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

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 as the king had commanded him by embassy. This Joachin, after his arrival here in England, was secretly conveyed unto the king's manor of Richmond, and there remained until Whitsuntide; at which time the cardinal resorted thither, and kept there the said feast very solemnly. In which season my lord caused this Joachin divers times to dine with him, whose talk and behaviour seemed to be witty, sober, and wondrous discreet."
My note on this passage says:--
"The name of this person was Giovanni Joacchino Passano, a Genoese; he was afterwards called Seigneur de Vaux. The emperor, it appears, was informed of his being in England, and for what purpose. The cardinal stated that Joacchino came over as a merchant; and that as soon as he discovered himself to be sent by the lady regent of France, he made De Pr?t (the emperor's ambassador) privy thereto, and likewise of the answer given to her proposals. The air of mystery which attached to this mission naturally created suspicion; and, after a few months, De Pr?t, in his letters to