Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/222

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s.v. AUG., 1019.


I feel sure that the clove is still visible in the Black Prince's badge at the British Museum ; a part of the beard of the Father, in the engraving of Dean Stanley's book, is nothing but a poorly depicted dove coming out of His mouth, for expressing the dogma of pro- fession from the Father as well as from the Son below, " procedenti ab utroque."

I keep therefore wondering why Albert Day did describe those two instances of a pretended trinity in two persons without any more explanation. Of course, there is not, as far as I know, any question of

  • ' clouds or rays of light or nothing at all "

for representing the Holy Ghost before the Renaissance. The dove was considered to be quite fitting to represent an invisible spirit coming from above. Owing to the text of the Gospels it was accepted uni- versally and from a very early date as a convenient symbol and was not much objected to before Puritan times. It was even kept by the writers of the Reforma- tion, including Jac. Faber (Stapulensis). He understands the dove as a figure of Divine Love, when explaining a print, possibly by Holbein, representing the baptism of Christ in the River Jordan (' Commentarii in Quatuor Evangelia, Basel, 1523). The clove appears as well in the fron- tispiece of the Authorized Version of the Bible, 1611, where the Father is represented by the Jewish monogram, the Son by the Lamb of God.

Notwithstanding the many examples in Flemish and, late German art we know what the expression " old German school " really means the representation of a Trinity with a recumbent figure of Christ remains unusual in English art, as pointed out by MR. J. LE COUTEUB. So far, no other example has been given of the same. It must be added that a number may have been destroyed as objectionable in later times. PIERRE TURPIN.

FISH-YARD (12 S. v. 181). Fish -yard or fishgarth (Icelandic fiski-gar&r) denotes in the west of Scotland an almost obsolete

-device for taking fish on tidal shores. A rampart of boulders was built out on the strand usually in a semi -circle to near the limit of ebb, with a sluice or water-gate at the outer extremity. The flowing tide filled this enclosure ; when in ebbed it left

-. a pool with any fish that happened to be in it. The sluice was then opened, the pool was run dry and the fish were taken out. These garths were sometimes of large size,

i enclosing an area of an acre or two ; but the


ruined remains of lesser ones may be seen in many places forming dark semicircles where small streams flow across a sandy shore, designed for the capture of migratory salmon and sea trout. An act of the 13th Parliament of James III. (Feb. 4, 1483) regulated the construction and management of " fischgari:hes."

The most extensive arrangement of fish- yards known to me is on the vast expanse of sand at the head of the Bay of Luce. The river Luce and its tributary the Pil- tanton wind across these sands to the sea, and at low tide the foundations of a perfect labyrinth of fish-yards are visible in a series of wide curves, dark with seaweed. I am told, though I have not seen the document, that the charter of the Hays of Park, whose ancient castle dominates the scene, con- ferred upon them the fishings of the river Luce from its source to the sea, and as far into the sea as a man might ride and cast a javelin. HERBERT MAXWELL.

Monreith.

Explained in the ' N.E.D.' as being the same as fishgarth, " a garth or inclosure on a river or on the seashore for preserving fishes or taking them easily. Quotations from 1454 to 1894. Two quotations for " fish-yard," both from Picton, ' Liverpool Municipal Records' (1883), 1685 and 1789.

J. T. F.

Winterton, Lines.

[MR. N. W. HILL and MR. ARCHIBALD SPARKE also thanked for replies.]

INSCRIPTIONS IN ST. JOHN THE EVANGE- LIST'S, WATERLOO ROAD : R. W. ELLISTON'S PLACE or EDUCATION (12 S. v. 63, 135, 193). I am out of touch with most works of reference and I do not know upon what ground Mr. Lucas, as cited by PROF. BENSLY, states that Elliston was educated not at St. Paul's School but at the school of St. Paul's, Covent Garden. The registers of Colet's school, however, are conclusive as shewing that Mr. Lucas is mistaken. The entry therein dated July 29, 1783, is as follows : " Robert William Elliston, aged 9, son (sic) of Dr. E., Master of Sidney College, Cambridge."

Curiously enough the son of the head of an Oxford college was admitted to the school a few days later. Thi^ was Sir Charles Wetherall, the well-known Attorney- General, who?e father was Master of Uni- versity College.

MICHAEL H. MCDONNELL.

Sierra Leone.