MEDAL OF THE PRETENDER.
Sir,—Possibly some one of your literary correspondents, who may be versed in the, what D'Israeli would call Secret History of the Jacobite Court, will endeavour to answer a "Query" relative to the following rare medal:—
Obv. A ship of war bearing the French flag; on the shore a figure in the dress of a Jesuit (supposed to represent Father Petre) seated astride of a Lobster, holding in his arms the young Prince of Wales, who has a little windmill on his head. Legend: "Allons mon Prince, nous sommes en bon chemin." In the exergue, "Jacc: Franç: Eduard, supposé. 20 Juin, 1688."
Rev. A shield charged with a windmill, and surmounted by a Jesuit's bonnet; two rows of Beads or Rosaries, for an order or collar, within which we read "Honny soit qui non y pense;" a Lobster is suspended from the collar as a badge. Legend: "Les Armes et l'Ordre du pretendu Prince de Galles."
The difficulty in the above medal is the Lobster, though doubtless it had an allusion to some topic or scandal of the day; whoever can elucidate it will render good service to Medallic History, for hitherto it has baffled all commentators and collectors of medals. The windmill (indicative of the poplar fable that the Prince was the son of a miller), and the Roman Catholic symbols, are well understood.
There is an engraving of this medal in Van Loon's Histoire Metallique des Pays Bas. It is also imperfectly engraved in Edwards' Medallic History of England, for the Jesuit is represented kneeling on the shore, and Pinkerton, who furnished the text, calls it "a boy kneeling on the shore." The medal is so rare that probably the artist could obtain only a rubbed or mutilated impression to engrave from. My description is from a specimen, in my own collection, as fine as the day it was minted.
I may add that both Van Loon and Pinkerton have engraved the legend in the collar erroneously, "honi soit qui bon y pense;" it should be "non."
B. NIGHTINGALE.