Notes.

REMARKABLE IMPRINTS.

More than one pen has considered titles, dedications, and imprints worth a Note, and as there are still gleanings in their track, I take the liberty of sending you a few of the latter; some from my common-place book, others from the fountainheads on my own shelves, but all drawn at random, without much regard to classification or chronological arrangement.

The horrors of the Star Chamber and the Ecclesiastical Courts produced many extraordinary imprints, particularly to those seditious books of the Puritans, better known as the Marprelate Family; works which were printed by ambulatory presses, and circulated by unseen hands, now under the walls of Archiepiscopal Lambeth, and presto! (when the spy would lay his hands upon them) sprite-like, Martin re-appeared in the provinces! This game at hide and seek between the brave old Nonconformists and the Church, went on for years without detection: but the readers of "N. & Q." do not require from me the history of the Marprelate Faction, so well told already in the Miscellanies of Literature and elsewhere; the animus of these towards the hierarchy will be sufficiently exhibited for my purpose in a few of their imprints. An Almond for a Parrot, for example, purports to be—

"Imprynted at a place not farre from a place; by the Assignes of Signior Some-body, and are to be soulde at his shoppe in Trouble-Knave Street."

Again, Oh read ouer D. John Bridges, for it is a worthy work, is

"Printed ouer sea, in Europe, within two forlongs of a Bouncing Priest, at the Cost and Charges of Martin Marprelate, Gent, 1589."

The Return of the renowned Cavaliero Pasquill has the following extraordinary imprint:

"If my breath be so hote that I burne my mouthe, I suppose I was printed by Pepper Allie, 1589."

The original "Marprelate" was John Penri, who at last fell into the hands of his enemies, and was executed under circumstances of great barbarity in Elizabeth's reign. "Martin Junior," however, sprung up, and The Counter-Cuffe to him is—

"Printed between the Skye and the Grounde, wythin a Myle of an Oake, and not many Fields off from the unpriuileged Presse of the Ass-ignes of Martin Junior, 1589."

The virulency of this theological warfare died away in James's reign, but only to be renewed with equal rancour in that of Charles, when Marprelatism was again called into activity by the high-church freaks of Archbishop Laud. Vox Borealis, or a Northerne Discoverie by way of Dialogue between Jamie and Willie, is an example of these later attacks upon the overbearing of the mitre, and affords the imprint—

"Amidst the Babylonians. Printed by Margery Marprelate, in Thwack-Coat Lane, at the Signe of the Crab-Tree Cudgell, without any privilege of the Cater-Caps, 1641."

Others of this stamp will occur to your readers: this time the Puritans had the best of the struggle, and ceased not to push their advantage until they brought their enemy to the block.

When the liberty of the press was imperfectly understood, the political satirist had to tread warily; consequently we find that class of writers protecting themselves by jocular or patriotic imprints. A satirical pamphlet upon the late Sicke Commons is "Printed in the Happie Year 1641." A Letter from Nobody in the City to Nobody in the Country is "Printed by Somebody, 1679." Somebody's Answer is "Printed for Anybody." These were likely of such a tendency as would have rendered both author and printer amenable to somebody, say Judge Jeffries. During the administration of Sir Robert Walpole, there were many skirmishing satirists supported by both ministry and people, such as James Miller, whose pamphlet, contra, Are these things so? is "Printed for the perusal of all Lovers of their Country, 1740." This was answered by the ministers' champion, James Dance, alias Love, in Yes, they are! alike addressed to the "Lovers of their Country." What of That? was the next of the series, being Miller's reply, who intimated this time that it was "Printed, and to be had of all True Hearts and Sound Bottoms."

The list might be spun out, but I fear I have exceeded limits already with my dry subject.

J. O.

LEGENDS OF THE CO. CLARE.

In the west of Clare, for many miles the country seems to consist of nothing but fields of grey limestone flags, which gives it an appearance of the greatest desolation: Cromwell is reported to have said of it, "that there was neither wood in it to hang a man, nor water to drown him, nor earth to bury him!" The soil is not, however, by any means as barren as it looks; and the following legend is related of the way in which an ancestor of one of the most extensive landed proprietors in the county obtained his estates.

'Twas on a dismal evening in the depth of winter, that one of Cromwell's officers was passing through this part of the country; his courage and gallantry in the "good cause" had obtained for him a large grant of land in Clare, and he was now on his journey to it. Picturing to himself a land flowing with milk and honey, his disappointment may therefore be imagined when, at the close of a weary day's journey, he found himself bewildered amid such a scene of desolation. From the inquiries he had made at the last inhabited place he had passed, he was led to conclude that he could not be far distant from the "land of promise," where he might turn his sword into a pruning-hook, and rest from all his toils and dangers. Could this be the place of which his imagination had formed so fair a vision? Hours had elapsed since he had seen a human being; and, as the solitude added to the dismal appearance of the road, bitterly did the veteran curse the folly that had enticed him into the land of bogs and "Papistrie." Troublous therefore as the times were, the tramp of an approaching steed sent a thrill of pleasure through the heart of the Puritan. The rider soon joined him, and as he seemed peaceably disposed, they entered into conversation; and the stranger soon became acquainted with the old soldier's errand, and the disappointment he had experienced. Artfully taking advantage of the occasion, the stranger, who professed an acquaintance with the country, used every means to aggravate the disgust of his fellow-traveller, till the heart of the Cromwellian, already half overcome by fatigue and hunger, sank within him; and at last he agreed that the land should be transferred to the stranger for a butt of Claret and the horse on which he rode. As soon as this important matter was settled, the stranger conducted his new friend to a house of entertainment in a neighbouring hamlet, whose ruins are still called the Claret House of K——. A plentiful, though coarse, entertainment soon smoked on the board; and as the eye of the Puritan wandered over the "creature comforts," his heart rose, and he forgot his disappointment and his fatigue. It is even said that he dispensed with nearly ten of the twenty minutes which he usually bestowed on the benediction; but be this as it may, ere he retired to his couch—"vino ciboque gravatus"—the articles were signed, and the courteous stranger became possessed of one of the finest estates in the county!

Francis Robert Davies.

CANTING ARMS.

In the introduction to a work entitled A Collection of Coats of Arms borne by the Nobility and Gentry of the County of Gloucester, London, J. Good, 159. New Bond Street, 1792, and which I believe was written by Sir George Nayler, it is asserted that—

"Armes parlantes, or canting arms, were not common till the commencement of the seventeenth century, when they prevailed under the auspices of King James."

Now doubtless they were more common in the seventeenth century, but I am of opinion that there are many instances of them centuries previous to the reign of King James; as, for example, in a roll of arms of the time of Edward II. (A.D. 1308-14), published by Sir Harris Nicolas from a manuscript in the British Museum, there are the following:

"Sire Peres Corbet, d'or, à un corbyn de sable.

Sire Johan le Fauconer, d'argent, à iii faucouns de goules.

Sire Johan Heroun, d'azure, à iii herouns d'argent.

Sire Richard de Cokfeld, d'azure, à une crois e iiii coks d'or.

Sire Richard de Barlingham, de goules, à iii ours (bears) d'argent.

Sire Johan de Swyneford, d'argent, à un cheveroun de sable, à iii testes de cenglers (swines' heads) d'or."

Sire Ammon de Lucy bore three luces; Sire William Bernak a fers between three barnacles, &c. There are many other examples in the same work, but as I think I have made my communication quite long enough, I forbear giving them.

Cid.