Notes and Queries, Number 24, April 13, 1850 | Page 6

the insolence
to use the words, "I and my king." I have often heard of Henry VIII.,
Wolsey, and "Ego et rex meus;" but as I never heard Quevedo quoted
as an illustration, I look upon this as one of the suspicious passages in
my copy of his work.
C. FORBES.
Temple.
* * * * *
MINOR QUERIES.
Gilbert Browne.--"G.C.B." is desirous of information respecting the
family from which was descended Gilbert Browne of the Inner Temple,

who died about a century ago, and was buried in North Mymms Church,
Herts, where there is a monument to him (vide Clutterbuck's _History_);
also as to the arms, crest, and motto, as borne by him, and whether he
was in any way related to Michael Browne of Hampton Court,
Herefordshire, who married Elizabeth Philippa, daughter of Lord
Coningsby, as stated in Collins's Peerage. He also desires information
as to any enrolment of arms previous to the Visitations, by which the
bearings of families who had grants of land from the Conqueror may be
ascertained; as, for instance, a family who began to decay about the end
of the 14th century, having previously been of great rank and position.
The Badger.--Can any body point out to me any allusion, earlier than
that in Sir T. Browne's Vulgar Errors, to the popular idea that the legs
of the badger were shorter on one side than on the other, whence Mr.
Macaulay says, "I think that Titus Oates was as uneven as a badger?"
W.R.F.
Ecclesiastical Year.--Note in an old parish register, A.D. 1706. "Annus
Domini Secundum Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ Supputationem incipit 25to
Mensis Martij."
Query the authority for this? the reason seems easy to define.
NATHAN.
Sir William Coventry.--Pepys mentions in his Diary, that Sir William
Conventry kept a journal of public events. Is anything known of this
journal? It is not known of at Longleat, where are several papers of Sir
William Conventry's.
A MS. letter from Lord Weymouth to Sir Robert Southwell, giving an
account of Sir W. Conventry's death, was sold at the sale of Lord de
Clifford's papers in 1834. Can any of your readers inform me where
this letter now is?
C.

Shrew.--Is shrew, as applied to the shrew-mouse, and as applied to a
scolding woman, the same word? If so, what is its derivation?
The following derivations of the word are cited by Mr. Bell. Saxon,
"Schreadan," to cut; "Schrif," to censure; "Scheorfian," to bite;
"Schyrvan," to beguile. German, "Schreiven," to clamour; none of
which, it is obvious, come very near to "Schreava," the undoubted
Saxon origin of the word shrew.
Now it was a custom amongst our forefathers to endeavour to provide a
remedy against the baneful influence of the shrew-mouse by plugging
the wretched animal alive in a hole made in the body of an ash tree, any
branch of which was thenceforth held to be possessed of a power to
cure the disease caused by the mouse. It thereupon occurred to me that
just as brock, a still existing name for the badger, is clearly from the
Saxon broc, persecution, in allusion to the custom of baiting the animal;
so schreava might be from _schræf_, a hollow, in allusion to the hole
in the ash tree; and on that supposition I considered "shrew," as applied
to a woman, to be a different word, perhaps from the German schreyen,
to clamour. I have, however, found mentioned in Bailey's Dictionary a
Teutonic word, which may reconcile both senses of "shrew,"--I mean
beschreyen, to bewitch. I shall be obliged to any of your subscribers
who will enlighten me upon the subject.
W.R.F.
A Chip in Porridge.--What is the origin and exact force of this phrase?
Sir Charles Napier, in his recent general order, informs the Bengal
army that
"The reviews which the Commander-in-Chief makes of the troops are
not to be taken as so many 'chips in porridge.'"
I heard a witness, a short time since, say, on entering the witness-box--
"My Lord, I am like a 'chip in porridge'; I can say nothing either for or
against the plaintiff."

Q.D.
Temple Stanyan.--Who was Temple Stanyan, concerning whom I find
in an old note-book the following quaint entry?
"Written on a window at College, by Mr. Temple Stanyan, the author
of a _History of Greece_:--
"Temple Stanyan, his window. God give him grace thereout to look!
And, when the folk walk to and fro', To study man instead of book!"
A.G.
Tandem.--You are aware that we have a practical pun now naturalised
in our language, in the word "tandem." Are any of your correspondents
acquainted with another instance?
[Greek: Sigma].
"_As lazy as Ludlum's dog, as laid him down to bark._"--This
comparison is so general and familiar in South Yorkshire (Sheffield
especially) as to be frequently quoted by the first half,