288
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9*s.m.
white with black points. It is also stated
that those who originally bore white bulls
with black points on their arras traditionally
won the right to bear them on account of
some doughty deed in the hunting-field when
hunting the Bos sylvestris, or wild forest bulls.
How, then, come 'the black, red, and dun bull
also on many crests? Were they also wild
forest bulls ? K. HEDGER WALLACE.
WILSON AYLSBURY EGBERTS, 1781. He was nephew of Wilson Aylsbury, who died 1752, at Pack wood, Warwick. Did he leave de- scendants at Nantwich or Packwood ? If so, do they represent De Aylsburys of Warwick and Bucks ? A. C. H.
ARCHERY BUTTS. I desire to know the usual distance between archery butts in the times when the use of the bow was practised on village greens.
In our parish, where our large common tapers into the village street, is one well- marked and another less clearly marked mound. Between them now runs diagonally the main road. This road was, till railways, the coach road from London through St. Albans to Luton and Bedford ; but I think it is not very old. There are indications that an older road or track followed the line of houses a little further west to the parish church. I always think of Bunyan on his journeys between Bedford and London pass- ing through Whethamsted, our mother parish, two or three miles further east. Nix.
AUTHOR OF VERSES. Can you inform me where I can find a poem beginning as follows 1
'Tis fate that flings the dice,
And makes kings peasants, And peasants kings.
I have searched in vain in this country for the name of the author.
CLIFTON H. SMITH. New York.
BONIFACE THE BAVARIAN. Who was Boni- face the Bavarian, Count of Lucca, who died in 823 ? His son Boniface II. is styled Count and Duke of Tuscany. These persons are mentioned by Muratori, Leibniz, and Gibbon, and are said by them to be the source of the family of Este. These writers do not give the parentage of the elder Boniface, who I suppose from the date must have been ap- pointed Count of Lucca by Charlemagne. Two hundred years earlier, or about the year 600, I find another Bavarian, Gontoald, brother of the famous Theodolinde, Lombard queen, who was created Duke of Asti by
Autharis, the husband of Theodolinde, and
after that time three generations of the de-
scendants of Gontoald occupied the throne
of Lombardy ; but now I am assured that
Asti and Este are quite different places as
well as titles. DOMINICK BROWNE.
Christchurch, New Zealand.
SIR JOSCELINE BLOUNT. Who was this knight, who sat for Beeralston in 1597-981 I have failed to connect him with any one of the numerous Blount families, nor can I trace any record of his knighthood.
W. D. PINK.
DRAMATIC DIRECTORY. I frequently desire to date playbills or to obtain information regarding the plays and players of the last half of the present century. I have been obliged to hunt up my facts in files of the Illustrated London News, Athenaeum, &c. Is there, may I ask, no work in which such in- formation is codified ? If such a work is in existence, what is its title 1 Failing it, what easily accessible volumes offer the readiest means of reference ? FRANK REDE FOWKE.
24, Victoria Grove, Chelsea, S.W.
[The ' Era Almanack ' is serviceable. The Theatre, which was also useful, has ceased to exist.]
PRINTING IN IRELAND. What is the date, title, and place of the first book or pamphlet printed in Ireland 1 W. L. WEBB.
[A Prayer Book seems to have been issued in Dublin in 1551. Many books were published there in the seventeenth century. See, under ' Ireland,' ' Catalogue of Books in the Library of the British Museum,' printed by order of the Trustees. Look also under ' Belfast/ ' Drogheda,' ' Waterford,' &c., in Cotton's ' Typographical Gazetteer,' vol. ii., 1866.]
DOMENICO THEOTOCOPULI. Can any one give information as to a portrait by this artist (called also "El Greco" and "II Griego") of the Comendador Vicente Anas- tagi 1 ? It was in the collection of William Coningham, Esq., and was sold at Christie's on 9 June, 1849, to I am kindly informed by them a Mr. Farrer, fine -art dealer, 106, Old Bond Street, London. I wish to dis- cover its present location. ROBT. GUY. The Wern, Pollokshaws, N.B.
THE CHESAPEAKE. Mr. Fitchett, in the ac- count of the Shannon-Chesapeake fight in his splendid book * Deeds that Won the Empire,' remarks that the remains of the latter vessel are now utilized in the peaceful occupation of flour production, that they form part of the structure of a flour mill in Hampshire, and that the shot-marks may still be seen. As this is a fact which I do not think is very generally known, it would be of great interest
