If the word is daro, it will be—
"I will give it to you from the friend."
JAMES EDMESTON.
Homerton.
The arms given by your correspondent C. T. are those of Cavendish (quartering Clifford), one of that family having been created Earl of Newcastle in 1610. Becoming shortly after extinct, John Holles, Earl of Clare (who had married the heiress of Cavendish), was created by King William III. in 1694 Marquis of Clare and Duke of Newcastle.
Might not the chimney-piece have adorned a mansion of the Cavendish family, who probably resided in Newcastle during the period above alluded to?
The motto underneath (which is not the family motto of Cavendish) certainly at first sight looks puzzling enough; will the following solution suffice, which I merely throw out as a first thought that may lead to a better elucidation?
"Vita : tran : ovula : est : olim."
Presuming "ovula" to be the diminutive of ovum (I am not sure if I am correct), and "tran" (if correctly transcribed) to be a component part of one of the numerous compounds of trans (say transitorius), may not the passage be freely translated: "(Our) transitory life (was) once (as mysterious, or hidden, or minute as) is (the germ of vitality) in an egg?"
If C. T. could give a description of the second coat, some connecting link may possibly be supplied toward unravelling the motto.