Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/478

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NOTES AND QUERIES, m s. vm. DEC. 13, 1913.


himself as of Lincoln's Inn ; and was buried at Sulhamstead-St. Michael's (locally known as Meales), Berks, 26 Sept., 1771. Who were his parents, and was he related to Erasmus Lewis ? G. R. B.

POWLETT : SMITH OB SMYTH (11 S. viii. 68, 133, 255, 416). The Rev. John Watkin, who married Judith Smith (in register) or Smyth (on monument), also held the vicarage of West Haddon (three miles from Yelvertoft) from 1747 until his death in 1772. The entry in the Yelvertoft Marriage Register describes Judith Smith as of Winwick. This is a small village less than three miles from Yelvertoft. Were the Smiths living there at the time, or was it only a temporary residence of Judith Smith ? JOHN T. PAGE.

CABLYLE QUOTATION (11 S. viii. 406). Lucis will find the full sentence " In every object there is inexhaustible meaning ; the eye sees in it what the eye brings means of seeing " in the text of Carlyle's ' History of the French Revolution,' vol. i. p. 5 of the People's Edition. F. HAYWABD.

COLOUB OF LIVEBIES (US. viii. 190, 295, 357). It is as well to realize that there are no fixed rules for the 'determination of the heraldic livery colours, consequently there are no authorities to settle discussions upon this subject. The deduction of livery colours from armorial bearings is a matter of custom, and the custom as to vair is that the coat should be white and the facings, &c., blue. With erminois the coat would be yellow with black facings. Some suppose that you may take your choice of white or blue in the case of vair, and select either yellow or black in an erminois shield. Though there is something to be said in favour of a blue coat for vair, because of the general blue effect of that fur, yet, as the question is one of heraldic propriety, the doubt, if any, should certainly be settled in favour of the metal.

There are some shields which might be considered as offering a choice. Take, for instance: (1) Vair, a, bend sa. ; (2) Vair, a bend or; (3) Erminois, a bend az. Now it is not necessarily the first and second tinctures that determine the livery ; it is the field and dominant tincture. Roughly speaking, the field represents the coat, and the charge gives the colour of the trimmings. With regard to No. (1) shield, as it is out of the question to have a vair livery, it seems a case of selecting either white and blue or


white and black. An attempt to analyze the shield in a somewhat arbitrary fashion leads to the assumption that it may have been originally vair only, and the bend a development. Granting this, we should leave white and blue to the original family, and allow white and black to the branch family. With No. (2) shield a similar line of reason- ing may be followed, but in this case, in order to avoid a livery composed of two metals, we must clearly abandon the argent, and adopt the blue (for the vair) and the yellow (for the bend). No. (3) shield should give a yellow and blue livery.

These remarks apply to the simple livery of two colours as used in England. In French liveries a third colour was often introduced a fashion not quite unknown in England, where, however, it is carried out only in the striped waistcoat, though I have also seen the third tincture as a piping or braiding on a footman's coat. In undress livery there would be the usual modification of colours so necessary in this climate.

I am aware that these particulars are very- trivial, and that the system of heraldic liveries did not hold in early times ; but the custom was a growth, and as such it may be discussed in detail, though it is somewhat late to be discussing it nowadays, when the chauffeur's uniform is causing the heraldic outdoor livery to be so very much less worn.

LEO C.

" GAS " AS A STBEET-NAME (11 S. viii. 290, 337, 356, 378, 418). At Coldstream on the Tweed the lane or narrow street leading from the market-place to the gas- house, almost overlooking the Tweed, is named Gas Lane. Coldstream, it may be noted, was one of the first towns in Scotland to have gas as an illuminant. It was put into the United Presbyterian Church by Dr. Adam Thomson, the minister of the church, and, I remember, the date 1806 was carved on a stone over the porch in the front of the building. There is a new church on the same site now. ANDBEW HOPE.

Exeter.

There is a Gas Street at Wellington, Somerset. The local gasworks are situated therein. C. T.

Strange that no one has written you from Coventry to say there is a Gas Street here containing the entrance to the old gasworks, now used merely for storage. It is quite a well-known and well-used thoroughfare.

GEO. B. Coventry.