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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. x. OCT. n, 1002.
DUCHESS OF GORDON IN BREECHES.
In 'Parliament, Past and Present' (p. 88),
Wraxall's ' Memoirs ' are quoted to the effect
that Jane Maxwell, Duchess of Gordon, once
appeared in the Strangers' Gallery of the
House of Commons in male attire. In which
of Wraxall's many 'Memoirs' is the state-
ment made, and is there any confirmation of
it? J. M. BULLOCH. ,
118, Pall Mall.
THE MITRE.
(9 th S. viii. 324, 493, 531 ; ix. 174, 334, 397, 496 ;
x. 192.)
I WISH I could pretend to the vast know- ledge of ecclesiastical lore which F. DE H. L. is so good as to attribute to me; but I am quite sure that my ignorance is infi- nitely greater than my knowledge. For instance, I do not know the categorical answers to his inquiries at 9 th S. viii. 532, and therefore cannot give them. I do not know " the origin of the mitre," nor " its original purpose." Nobody knows the origin of the mitre, though there are very pro- bable conjectures. There can be no cer- tainty in such matters ; still less can there be the certainty that the mitre was not worn in the Apostolic age. Your correspondent says that it was certainly not worn, and that haa it been worn it would have been men- tioned in the Acts of the Apostles or in St. Paul's Epistles. He should oe more care- ful in the use of his auxiliary verbs. It might have been so mentioned, and he thinks it ought to have been so mentioned, and would have been so mentioned.
"Would have been" is a dangerous tense to use in controversy, because, if one is of a different opinion, it is just as easy and just as conclusive to say " it would not." I, on the other hand, see no reason why it should have been mentioned any more than any other part of the Apostles' dress, if, as seems probable, the Christian priesthood was looked upon as the natural ana appointed successor of the Jewish priesthood, succeeding to their office and to their divinely appointed vestments, or at least to the wearing of a distinctive dress. F. DE H. L. cannot con- ceive the idea of the humble fisherman in a cope or in a cap of a particular shape. The "embroidery" is all his own. But if that cope and that cap were the legitimate descendants of the dress of the Aaronical priesthood, I can see no difficulty in believing that those who were the spiritual chiefs of the congre-
gations who were God's chosen people in a
wider sense than the Jews were wore also a
distinctive dress, even as their predecessors
did, whatever may have been its precise form
or material. I am not so much enamoured
of simplicity in the externals of religion as
your correspondent is, nor, if I may judge by
a religious ceremonial that lately took place
in Westminster Abbey, will English people
generally agree with him. He speaks, indeed,
of simplicity in religion itself also, but as we
shall find none to agree as to where sim-
plicity ends and embroidery, material or
metaphorical, begins, we had better leave
that alone just now.
The answers then, far from categorical and far from certain, are : the oriain was pro- bably the distinctive dress of the Jewish priesthood: see, for the mitre, the pointed cap of the Jewish high priest, as depicted by Calmet, though it must be admitted that there are early representations of bishops with distinctive caps without any such points. The original purpote of the priestly dress was to mark the separation (in their spiritual functions) of the clergy from the laity.
Let me add my protest to that of H. W. M. against the invidious phrase "ecclesiastical millinery " used by your correspondent. No advocate of simplicity, however rigid, would desire to see the Holy Communion habitually celebrated by a man in a fisherman's garb in a pea-jacket, fisherman's boots, and a " sou'-wester " ; but if we are to admit a dress distinctive of person or office, a stitch more or less, an ornament more or less, or more or less richness of material can make no differ- ence in principle ; and an argument is not realty strengthened by the use of an oppro- brious term. ALDKNHAM.
CORNISH MOTTO : "ONE AND ALL" (9 th S. x.
168, 252). With regard to the Cornish motto
" One and all," my impression is that it origi-
nated in the clannishness of Cornishmen, who,
however greatly they differ on some points,
" one and all " unite in defending Cornwall
and its people from the adverse criticism of
"foreigners." J. LORAINE HEELIS.
ARMS OF MARRIED WOMEN (9 th S. ix. 28, 113, 195 ; x. 194, 256). If a woman nobilis marries a man of no birth, there will be no arms for hers to be impaled with, and she is precluded from using even her own ; also, if she is an heraldic heiress, her children cannot use her arms, unless by special grant. So, if a man of coat-armour marries a woman of no birth, then she ; not having arms of her own to impale with his, cannot use his. The practice
