Notes and Queries, Number 14, February 2, 1850 | Page 9

_white dragon_; but Thierry supposes that
this, like the contrasted red dragon of Cymbri, was merely a poetical
designation, and seems to infer that the flags of these two contending
people were without any device. Again, it has been thought that a lion
was the ensign of Northumbria; in which case we may, perhaps,
conclude that the lions which now grace the shield of the city of York
have descended from Anglo-Saxon times. The memory of the Danish
standard of the _Raven_, described by Asser and other Anglo-Saxon
chroniclers, still remains; but whether, when Northumbria and East

Anglia fell under Danish power, this device supplanted previous
Anglo-Saxon devices, is a curious question for antiquarian research.
The famous Norwegian standard--the Landeyda, or ravager of the
world--under which Harold Hardrada triumphed at Fulford, near York,
but to fall a few days later at Stanford Bridge, is well known; but who
can inform us as to the device which it bore? These early traces of
heraldic usage appear to deserve more notice than I believe they have
received.
O.
_Burning the Dead._--Can any of your readers, who may have attended
particularly to the funeral customs of different peoples, inform me
whether the practice of burning the dead has ever been in vogue
amongst any people excepting inhabitants of Europe and Asia? I incline
to the opinion that this practice has been limited to people of
Indo-Germanic or Japetic race, and I shall be obliged by any references
in favour of or opposed to this view.
T.
_Meaning of "Shipster."_--Can any of your correspondents inform me
what is the business or calling or profession of a Shipster? The term
occurs in a grant of an annuity of Oct. 19. 2 Henry VIII., 1510, and
made between "H.U., Gentilman, and Marie Fraunceys de Suthwerk, in
com Surr Shipster."
JOHN R. FOX.
55. Welbeck Street, Jan. 22. 1850.
_Why did Dr. Dee quit Manchester?_--In the _Penny Cyclopædia_, art.
DEE, JOHN, I find the following statement:--
"In 1595 the queen appointed Dee warden of Manchester College, he
being then sixty-eight years of age. He resided there nine years; _but
from some cause not exactly known, he left it in 1604_, and returned to
his house at Mortlake, where he spent the remainder of his days."
Can any of your correspondents assign the probable causes which led
to Dr. Dee's resignation?
T.T.W.
Burnley, Lancashire, Jan. 21. 1850. {217}
_Meaning of "Emerod," "Caredon."_--In the Lansd. MS., British
Museum, No. 70., there is a letter from Mr. Richard Champernowne to
Sir Robert Cecil, dated in 1592, referring to the discovery of some

articles pillaged from the Spanish carrack, which had then recently
been captured and taken into Dartmouth harbour. Amongst these
articles is one thus described:--"An Emerod, made in the form of a
cross, three inches in length at the least, and of great breadth."
In the same volume of MSS. (art. 61.) there is the description of a
dagger "with a hefte of white Caredon."
From the size of the cross described, "Emerod" can scarcely be read
"Emerald," as applied by us to one of the precious stones.
Is "white Caredon" white cornelian?
Can any of your numerous correspondents give me a note in answer to
the above queries?
D.
46. Parliament Street, Westminster, Jan. 25. 1850.
_Microscope, and Treatise upon it._--I am about to commence the
study of the microscope. I want to know where I can purchase the most
perfect instrument, and also the best Treatise upon it; this information
will indeed be valuable to me, as it would enable me to go at once to
the best sources without loss of time.
R.M. JONES.
Chelsea, Jan. 2. 1850.
_Old Auster Tenements._--"W.P.P." wishes to know the meaning of the
expression "Old Auster Tenements," by which certain lands in the
parish of North Curry, Somerset, are described in Deeds and Court
Rolls.
* * * * *
REPLIES
THE FIELD OF FORTY FOOTSTEPS.
The fields behind Montague House were, from about the year 1680,
until towards the end of the last century, the scenes of robbery, murder,
and every species of depravity and wickedness of which the heart can
think. They appear to have been originally called the Long Fields, and
afterwards (about Strype's time) the Southampton Fields. These fields
remained waste and useless, with the exception of some nursery
grounds near the New Road to the north, and a piece of ground
enclosed for the Toxophilite Society, towards the northwest, near the
back of Gower Street. The remainder was the resort of depraved
wretches, whose amusements consisted chiefly in fighting pitched

battles, and other disorderly sport, especially on the Sabbath day. Such
was their state in 1800.
Tradition had given to the superstitious at that period a legendary story
of the period of the Duke of Monmouth's Rebellion, of two