There can be no doubt that John Dalrymple, 2nd Viscount and 1st Earl of Stair, justly merited the appellation of the "Curse of Scotland," from the part which he took in the horrible massacre of Glencoe, and from the utter detestation in which he was held in consequence, and which compelled him to resign the secretaryship in 1695. After a deliberate inquiry by the commissioners had declared him to be guilty of the massacre, we cannot wonder that the man should be held up to scorn by the most popular means which presented themselves; and the nine diamonds in his shield would very naturally, being the insignia of his family, be the best and most easily understood mode of perpetuating that detestation in the minds of the people.
L. J.
Bawn (Vol. i., p. 440.; Vol. ii., pp. 27. 60. 94.).
—Your correspondents will find some information on this word in Ledwich's Antiquities of Ireland, 2nd edit. p. 279.; and in Wakeman's Handbook of Irish Antiquities, p. 141. Ledwich seems to derive the word from the Teutonic Bawen, to construct and secure with branches of trees.
R. H.
Catacombs and Bone-houses (Vol. i., p. 171.).
—MR. GATTY will find a vivid description of the bone-house at Hythe, in Mr. Borrow's Lavengro, vol. i. I have no reference to the exact page.
C. P. PH***.
Bacon and Fagan (Vol. iii., p. 106.).
—The letters B and F are doubtless convertible, as they are both labial letters, and can be changed as b and p are so frequently.