412
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL MAY >_>, 1909.
Turning now to the Earl of Leicester, we
find that Adilen's nephew Robert, Earl of
Leicester, was the father of Amicia, who was
his eventual coheiress. She married Simon
of Montfort l'Amaury and of Evreux, and
their grandson was the Earl of Leicester.
P. M r.
REAR-ADMIRAL KEELER (10 S. xi. 349).
There is a memoir of this officer in Charnock's
' Biographia Navalis,' vi. 433, down to the
time of his superannuation, the date of
which is incorrectly given as 1787. The true
date was 21 Sept., 1790. His wife Mary
died at Faversham on 24 Sept., 1799. After
that the place was probably distasteful to
him. He himself died at Walmer on 4 Nov.,
1810 (Gent. Mag., 1810, ii. 500).
J. K. LATJGHTON.
Admiral Robert Keeler was born at Sand- wich in 1734, entered the Navy at an early age, and obtained his first commission 26 Aug., 1756.
Judith, daughter of the Admiral, married the Rev. Thomas Tuns, curate of Walmer twenty-three years, who died in 1811. Mrs. Tims died in 1846, aged 81. See ' Records of Walmer,' by the Rev. Chas. Elvin.
R. J. FYNMORE.
Sandgate.
ROMAN LEGIONS : THEIR BADGES (10 S. xi. 290). LEGIO asks for the badges of the sixth and ninth Legions, or of the cohorts of those legions. Of the two which bore the number six, that meant is presumably VI. victrix, stationed for very many years at York. W. Pfitzner in his ' Geschichte der romischen Kaiserlegionen von Augustus bis Hadrianus' (1881) mentions (p. 2) insignia which certain legions seem to have had, such as the boar of the Twentieth, the elephant of the Fifth (alauda), and the bull conjectured by Bruce to have been the dis- tinguishing mark of the Eighth, but cites none for VI. (victrix) or IX. The chief authority for Roman military standards, &c., is Alfred von Domaszewski's ' Die Fahnen im romischen Heere ' (1885). There is a convenient account by Prof. Purser under Signa militaria in the third edition (1891) of Smith's ' Diet, of Greek and Roman Antiquities.' In the earlier period of the Empire it would seem that a cohort of a legion had no special standard. The legion bad its eagle, and each maniple ( = two centuries) its signum. A plate bearing the name of the legion, cohort, and maniple to which a signum belonged appears to have been placed on a transverse bar towards the
top of the pole ('Diet, of Ant.,' vol. ii. p. 673,
col. b). On p. 89 of Prof. Anderson's
English edition of Schreiber's ' Atlas of
Classical Antiquities ' is a description of the
centre-plate of a scutum (figured on the
opposite page) now in the Museum at York.
This bears the inscription LEG. vni. AVG.
and (on the rim) the name of the soldier
and that of the century to which he belonged.
Domaszewski's work contains a large
number of illustrations and there are several
in the ' Diet, of Antiquities ' and in
Schreiber's ' Atlas.' The treatment of signa
in the latest edition of Ramsay's ' Manual
of Roman Antiquities ' is unsatisfactory.
EDWARD BENSLY.
University College, Aberystwyth.
POLHILL FAMILY : CROMWELL DESCENT (10 S. xi. 149, 314). MR. PIERPOINT'S interesting reply contains a slight error where he refers to the representatives of the family now living.
Elizabeth Mary Polhill, younger daughter and coheiress of Charles Polhill, married Robert Brownell Drabble (not Dobble) of Bishop's Cottage, Sundridge, Kent, and there are four children of the marriage one son and three daughters. I believe the same mistake occurs in Waylen's ' House of Cromwell,' but I have not a copy at hand to refer to.
In 1903 Robert Brownell Drabble and Elizabeth Mary his wife took, by royal licence the surname of Polhill in addition to and before that of Drabble, and by the same licence he now bears the arms of Polhill quarterly with his own family arms.
T. WALTER HALL. Sheffield.
" WATCHET " (10 S. xi. 367). The absurd confusion of Chaucer's wachet with the town of Watchet will always be revived from time to time. Even Tyrwhitt fell into this error ; and it occurs, alas ! in chap. xiii. of ' Lorna Doone ' ! It is not very creditable to English scholarship that such puerilities should receive such continual respect.
I find a note on the subject in a not very well-known book, which is sufficiently to the point to be worth quoting :
" Wachet, a shade of blue. Tyrwhitt wrongly connects it with the town of Watchet, in Somerset- shire. But it is French. Littre, s.v. vaciet, gives: 'Couleur d'hyacinthe ou vaciet,' colour of the hyacinth or bilberry (Lat. uaccinium). Roquefort defines vaciet as a shrub which bears a dark fruit fit for dying violet ; it is applied, he says, both to the fruit and the dye ; and he calls it Vaccinium hyxginum. Phillips says watchet is ' a kind of blew colour.' Todd's Johnson cites from Milton's ' History of Muscovia,' c. 5, ' watchet or sky-
