Brasenose.
Peace Illumination, 1802.
—Miss Martineau, in her Introduction to the History of the Peace, p. 56., repeats the story told in a foot-note on p. 181. of the Annual Register for 1802, of M. Otto, the French ambassador, being compelled to substitute the word "amity" for the word "concord" suspended in coloured lamps, in consequence of the irritated mob's determination to assault his house, unless the offensive word "concord" were removed, the said mob reading it as though it were spelled "conquered," and inferring thence that M. Otto intended to insinuate that John Bull was conquered by France. The story, moreover, goes on to relate that the mob also insisted that the blazing initials G.R. should be surmounted by an illuminated crown. This anecdote, notwithstanding its embalmment in the Annual Register, has always borne in my eyes an apocryphal air. It assumes that the mob was ignorant and intellectual at the same moment; that whilst it was in a riotous mood it was yet in a temper to be reasoned with, and able to comprehend the reasons addressed to it. But one cannot help fancying that the mental calibre which understood "concord" to mean "conquered," would just as readily believe that "amity" meant "enmity," to say nought of its remarkable patience in waiting to see the changes dictated by itself carried out. This circumstance occurred, if at all, within the memory of many subscribers to "NOTES AND QUERIES." Is there one amongst them whose personal recollection will enable him to endorse the word Truth upon this curious story?
HENRY CAMPKIN.
Planets of the Months.
—Can any of your numerous correspondents give me the names of the planets for the months, and the names of the precious stones which symbolize those planets?
T.B.
Wimpole Street.
Family of Kyme.
—Sir John Kyme is said to have married a daughter of Edward IV. Can any of your correspondents inform me where I can find an account of this Sir John Kyme, his descendants, &c.? I should be glad of information respecting the family of Kyme generally, their pedigree, &c. &c. I may say that I am aware that the original stock of his family had possessions in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, and that there were members of it of considerable importance during the reigns of the earlier monarchs succeeding William I. I am also acquainted with some old pedigrees found in certain visitation books. But none of the pedigrees I have seen appear to come down later than the fourteenth, or quite the beginning of the fifteenth, century. I should be glad to know of any pedigree coming down through the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, and to have any account of the later history of the family.