Notes and Queries, Number 48, September 28, 1850 | Page 9

you don't believe
me, I'll show you the hare alive in a basket.' So he took me into his
garden to show me the curiosities. In one corner there was a fox
hatching eagle's eggs; in another there was an iron apple tree, entirely
covered with pears and lead; in the third there was the hare which the

dog killed yesterday alive in the basket; and in the fourth there were
twenty-four hipper switches threshing tobacco, and at the sight of me
they threshed so hard that they drove the plug through the wall, and
through a little dog that was passing by on the other side. I, hearing the
dog howl, jumped over the wall; and turned it as neatly inside out as
possible, when it ran away as if it had not an hour to live. Then he took
me into the park to show me his deer: and I remembered that I had a
warrant in my pocket to shoot venison for his majesty's dinner. So I set
fire to my bow, poised my arrow, and shot amongst them. I broke
seventeen ribs on one side, and twenty-one and a half on the other: but
my arrow passed clean through without ever touching it, and the worst
was I lost my arrow; however, I found it again in the hollow of a tree. I
felt it: it felt clammy. I smelt it; it smelt honey. 'Oh, ho!' said I, 'here's a
bee's nest,' when out sprung a covey of partridges. I shot at them; some
say I killed eighteen, but I am sure I killed thirty-six, besides a dead
salmon which was flying over the bridge, of which I made the best
apple pie I ever tasted."
Such is the story: I can answer for its general accuracy. I am quite at
sea as to the meaning and orthography of "hipper switches,"--having
heard, not seen, the story.
S.G.
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
* * * * *
THE COLLAR OF SS.
(Vol. ii., pp. 89. 194. 248.)
The Collar of SS. "is to this day a mystery to the most learned and
indefatigable antiquaries," according to Mr. Planché, in his valuable
little work on _The History of British Costume_: what has appeared in
"NOTES AND QUERIES" certainly has not cleared away the obscurity.
ARMIGER tells us (Vol. ii., p. 195.): "As to the derivation of the name
of the collar from _Soverayne_; from St. Simplicius; from the martyrs
of Soissons (viz. St. Crespin and St. Crespinian, upon whose
anniversary the battle of Agincourt was fought); from the Countess of
Salisbury; from the word _Souvenez_; and, lastly, from Seneschallus or
Steward, (which latter is MR. NICHOLS' notion)--they may be
regarded as mere monkish (?) or heraldic gossip." If the monastic
writers had spoken anything on the matter, a doubt never would have

existed: but none of them has even hinted at it. Never having seen the
articles in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, I do not know MR. NICHOLS'
reasons for supposing "Seneschallus or Steward" could have furnished
an origin of the SS.; but I am at loss to think of any grounds upon
which such a guess could rest. From the searches I have made upon this
question, it seems to me that these SS. are taken as a short way of
expressing the "SANCTUS, SANCTUS, SANCTUS" of the Salisbury
liturgy and ritual. I hope soon to be able to lay before the public the
documents out of which I draw this opinion, in a note to the third and
forthcoming volume of The Church of our Fathers.
D. ROCK.
_Collar of SS._--To your list of persons now privileged to wear these
collars, I beg to add her Majesty's serjeant trumpeter, Thomas Lister
Parker, Esq., to whom a silver collar of SS. has been granted. It is
always worn by him or his deputy on state occasions.
THOMAS LEWIS,
Acting Serjeant Trumpeter. 34. Mount Street.
* * * * *
JOACHIN, THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR. (Vol. ii., p. 229.)
Your correspondent AMICUS will I fear find very little information
about this mysterious person in the writers of French history of the time.
{281} He is thus mentioned in Cavendish's Life of Wolsey (ed. 1825,
vol. i. p. 73.):--
"The French king lying in his camp, sent secretly into England a privy
person, a very witty man, to entreat of a peace between him and the
king our sovereign lord, whose name was John Joachin; he was kept as
secret as might be, that no man had intelligence of his repair; for he was
no Frenchman, but an Italian born, a man before of no estimation in
France, or known to be in favour with his master, but to be a merchant;
and for his subtle wit, elected to entreat of such affairs