10 s. XIL DEC. 4, im] NOTES AND QUERIES.
P. 121. The person referred to is Viscoun
Doneraile. This is shown by the words "*th
blood of St. L " (i.e. St. Leger) couplet
with " the spotless title of D ," and th
reference to the Irish Lord Lieutenantcy o
the Earl of Buckinghamshire.
P. 124. The personage whose epitaph is tentatively identified by MB. BLEACKLEI with Dr.Richard Warren was almost certainlj Dr. Watson, afterwards Bishop of Llandafl who was at the date of publication the mos prominent Whig among the resident " dons i at Cambridge. The inscription is said to b " near the Duke of G 's tent," and Watson was a protege of the Duke of Graf ton.
P. 126. The subject of the inscription i obviously the notorious Duchess of Kingston The " Earl of B " (who is not the subject o it, she being described as his "relict") is not the Earl of Berkeley, but the Earl o: Bristol. MB. BLEACKLEY thinks that the epitaph on p. 50 refers to the Duchess but there is nothing in it specially distinc- tive. I am not prepared to suggest who is meant, but it seems clear to me that it is not the Duchess.
P. 130. The lady referred to is Barbara Countess Powis. My index has " P s C s of "not " B ," as MB. BLEACKLEY writes.
I possess two editions of the * Abbey. The later, which is dated 1788, omits many of the subjects of the earlier edition most of them because they had actually died in the interval since the original publication. It contains several new subjects, including Pitt, Archbishop Moore, Bishop Percy, Sir R. P. Arden (Lord Alvanley), Mrs. Fitzherbert, Lord Sydney, John Kemble, and many others, some of whom I cannot identify. ALFBED B. BEAVEN.
Leamington.
I may perhaps be allowed to direct MB. BLEACKLEY'S attention to 9 S. xii. 381, 411, 488 ; 10 S. i. 12. He will find about three columns of a key or keys to ' The Abbey of Kilkhampton,* which may be usefully compared with his. At 9 S. xii. 381 are given references to 3 S. viii. 455 ; 4 S. i. 353, 467. ROBEBT PIEBPOINT. [W. C. B. also thanked for reply.]
Louis XIV. TABLECLOTH : IBISH TABLE-
CLOTHS (10 S. xii. 408). The practice of
celebrating feats of arms and commemorating
historic events on such perishable material
as table damask appears to be of consider-
able antiquity, and is still in vogue. For
instance, the table linen belonging to regi-
mental messes is woven with the regimental
crest, badge, cipher, and battle honours
as carried on the colours. " Coronation "
tablecloths were made by Messrs. Walpole
of Dublin, and exhibited at the Cork Ex-
hibition of 1902-3. They bear portraits of
King Edward VII. and the Queen, the royal
arms, and the arms of the Colonies.
Owing to the importance, and special legislative measures to encourage the growth, of the linen industry in Ireland during the latter part of the seventeenth century and the early part of the eighteenth, it is to that country we should look for specimens of ancient table linen. I have one such, which has descended to me from an ancestor. It is a large tablecloth of the finest damask, on which are beautifully woven the following subjects : a country house, birds, foliage, and human figures, which from their garb I take to be kerns or gallowglasses the ancient Irish soldiery. The centre is occupied by the coat of arms, surmounted by a squire's helmet and crest ; and below is the motto, Finis coronat opus," and a decorated scroll containing the following inscription :
- William Lambe of Willow Grove in the County
of Wioklow, Esquire, and Martha Lambe, alias Taylor, his wife, in the year of our Lord 1722. Made by Michael Quin."
Tablecloths such as this were made expressly
for the marriage feast of newly-wedded ouples from flax specially grown on the land
of one or other family.
When in Dublin a few years ago, and
purchasing linen from Messrs. Walpole
among other things, a Coronation tablecloth of 1902), I asked the firm if they still came across much of the old Irish handspun house -
lold linen, armorially decorated and dated. They said that it was growing scarcer every year, but that they never remembered meeting with any specimen so old as my own prized relic, which is in an excellent state of
reservation. H. G. ABCHEB.
29, Sussex Gardens, Hyde Park, W.
VICOMTE VILAIN XIIII. (10 S. xii. 409).
This form of the Latin numeral for fourteen
an scarcely be called irregular. The forms
in., vim. (nx. was not unknown for vin.),
LXXXX., &c., were usual in ancient times :
am., for example, may be seen in a first-
entury memorial inscription, to a soldier
f the 14th Legion, found at Wroxeter
Viroconium), and now in the Shrewsbury
/luseum (' Corp. Inscr. Lat.,' vii. 155). Nor
id iv., ix., &c., though convenient as
essening the chance of error, drive the
thers out of the field for a long time.
n especial mi. is very frequent in printed
