Minor Queries Answered.
Knollys Family.
—QUÆRENS would be glad to know whether any of the Knollys family, claimants of the earldom of Banbury, married either an Etheridge or a Blackwell?
Also, especially, who were the wives of Major-General William Knollys, calling himself eighth Earl of Banbury, and of his father, Thomas Woods Knollys, calling himself seventh earl.
[Thos. Woods Knollys, called Earl of Banbury (father of the last claimant to the Earldom of Banbury), married Mary, daughter of William Porter of Winchester, attorney-at-law; he died the 18th March, 1793; and she, 23rd March, 1798.
Their eldest son, William Knollys, called in his father's lifetime Viscount Wallingford, and afterwards Earl of Banbury, married ——, daughter of Ebenezer Blackwell.]
Emblematical Halfpenny.
—I enclose a rude drawing of a halfpenny, and should be glad to be favoured with a more detailed account of its emblematical import than I at present possess. It is thus described in Conder's Provincial Coins, Ipswich, 1798, p. 213.:
"A square of daggers, the word 'fire' at each corner, a foot in the middle, under it the word 'honor;' over it 'France,' and the word 'throne' bottom upwards; on one side 'glory' defaced, on the other 'religion' divided. 'A Map of France,' 1794."
On reverse, in a radiation, "May Great Britain ever remain the reverse," encircled with an open wreath of oak. Engrailed.
PETROPROMONTORIENSIS.
[The types here described appear to explain themselves. That of the obverse is clearly emblematical of the then state of France, with France surrounded by fire and sword, honour trodden under foot, the throne overturned, religion shattered, and glory defaced; while the reverse expresses a very natural wish.]
National Proverbs.
—Will any of your correspondents refer me to any collections of proverbs of different nations, or to writers who may have given lists of those of any particular people, either ancient or modern?
SIGMA.
[To answer our correspondent fully would fill an entire Number of "N. & Q." We had thought of giving him a list of the best collections of the proverbs of different nations, as Le Roux de Lincy's Livre des Proverbes Français; Korte's Die Sprichwörter und Sprichwörtlichen Redensarten der Deutschen; but we shall be doing him better service by referring him to two books, in which we think he will find all the information of which he is in search; viz., 1. Nopitsch, Literatur der Sprichwörter; and 2. Duplessis, Bibliographie Parémiologique. Etudes Bibliographiques et Litéraires sur les Ouvrages, Fragmens d'Ouvrages et Opuscules spécialement consacrés aux Proverbes dans toutes les langues.]
Heraldic Query.
—An armiger had two wives, and issue by both: by the first, sons; by the second, who was an heiress, daughters only. Have the descendants of the second marriage right to quarter the ancestor's arms, male issue of the first marriage still surviving? It would seem that they have, as otherwise the arms of the heiress' family cannot be transmitted to her posterity, nor the heraldic representation carried on.
G. A. C.
[The daughter of armiger by his second wife would of course quarter her mother's arms with those of her father. In case of the daughter marrying and having issue, such issue, to show that the grandmother was an heiress, would, with their paternal crest, quarter those of the grandmother, placing the arms of armiger on a canton.]
Chantrey's Marble Children.
—I have just had placed before me a memorandum to the effect that "there is at Leyden the perfect and undoubted original of Chantrey's celebrated figures of the children at Lichfield." The reference is to Poynder's Literary Extracts, Second Series, p. 63. As I have not seen the book, and have no access to it, will some correspondent of "N. & Q." inform me whether the foregoing passage contains the whole of Poynder's statement; or otherwise afford any information relative to its origin? I need scarcely add, that the reputation of the great English sculptor is nowise involved in the issue of the question.
D.
[We subjoin the whole of Mr. Poynder's article, which is signed "Miscellaneous:"—"There is at Leyden the perfect and undoubted original of Chantrey's celebrated figures of the children at Lichfield; and on a friend of the writer mentioning the circumstance to that artist, he did not deny the fact. The figures form the foreground of a celebrated painting in the Town-hall, commemorating the heroic conduct of a former defender of that city, when it was reduced by famine to the greatest extremities. On this occasion the citizens are represented as earnestly importuning the governor to surrender, and representing their deplorable condition from the effects of the siege. Many dying figures are introduced into the painting, and among them the children in question are seen locked in each other's arms, precisely as in the sculpture at Lichfield. The story proceeds to relate, that the commander declared he would never surrender the city; and added, that whether his fellow-citizens chose to hang him, or throw him into the dyke, he was determined never to open the gates to such a monster as the Duke of Alva. It is further stated, that the providential relief of the city by some troops of his own side rewarded his courage.">[
Autobiography of Timour.
—In 1785, Institutes, Political and Military, of the Emperor Timour (incorrectly called Tamerlane), were published at Calcutta, printed by Daniel Stuart. This work, which may more properly be named autobiographical memoranda, written by Timour, was composed by him originally in the Turkish language, and translated by Abu Taulib Alhusseini into Persian, and by Major Davy into English, to which Dr. Joseph White, of Oxford, added notes; and other matter was affixed by a person whose name is not given. The rules for carrying to a successful result great enterprises are profound and dignified, and the enterprises extraordinary and interesting, though only given in outline. This part ends with the capture of Bagdat (d?). I wish to know if there exists an accredited translation from the original by Timour in the Turkish, and of what more this extraordinary work consists; and if any part, or all, has ever been printed in England, or in any European language?
ÆGROTUS.
[In the year 1787, the late Professor Langlés of Paris published a French translation of the Institutes, under the title of Instituts Politiques et Militaires de Tamerlane, proprement appellé Timour, écrits par lui-même en Mogol, et traduits en François sur la version Persane d'Abou Taleb al Hosseini, avec la Vie de ce Conquerant, &c. And in 1830 another English translation was published by Major Charles Stewart, late Professor of Oriental Languages in Hon. E. I. Company's College, entitled, The Mulfuzāt Timūr, or Autobiographical Memoirs of the Moghul Emperor Timūr. In the Preface to this edition our correspondent will find an interesting bibliographical account of the work and its various translations.]