Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/378

308 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 S.X.APRIL 22, 1922. crosses, and adding to those crosses thirteen alternate red and white stripes, or one for each British American colony. After the thirteen colonies had declared themselves independent of Great Britain (July 4, 1776), Congress ordered (June 14, 1777) that a new flag should be made, which should represent the United States of America. That flag, which may have been designed by Washington, consisted of thirteen stars and as many red and white stripes to represent the thirteen independent states which then formed the Union. The flag was sewn together at an upholstery shop kept by Betsy Boss on Arch Street, Philadelphia. The house where it was made is still standing. This new flag, the Stars and Stripes, was first raised over a fort at Fort Stanwix (Rome), New York, on August 3, 1777. It was made of an old blue army overcoat, a red flannel petticoat and some white cloth. HERBERT SOUTHAM. THE BEAR, THE HORSE AND THE AUBER- GINE. The following passage occurs in the Japanese work ' Fude no Susabi,' by Kan Sazan (1748-1827): The bear abhors the aubergine. Whenever it meets a fuel-gatherer with the fruit in a deep mountain, it never delays to run away. While the aubergine nourishes in the field, the bear's gall is small, and vice versa. It is unfailingly small when found in the animal that has seen the fruit just before its death. Also the bear dreads the horse : the wolf kills the horse, but is overpowered by the bear. Similarly the Japanese hold that snakes swallow frogs, frogs gulp slugs, and slugs con- quer snakes. After the Chinese, they opined formerly the gall to be the seat of valour, whence the above story about that of the bear. KUMAGUSTJ MINAKATA. WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries in order that answers may be sent to them direct. ST. THOMAS'S HOSPITAL : ARMS. At the present time it appears that St. Thomas's possesses no legal right to armorial bearings. The Hospital was broken up in 1538 by Henry VIII., and reconstituted by Edward VI. in 1552. An institution which existed as early as 870 is almost certain to have had legal arms prior to its disruption in 1538. In 1172-1207, St. Thomas's was founded afresh within the Priory of St. Mary Overie, Southwark, and was dedicated to St. Thomas a Becket (who was murdered 1170). Richard, Prior of Bermondsey (1213), and Peter De Rupibus, Bishop of Winchester (1215), played an important part in its early days. Armory came into existence between 1150-1160. Very probably the Hospital arms, like some of the Oxford Colleges, bore the coats of its founders, impaled or quartered in some way. St. Thomas's was flourishing between 1200 and 1538, and it is inconceivable that such an institution possessed no legal arms. These have been lost ever since 1538. It seems probable that old seals and MSS. would throw valuable light on this question. Can anyone tell me anything ? There are many seals of very early times in a good state of preservation, and I shall be extremely grateful to anyone, possibly an authority on seals, who can help me in this matter. The arms used by the Hospital now are bogus and of no authority, as far as I can learn. They are : Argent, a cross gules, in the first quarter a sword erect of the same ; on a chief azure a rose of the field between two fleurs-de-lis or. We have at the Hospital here nothing earlier than 1552, as all the old MSS., &c., were carried off and scattered in 1538. There must be something in existence somewhere, in the form of sealed dispatches or MSS. ; very probably there are some | such at the Vatican, as, being originally an ecclesiastical foundation, there would have been interchange of correspondence be- tween the Hospital and Rome. The arms of St. Mary Overie were : Argent a cross fusilly gules, in the dexter chief a cinquefoil of the same (MS. Col. of Arms). The arms of Southwark, granted June 19, 1905, are : Argent, eleven fusils in cross conjoined, seven in gale fesswise, four in fess pale wise, and in the dexter chief a mitre, all gules. These were granted to the see of Southwark, which is equivalent to St. Mary Overie. The history of St. Thomas's has been worked out by much patient labour during the last twenty years, but cannot be con- sidered complete till the armorial bearings have been completely recovered. It seems impossible that an institution with such an ancient foundation should possess no arms. C. A. H. FRANKLIN. St. Thomas's Hospital, S.E.I.