346
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. xn. OCT. so, 1915.
Henry Poland's 'Fur -Bearing Animals'
(London, 1892), which says : " The squirrel
in former times was called the calabar in
commerce." According to the ' N.E.D.,'
-" calaber" is mentioned in ' Piers Plowman '
(1362), and also in an Act of Henry VIII.
(1532) ; end in Eden's ' Decades ' (1555) it
is stated that " the people of Moscovia have
this fur." Strype, in his edition of Stow's
4 Survey of London,' states that " aldermen
who have not been mayors are to have their
cloaks furred with calabre." Finally, Co well
in 1607 describes the " calaber " as a little
beast, in bigness abcut the quantitie of a
squirell of colour gray," but evidently not a
grey squirrel. L. L. K.
ALICE PIOLT FOREST (US. xii. 258, 306). Locally this forest is spoken of as The Holt. The Anglo-Saxon word " holt " was used in England long before the introduction of the French word " forest." Alice is a changed f 3rm of Ailsi or ^Elfsigi, a personal name met with frequently in Anglo-Saxon sources. There were several bishops named ^Elfsigi ;
- and in the ' Liber Vitae ' of Durham ^Elfsige
j^Elfsinus, " comes," is mentioned as a landowner in Hants (circa 950).
The forest is referred to in the Inq. ad damnum of 11 Kdw. II. :
" John de Venuyz to settle the manor of East Worldham and the bailiwick of the forests of Wolmer and Alsiesholt on himself, Margery his -wife, and his heirs."
In the writ on the Patent Rolls it is spelt in the same way.
It would appear, therefore, that Alice Holt in Anglo-Saxon times was a wood belonging to Ailsi. LEO C.
BISHOP ELPHINSTONE'S BADGE (US. xii- 260, 311). It may be of interest to note from Dr. Woodward's * Ecclesiastical Heraldry ' that Elphinstone's own blazon was Arg., a chevron sa. between three boars' heads erased gu., armed of the field, and langued az., which coat is now the third quarter of the modern armorial bearings of the Aberdonian alma mater. In the first quarter a flower - pot and .the fishes " three salmon fishes in fret proper " are still maintained (Woodward, pp. 447, 448).
It struck me that Moule in ' The Heraldry of Fish ' ought to have something explana- tory, and I bought a copy of the book to find it out, but to my disappointment he ignores Aberdeen. He remarks, however, that the ancient family of Troutbeck, connected with Troutbeck in Westmorland, dis- played " three trout fretted tete a la queue," and had its crest on a wreath of
trout instead of on one of the ordinary kind,
metal and tincture. The arms are, or were,
to be seen in Canterbury Cathedral, and
in the Talbot Gallery, Alton Towers, and
they have been quartered by noblemen or
gentlemen who drew some of their blood
from the Troutbecks (Moule, pp. 135, 136).
ST. SWITHIN.
TAVERN SIGNS : " MOTHER HUFF CAP " (US. xii. 279). The following advertisement appeared in The Evesham Journal of 9 Oct., 1915 : " For sale one hundred pots of Barlem and tiff Cap pears." In the 'E.D.D.,' vol. iii. p. 268, " Huff- Cap " is rightly defined as meaning, in the Vale of Evesham, " a brand of perry and a particular pear used in the making of perry." In Suffolk it is said to mean " anything good or strong in the way of drink." A. C. C.
- LONDINA ILLUSTRATA ' (11 S. xii. 278).
Robert Wilkinson probably compiled as well as published ' Londina Illustrata,' as it is usually catalogued both by second-hand booksellers and auction - catalogue makers under his name. The copy in the British Museum is in 2 vols., but the second volume is without title-page. The date is given as 1819, 4to. They also possess a large-paper copy in 2 Vols., and a large-paper copy of vol. i. with a portrait of Dr. Gregory pre- fixed. ARCHIBALD SPARKE, F.R.S.L.
AUTHORS WANTED (11 S. xii. 279). 2. " And don't you forget the white worsted at Flint's." Flint's was the name of a haberdasher's shop which flourished about one hundred years ago near the Monument, and is probably the establishment referred to. This does not seem to be much of a clue, but at all events it fixes the date, and if a Sherlock Holmes gets hold of it the entire mystery may soon be solved on the " Ex pede Herculem " system. W. S R.
AUTHOR OF QUOTATION WANTED (11 S. xii. 300). " Tu mihi, Tu certe," &c. Ovid,
- Amor.,' Lib. ii. Elegia x. 11. 1 and 2.
R. A. POTTS.
[Several other correspondents thanked for replies.]
AUTHORS' NAMES WANTED (11 S. xii. 302). (2) Guillaume le Breton Deschapelles was, according to James Clay, " the finest whist- player, beyond any comparison, the world has even seen." He was born in 1780, and died in 1847. An account of him is printed in W. P. Courtney's ' English Whist,' pp. 373-5. F. JESSEL.
