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NOTES AND QUERIES- LISB.III. JAN. 27, 1917.
In Ireland " As bold as brass " is often
applied to children, as the opposite of " As
good as gold." Is it usual in other parts to
employ the word " bold " in the sense of
" naughty " ? ALFRED MOLONY.
NAMES OF THE MOON (12 S. ii. 429, 478 ' iii. 16, 38). An inquiry as to how long a follower of one of the crack packs of hounds in the Shires has been familiar with the term " the Hunter's Moon " elicits the reply : " As long as I can remember ; it is the moon next after the Harvest Moon." W. B. H.
STIPENDIARY MAGISTRATES WEARING ROBES ON THE BENCH (12 S. iii. 28). I do not think the practice obtains anywhere in England. About 1880 the justices of a certain borough having separate Commis- sion of the Peace, whose clerk then com- menced to sport a wig and gown, intimated to solicitors that the latter were desired to appear in robes (as in the County Court, where it had been usual) ; and the request was complied with by all concerned but one, who, after communicating with his brethren in other towns, respectfully but firmly refused ; the grounds being : (a) that Petty Sessions were not a Court of Record ; and (b) that it was not in order for an advocate to appear robed before a Court the members of which wore no judicial dress. It is right to say that the upholder of his order suffered no prejudice in consequence whilst he con- tinued to practise. W. B. H.
WILLIAM OF ORANGE : INSCRIPTION (12 S. iii. 29). This Dutch (not Flemish) inscrip- tion ought to be quite easily deciphered. The archaic language of it points to the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, but of course cannot refer to William the Silent, the liberator of the Netherlands, as that prince could not boast of forefathers who had fought for that fatherland. I am inclined to think that it alludes to William II., the Stadholder who married a daughter of Charles I., and became the posthumous father of William III., King of England.
He died quite young- if my memory does not deceive me, in 1650 after having attempted a coup d'etat on the commercial and peacefully inclined burgomasters of Amsterdam. This attempt failed ; and if I read it rightly, the inscription points to this mishap. I read it :
Welkom O Hoge Vorat, wint preis met vrede. Stryt voort Vaderland als u Voorsate dedu ; which means :
Welcome, O High Prince, gain praise by peac^. Fight for the Fatherland as your forbears used to ;
the last five words carrying the inference-
" for the good of the commonwealth," i.e..,
times have changed : yoxir ancestors had to
draw the sword, but there is no need for that
at present ; fight for the commonwealth in
a peaceful way. William II., however, was
an ambitious man and a warrior at heart, the
son of Frederic Henry and the nephew of
the famous general Maurice de Nassau. ; and
his purpose was to create out of the United
Provinces an Empire ; thereby clashing with
the mighty peace-at-any-price burgomasters
of Amsterdam, who, after the Treaty of
Munster (1648), were reducing the force of
the army to a danger-point.
Had William II. lived and succeeded, perhaps this present war would never have occurred.
It seems rather presumptuous on my part to try to explain this inscription without having viewed the original, but I do not think that I am far wrong. MR. HOOPER'S medical friend seems to own a valuable piece of carving. W. DEL COURT.
47 Blenheim Crescent, W.
The words u voorsate mean " your pre- decessors." According to the Nieuw Zak- Woordenboek. . . .door Baldwin Janson " (Dordrecht, 1819) reis means not " rest," but " journey, voyage."
EDWARD S. DODGSON.
MRS. ANNE DUTTON (12 S. ii. 147, 197, 215, 275, 338, 471). She appears, from inquiries I have made, to be unknown to many collectors. When I first visited Great Gransden in 1882 she was generally spoken of in the village as Miss Dutton,.. being supposed to have been an unmarried lady, although the gravestone erected in 1822 by C. Goulding indicated differently. Even J. A. Jones, in his memoir of her, 1833, p. xiii, speaks of her being married to Benjamin Dutton in her 22nd year (a marriage which did not take place until seven years later, and then as her second marriage).
I had the opportunity of looking over the library she bequeathed to the chapel. Of the 212 volumes of the bequest 197 still remained, consisting of the works of Owen, Goodwin, Manton, C. Love, and others, but without a single volume of her own works. Amongst her correspondents can be traced besides Mr. Praham of the Orphan House, Georgia, J. Wesley, and George Whitefield (whose published correspondence contains various letters written to her) Lady Hunt- ingdon ; Rev. James Hervey, author of 'Meditations,' &c. ; Rev.|Risdon Darricott,
