them, but merely made a note that they are to be found there. If your contributor cares to send me a wax impression or a drawing of his ring, I will try to identify it for him at the Bristol Reference Library.

WM. SANIGAR. 205 Avon Vale Road, Barton Hill, Bristol.

REV. SIR ROBERT PEAT (12 S. iv. 303).Canon Mgr. A. Mifsud in his book. The Venerable Tongue of England in Malta' (Malta, 1914), at pp. 288-9, writes as follows: "Queen Victoria, by her charter of the 14th May, 1888, created an Order of St. John of Jerusalem, analogous to, but independent of, the ancient Order of St. John of Jerusalem called' of Malta,' and without any connexion with, or dependency on, the same. This new creation has been held by some to constitute a re-integration of the old Tongue of England. The negotiations undertaken by French Knights of the Order, in 1814, for the revival of the Tongue of England are supposed to link this modern institution with the old one.

Then in a note Canon Mifsud refers to R. Bigsby's 'Memoir of the Order' (Derby, 1869), and to The Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem' (London, 1902), by W. M. R. Bedford and R. Holbeche. He

goes on:

in the presence of the Chevalier Philip Chastelair and of Mr. Donald Currie, who, by instrument. issued by the French Knights on the 14th December, 1827, had been deputed to inaugurate the installation. It is a fact that the said Sir Robert Peat, on 24th February, 1834, deemed it his duty to present himself in one of the Chanceries of the Royal Courts to take the oath of administration did not appear to be contemplated by the Statute of the Grand Priory, notwithstanding that his case of George IV. c. 17 prescribing oaths of office, and much less was such procedure in any way required by the Statute of Philip and Mary invoked by him. Mr. Cecil Lorr [Torr], in a communication to The Athenæum, No. 3267 of 7th June, 1890, has proved JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

that these contentions were untenable."

From obituary notices in The Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1837, and 'The Annual Register,' it appears that the Rev. Robert Peat had no English title, and took the style of Sir from permission given him by George III. to wear the Polish decoration. Rector of Ashley-cum-Silverley and Vicar of Kirtling, co. Cambridge, he was at some time chaplain to, and in the confidence of, the Prince Regent, who procured him the living of New Brentford, where he died, April 20, 1837, aged 65. He was author of a published sermon on the Thanksgiving Day for the Peace, 1814, and is erroneously referred to in a work published in his lifetime as a baronet. His name is not in the knights' lists, and he was never "Prior of the Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem"; he became an ordinary member of that Order on Nov. 11, 1830. W. B. H.

In 1801 the Rev. Robert Peat, D.D., I find him so described in the records of a was chaplain to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales Masonic lodge which he joined in that year. He was knighted, probably, before 1808, as, I think, he is called Sir Robert Peat in the lodge records of that year, but I have no note on the point.

C. W. FIREBRACE, Capt.

Order of St. John of Jerusalem in England In Mr. H. W. Fincham's 'History of the the name of Sir Robert Peat appears first on the list of" the Grand Priors after the revival of the Order in England; and it is there noted that he "took the oath De fidele administratione before the Lord Chief Justice of England on Feb. 24, 1834, having been elected Grand Prior at a Chapter General of the English Langue held in January, 1831.

BOYS BORN IN MAY (12 S. iv. 133, 172, 257). From the Life of Mang-Chang-kiun written by Sze-Ma Tsien (first century B.C.); as well as Ying Chau's Fung-süh-tung,' tom. ii. (second century A.D.), it appears that the ancient Chinese believed that boys and girls born on the fifth of the fifth moon respectively would hurt their fathers and mothers when grown up. Sie Chung-Chi in his 'Wu-tsah-tsu,' written c. 1610, disproved this popular error by naming altogether ten distinguished men born on the fifth of the fifth moon, and showing that but two of them proved hurtful to their fathers' reputation. KUMAGUSU MINAKATA.

Tanabo, Kii, Japan.

WHITE HORSE OF KENT: LANDSCAPE WHITE HORSES (12 S. iv. 245, 312).-In The Ancient Kingdom of Kent,' by Mr. C. J. Redshaw, which appeared in The Invicta Magazine for February, 1908, occurs the following suggestion concerning the origin of the Kentish emblem, which may be worth considering :—

"The second century B.C. marks an epoch in the history of Kent, because then a gold coin-the first gold coin in Britain-was added to its currency, and it was impressed with the stamp of a horse rampant. In an excellent volume entitled Gravesend in the very Time of Olde,' Mr. G. M. Arnold, D.L., J.P., F.S.A., thinks it was struck in imitation of the stater of Philip,' a gold coin of Philip II. of Macedon, at about the year 350 B.C., whereon appeared a small chariot drawn by two horses abreast, a large quantity of which he presumes were carried away by Brennus, when he raided Greece, with an army of Gauls, in 279 B.C., and suggests that it thus became the gold currency of Gaul, whence, in the ordinary way of commerce, it would naturally have been circulated here.. Mr. Arnold's idea that the Kent coin was an imitation of the stater' may be correct, and as the training of horses was a leading occupation in the little kingdom at that period, the substituted design is easily accounted for. That being so, we must not overlook the important fact that therein lies the origin also of our famous county emblem, which, having appeared on our coinage about a couple of centuries before the Christian era, is the most ancient in Britain."

HOTEL BRISTOL (12 S. iv. 272, 310).— MR. WAINEWRIGHT'S obliging reply appears to be a satisfactory solution of the problem. It may be worth adding that since the inquiry was made I have received a copy of an interesting book upon Calcutta, ancient and modern, and among the three photographs of the leading hotels, I find there also an Hotel Bristol ! J. H. RIVETT-CARNAC.

"MALBROOK S'EN VA-T-EN GUERRE (12 S. iv. 302).-The version of 'Malbrook' inquired for by J. R. H. occurs in Harrison Ainsworth's romance 'The Court of Queen Anne,' published in Ainsworth's Magazine some time in the forties of last century. If I remember right, the song was put into the mouth of an ex-sergeant of Marlborough's S. PONDER. army. Torquay.

V. KNIGHTLEY CHETWOOD LABAT: ISMENIA (12 S. iv. 188, 256).-Perhaps the_name Ismenia might be taken from a French romance, Arsaces and Ismenia,' of the middle of the eighteenth century.

W. B. S.