Mayors—their correct Prefix (Vol. i., p. 380.).—Since propounding my Query in Vol. i., p. 380., relative to this subject, I have to inform your readers, that I have been favoured with the opinion of gentlemen very high in official authority on all points connected with heraldry and the rules of precedence; which is, that the proper style of the mayor of a borough is "the worshipful;" and they are further of opinion, that there can be no ground for styling the mayor of a city "the right worshipful."
J.
True Blue (Vol. iii., p. 27.).—On the origin of this expression, I must claim the right to dissent from your correspondent G. F. G., who appears to have fallen into the error of confining a form of very wide application to one particular case, in which he discovers a trifling coincidence of fact. The connexion of the colour blue with truth is of very ancient date, of which the following may for the present suffice as an example:—
"And by hire beddes hed she made a mew
And covered it with velouettes blew,
In signe of trouth, that is in woman sene."
Chaucer, Squiere's Tale.
Blue, in the early practice of the tinctorial art, appears to have been the most humble of the colours in use, and the least affected by any external influence; and, down to the present day, if certain tints of recent invention be excepted, the same character may be claimed for it. What then more natural, than that it should be taken as the type of immutability, or that every party, political or religious, should in turn assume it as the badge of honesty of purpose, and of firm adherence to their principles?
F. S. Q.
Modum Promissionis (Vol. ii., pp. 279, 347, 468.).—This phrase is perhaps connected with the promissivus modus, i.e. tempus promissivum or futurum of Diomedes and other mediæval grammarians.