[The following communication from our valued correspondent, the Rev. H. T. Ellacombe, affords at once a satisfactory reply to H's Query, and a proof of the utility of "N. & Q.">[
Roger Outlawe (Vol. vii., p. 559.).—Thanks to Anon. and others for their information.
As for "in viiij mense," I cannot understand it: I copied it as it was sent to me. B. Etii was an error of the press for R. Etii, but I purposely avoided noticing it, because my very first communication on the subject to "N. & Q.," under my own name and address, opened a very pleasing correspondence, which has since led to the restoration of these Irish documents to their congeners among the public records in Dublin; a gentleman having set out most chivalrously from that city at his own cost to recover them, and I am happy to say he has succeeded; and in the English Quarterly Magazine there will soon appear, I believe, an account of the documents in question. It would not, therefore, become me to give in this place the explanation which has been kindly communicated to me as to the meaning of the last conquest of Ireland; but I have no doubt it will be explained in the English Quarterly.
H. T. Ellacombe.
Rectory, Clyst St. George.
Minor Notes.
Burial in an erect Posture.—In the north transept of Stanton Harcourt Church, Oxon, the burial-place of the Harcourt family, is a circular slab of blue marble in the pavement, in which is inlaid a shield of brass bearing the arms of Harcourt,—two bars, dimidiated with those of Beke; the latter, when entire, forming a cros ancrée. The brass is not engraved, but forms the outline of the shield and arms. It is supposed to be the monument of Sir John, son of Sir Richard Harcourt and Margaret Beke, who died 1330. (See extracts from Lord Harcourt's "Account," in the Oxford Architectural Guide, p. 178.) Tradition relates, if my memory does not mislead me, that the knight was buried beneath this stone in an erect posture, but assigns no reason for this peculiarity. Is the probability of this being the case supported by any, and what instances? Or does the legend merely owe its existence to the circular form of the stone?
I think that its diameter is about two feet. If Mr. Fraser has not met with the information already, he may be interested, with reference to his Query on "Dimidiation" (Vol. vii., p. 548.), in learning that the above mentioned Margaret was daughter and coheiress of John Lord Beke of Eresby, who by his will, made the 29th of Edw. I., devised the remainder of his arms to be divided between Sir Robert de Willoughby and Sir John de Harcourt. And this may lead to the farther Query, whether dimidiation was originally or universally resorted to in the case of coheiresses?
Cheverells.