9 th S. I. JUNE 11, '98.]
NOTES AND QUERIES.
469
ticulars ? If too long for insertion in
- N. & Q.,' I should be glad to hear direct from
any one who would be kind enough to write. Regarding beggar-my-neighbour, although I have a considerable and varied collection of books (upwards of two hundred) on card games, ranging over the present and two previous centuries, strangely enough, in only one book (Cassell's ' Sports and Pastimes ') do I find that game described. There, instead of the two players playing their cards alter- nately until a prize card (knave, queen, king, or ace) appears, one player is directed to play continuously until he produces a
Erize.* I have never seen the game manipu- ited in this way. Which is the correct and general mode of play 1 Some of your corre- spondents, doubtless, made acquaintance with the game in their youthful days, and others may have young friends who could inform them. I should also be glad to know where the earliest description of the game is to be found. J. S. MCXEAR.
Bangor, Down.
OLD NORSE. In this language can any meaning be attributed to the name Hafr- steinl Possibly stein is stone and hafr a prefixed adjective. H.
"THE BONNY BOY IS YOUNG, BUT HE 's
GROWING." In 1883 I spent summer in the parish of Schull, barony of West Carbery, co. Cork. There, amongst the younger and English - speaking generation, I frequently heard sung a quaint ballad, which I have ever since regretted not having taken down in writing. It was sung to a plaintive melody which I well remember ; but I never caught more than the following lines of the ballad itself :
As I was a- walking down by the college wall,
I saw four-and-twenty college boys playing at the
ball ; And he was there, my own love, the fairest of them
all For the bonny boy is young, but he's growing, f
- * * -* *
In his college cap so fine let him wear the bunch of
blue, For to let the ladies know that he 's married.
Can any one supply information as to this ballad] I am reminded of it by the first quatrain of the verses communicated by Miss FLORENCE PEACOCK, ante, p. 277.
JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS. Town Hall, Cardiff.
[* We P^yed in youth until one took the trick
by laying down a card which the adversary, accord-
ing to the rules, could not capture.]
t This line was repeated at the end of each verse.
ARMS OF THE UNITED STATES.
(8 th S. xi. 347, 441.)
MY absence from this colony for some little time has made me terribly behindhand with my ' N. & Q.,' and I have not had an oppor- tunity of replying to MR. NEILSON'S query before.
In his interesting communication with reference to the ancient table-napkin bearing the arms of the United States, he asks, "Where shall I find an account of the earlier forms, if there were any, of the American eagle when it was mewing its mighty youth 1 "*
In that most excellent work (the best that has been vouchsafed to heraldic students for many a long day) entitled ' A Treatise on Heraldry: British and Foreign' (1896), by the Rev. Dr. Woodward, it is stated (vol. ii. p. 287) in reference to the arms of the United States of America : Paly of thirteen gules and argent, on a chief azure as many stars (of five points) argent as there are States in the Union :
" These are supported by an eagle displayed, holding in the dexter claw a laurel wreath proper, and in the other three silver arrows.f This is the ordinary manner in which the arms are now de- picted, but in the Act of Congress authorizing the arms to be borne on the Great Seal of the United States they are thus described : Paleway s of thirteen pieces argent and gules, a chief azure, the escutcheon on the breast of the American eagle displayed proper, holding in his dexter talon an olive branch, and in his sinister a bundle of thirteen arrows, all proper, and in his beak a scroll inscribed with the motto ' E pluribus unum.' For the crest (!) over the head of the eagle a glory bursting through a cloud proper, and surrounding thirteen stars, forming a constellation argent, on an azure field. The stars, like the bundle of arrows, were then equal in num- ber to that of the States forming the Union. The stars are now made equal to the number of States presently included, and are usually arranged on the chief. This is, apparently, without the authority of Congress. On the coinage the chief is uncharged, but the paly field now commences with a stripe of gules."
And at p. 338 of the same volume appears an excellent representation in colours of the above arms.
At pp. 313-4 Dr. Woodward has the follow- ing interesting note on the American flag, the well-known " Stars and Stripes," which may be of value to MR. NEILSON :
- I presume MR. NEILSON uses the word "mew-
ing" in the sense applicable to the Falconidse rather than to the Felidas.
f These latter are, no doubt, what MR. NEILSON, describing what he saw on the napkin, styles " a thunderbolt."
