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CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 
 arVmoi 
 
 House mottoes and inscriptions: old and 
 
 3 1924 031 319 944 
 olin,anx 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis bool< is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031319944 
 
HOUSE MOTTOES AND INSCRIPTIONS 
 

 SUNDIAL 01 KXIlill'lS I H ISI'I'I' \I,I,KK.^ Ill' ^ I'. JOHN ClF JKKUSALEM, 
 AT ,MILI.UI(;G, near J'ENRITIl. 
 
 [Fiuiihspu'cc: 
 
HOUSE MOTTOES AND 
 
 INSCRIPTIONS: OLD 
 
 AND NEW 
 
 BY 
 
 S. F. A. CAULFEILD 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 'the lives of the apostles,' 'true philosophy,' 'DESMOND,' 
 
 'avenele,' 'sick-nursing at home, etc..' 
 
 LONDON 
 ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.G. 
 
 1902 
 
TO THE DEAR MEMORY OF MY FRIEND AND PARTNER IN 
 
 LITERARY WORK AND HOME LIFE, AT WHOSE SUGGESTION THIS 
 
 BOOK WAS WRITTEN, 
 
 C. DORA DE BLAQUlfeRE 
 
 (Nee BETTRIDGE). 
 Obit May b, 1 901. 
 
 BELOVED, RESPECTED, AND UNSPEAKABLY LAMENTED. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 IN presenting this collection of house mottoes 
 and other inscriptions to the public, I can- 
 not claim for it by any means an exhaustive 
 character ; it is only representative, curious, and 
 interesting as indications of the turn of thought 
 of the several nationalities from which they were 
 derived, and of the periods of their dates. 
 
 Furthermore, it may obtain a favourable recep- 
 tion as the only work of the kind in the English 
 language. 
 
 My best thanks are due to Dr. Wallis Budge 
 (of the British Museum) ; Miss Busk (in Notes 
 and Queries); Mrs. Bury Palliser; C. W. King, 
 Esq. ; Edward Walford, Esq. (the late) ; Mrs. 
 Gatty ; B. Harris Cowper, Esq. ; Robert Cham- 
 bers, Esq.; Dr. Cobham Brewer (the late); 
 Thomas North, Esq., F.S.A. (the late, whose 
 
Till 
 
 Preface 
 
 work was re-edited by the Rev. W. Beresford) ; 
 and Mrs. E. Hodges. 
 
 From interesting works by these distinguished 
 authors I have made, more or less, extracts ; or 
 gleaned information from personal interchange of 
 thoughts. 
 
 S. F. A. CAULFEILD, 
 
 Lady of Grace, Order of the Knights 
 Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem 
 in England. 
 
CONTENTS 
 PART I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction : Ancient Inscriptions i 
 
 PART II 
 
 English Inscriptions i8 
 
 PART III 
 Scottish and Irish Inscriptions - 6i 
 
 PART IV 
 Foreign Inscriptions 77 
 
 PART V 
 
 Sundial Inscriptions, including some on Posie 
 Rings, Organs Bells, and Others 112 
 
PART I 
 
 INTRODUCTION : ANCIENT INSCRIPTIONS 
 
 THE history of house inscriptions carries 
 the student back to very remote times. 
 We find that important events and per- 
 sonal sentiments were recorded on their public 
 monuments by the Pelasgi — such, especially, as 
 their contests with the barbarous aborigines west 
 of the jS)gean. Sea, whom they displaced, and 
 represented as but half human — centaurs — they 
 themselves riding on their backs. 
 
 The dates of the Etruscan inscriptions, the 
 runes of Scandinavia, oghams of the Celts, and the 
 picture-writings of the Aztecs of Mexico, have not 
 yet been decided. The earliest known engraved 
 inscriptions are those of Egypt, which are at 
 least 500 years older than any on papyrus, being 
 attributed to the Second Dynasty, 3000 B.C., and 
 of the reign of Sent. Then follow in point of 
 antiquity the cuneiform inscriptions of Assyria, 
 2000 B.C. The Chinese, that of Yu, is said to 
 date from 2205 B.C., but this appears to be a 
 moot question. The Lycian, Indian, and Roman 
 
 I 
 
2 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 are successively of later date. The great key to 
 the ancient Accadian, Egyptian, and Zend in- 
 scriptions (as most readers must know) was found 
 in 1799 in the precious ' Rosetta Stone.' This 
 discovery we owe to Bouchart, a French artillery 
 officer, at the Redoubt of St. Julian. It is an 
 oblong slab of black syenite, on which are 
 three inscriptions, one in hieroglyphic phonetic 
 signs, and one in the enchorial or popular 
 character. For the translation of the writings 
 on the Etruscan monuments no such key has 
 yet, I beHeve, been discovered. 
 
 The records traced by hands long laid to rest, 
 on public and private buildings, are touching 
 revelations of human thought and personal 
 feeling, and of deeds performed for good or evil 
 that cannot be undone. They characterize certain 
 epochs of the world's history in divers lands and 
 climes, and often prove most highly instructive 
 to those who possess appreciative * eyes to see, 
 and ears to hear.' 
 
 In certain countries it is clearly to be seen that 
 there has existed a more rehgious drift of thought 
 and feeling than in our own country, although 
 more evident in the olden, than in modern times, 
 for, according to a code of etiquette of recent 
 acceptation, ' the subject of religion, as well as of 
 politics should be banished in the social reunions 
 of polite society!' 
 
 The recent discoveries in Babylonia include 
 that of a library in the city of Lagas, the origin 
 
Ancient Inscriptions 3 
 
 of which is lost in antiquity. This collection 
 of inscriptions comprised countless clay tablets, 
 formed nearly 5,000 years ago. Assyrian scholars 
 are now engaged on deciphering and translating 
 the greater part of them at Constantinople, which 
 appear to belong to the age of Gudea. The 
 library was discovered by M. Sarzec, and, like 
 the tablets carried away by the American ex- 
 pedition from Nippen, it contains ' sillabaries, 
 letters, texts, votive tablets, inventories, tax lists, 
 plans of estates, contracts, and building inscrip- 
 tions ' — so we learn from Professor Hilprecht. 
 Thus we see how far back into the early ages 
 of the world the custom which forms the subject 
 of this book, of immortalizing human thought, 
 history in general, and the names of distinguished 
 personages, in sculpture, as well as with brush and 
 pen, has obtained. 
 
 The most remarkable historical inscription is 
 that of Mesha, King of Moab, who recorded upon 
 it his victory over the Israelites some 900 years 
 B.C., after his defeat by Jehoram and Jehoshaphat. 
 It is of too great length to be given here, but a 
 translation may be read in Dr. Eadie's ' Bible 
 Cyclopaedia,' together with a facsimile of the 
 original inscription. It is the most ancient of 
 Semitic records on stone, and discovered near 
 the ruins of Dibon by Klein, an Enghsh clergy- 
 man, in 1868. It exhibits nearly the whole of 
 the Greek alphabet in the identical Phoenician 
 shape. 
 
 I — 2 
 
4 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 The Assyrians also employed the walls of their 
 grand, imposing buildings for inscriptions, and 
 between the front and hind legs of those colossal 
 winged bulls with human heads keeping guard 
 at the entrance doors we find engraved inscrip- 
 tions recording the acts of the King. A fine 
 collection of these original sculptures preserved 
 in the British Museum deserve a careful study, 
 for they are grand in their conception, have a 
 distinct individuality, and are majestic beyond 
 description. 
 
 Egypt can boast of almost unexampled speci- 
 mens of engraved writings, both as to richness 
 in quantity and as to extreme antiquity. Those 
 who have not visited that wonderful country may 
 find a large collection of these also in the British 
 Museum, and (unhappily outside its threshold) 
 an example, unsurpassed in interest, in the 
 obelisk which once stood before the Temple of 
 On, or ' House of the Sun.' In the time of 
 Moses, Potiphera was the priest, or prince, of 
 On, and Asenath, the wife of the Hebrew 
 deliverer, was his daughter. The artistic emblem 
 or sign language was identical with letters, and all 
 building inscriptions, graven with the sculptor's 
 tools, painted on wood, or written with a ' pen 
 of iron,' formed the equivalent to letters, re- 
 cording historical and distinguished names, and 
 to the illiterate the meaning conveyed by those 
 pictorial signs needed scarcely to be explained. 
 
 Amongst the most ancient of the hieroglyphic 
 
Ancient Inscriptions 5 
 
 signs which time has spared us, that of the 
 'magnificent' Egyptian monarch Osymandyas — 
 who is reputed to have been the first to form 
 a library — should be included in my collection. 
 Amongst the still remaining ruins of buildings 
 erected by him at Thebes, he raised a colossal 
 statue of himself, and on this he inscribed the 
 words : 
 
 ' I am Osymandyas, King of Kings ; whoever 
 will dispute this title with me, let him surpass 
 my works.' 
 
 Osymandyas is also known as Memno and 
 Sesostris. The hieroglyphical tablets are ex- 
 tremely well executed on the back and both 
 arms, and the achievements of the hero-King are 
 likewise recorded on the walls of the magnificent 
 temple. This splendid historical relic' has been 
 thrown from its pedestal and shattered. 
 
 Another very remarkable inscription, which 
 appeared on the Temple of Isis, ran as follows : 
 
 ' I am whatsoever is, whatsoever has been, 
 whatsoever shall be ; and the veil which is over 
 my countenance no mortal hand has ever raised.' 
 
 Surely some knowledge of the true faith — 
 corrupted by fables — may be traced in these 
 words. It is a description of Him who proclaims 
 Himself: ' I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning 
 and the ending • . . which is, and which was, 
 and which is to come ' ; ' whom no man hath 
 seen, nor can see ' ; for ' there shall no man see 
 Me and live.' 
 
6 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 At Persepolis, the ancient capital of Persia, 
 and state palace of the Achsemenian Kings, on 
 the north side of the Hall of Xerxes, there are 
 bas-reliefs and cuneiform inscriptions, of which 
 translations were published by Sir Henry Rawlin- 
 son, and are remarkable for their delicate chisel- 
 ling and fine condition, the climate being favour- 
 able to the preservation of such remains. The 
 monument is a large rectangular structure, with 
 a gabled roof, raised on seven layers of immense 
 blocks of stone, arranged in pyramidal form, like 
 huge steps. The inscription in the chamber of 
 the tomb is in Persian, viz. : 
 
 * O men, I am Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, 
 who founded the empire of the Persians and 
 governed Asia. Do not grudge me this monu- 
 ment.' 
 
 Cyrus the Great began his reign about 
 550 B.C., and united the Persians and Medians, 
 both originally Aryan. In the ruins of Persepolis, 
 the palaces of the Achsemenian dynasty, dating 
 back for a period of 2,500 years and upwards, 
 are enhanced in interest by the cuneiform inscrip- 
 tions which they bear, as well as by the grand 
 and masterly sculptures, so full of life and energy, 
 and the superb rows of columns, 60 feet in height. 
 Amongst the inscriptions, and characteristic of 
 Oriental assumption, are the words ' the Great 
 King,' • the King of Kings,' ' the King of all in- 
 habited countries,' ' the King of this great earth ' 
 (all having reference to Xerxes). 
 
Ancient Inscriptions 7 
 
 Not only in the tomb of Cyrus do we find 
 inscriptions, but on the pillar bearing the only 
 authentic portrait of that monarch in existence, 
 of which the sculpture was very fine, though the 
 features are much defaced by time. The figure 
 is four-winged and crowned, and the motto or 
 monumental record is cut in triphcate cuneiform, 
 of Persian, Susian, and Assyrian, viz. : 
 
 ' I am Cyrus the King, the Achaemenian.' 
 
 The pillar is at about a quarter of a mile from 
 the tomb. (I quote from Clive Bigham's ' Ride 
 through Western Asia.') 
 
 The most ancient Greek inscription known is 
 cut upon the rocks of Aboo-Simbel, in connection 
 with the name Amasis, a General and successor 
 of Apries (the Pharaoh-Hophra of Jeremiah). 
 The inscription records the fact that under the 
 leadership of Amasis the expedition against the 
 Ethiopians had reached thus far. 
 
 Much might be recorded of the Greek and 
 Roman inscriptions, chiefly those of a memorial 
 character, that on the tomb of Scipio serving as 
 a fine characteristic example. The monument is 
 a sarcophagus of a very highly decorated char- 
 acter, the name being inscribed along the upper 
 part of the memorial. 
 
 But all inscriptions on memorial tablets or 
 tombstones owe their origin to the Egyptians, 
 who inscribed or painted records of their names 
 and exploits, pedigrees, etc., on their sarcophagi 
 and on their public buildings and obelisks. Such 
 
8 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 are as numerous as in the case of the Greeks and 
 Romans, and so likewise amongst the Saxons and 
 Danes ; but few remain in evidence. 
 
 In this country they became common in the 
 eleventh century, and were for the most part 
 engraved on the tombs of Kings and dignitaries. 
 The most ancient Greek epitaph of which I have 
 found any record seems to be that on the heroes 
 of Thermopylae, by Simonides, i.e. : 
 
 ' Stranger of Sparta, say her faithful band 
 Here He in death, remembering her command.' 
 
 In Hierapolis (now Pambouk Kalisi), Asia 
 Minor, there are still to be seen the words on the 
 lintels of a ruined Christian church : * is cs niica ' 
 (Jesus Christ conquers). 
 
 The ancient and beautiful Palmyra, otherwise 
 called Tadmor, rendered doubly famous by the 
 illustrious Queen Septimia Zenobia, wife of 
 Adainothus, is full of inscriptions. Some of 
 these appear in Palmyran, and others in Greek ; 
 certain of them are on brackets protruding 
 from the columns, bearing the great Queen's 
 name, and representing her as 'the pious and 
 just Queen ' and ' the illustrious and pious 
 Queen.' One states that her statue was erected 
 to their Sovereign Septimia, the daughter of 
 Zabbai, ' by the Septimii, Zabda, General-in- 
 Chief, and Zabbai, General of Tadmor, Excel- 
 lencies,' etc. It will be remembered that ' Solo- 
 mon built Tadmor in the wilderness ' ; but 
 
Ancient Inscriptions 9 
 
 (according to Dr. William Wright, to whom I 
 am much indebted) although he found a city 
 there supplied with fountains, the Tadmor, of 
 which I name the inscriptions, was not that of 
 Solomon, ' of which,' Dr. Williams says, ' not a 
 vestige remains.' 
 
 Crossing the Atlantic in search of old-time 
 sculptural records, the ancient Nahuans must be 
 accorded some notice. This people, coming from 
 northern regions, settled in the Gulf States of 
 Mexico at Tabasco, between the sea and the 
 mountains, and were builders of pyramids, 
 stately palaces, and great blocks of buildings, the 
 interiors of which are full of inscriptions in hiero- 
 glyphic characters as well as in paintings. The 
 outer fa9ades, which are very splendid, are almost 
 covered with pictorial carvings and records in these 
 hieroglyphics. Still on the quest for old-time 
 memorials on stone at the other side of the ocean, 
 I read of another example. On the imposing 
 Government House of St. Domingo, the grandest 
 building in the New World, there was the motto 
 ' Non sufficit orbis.' The entrance was approached 
 by broad flights of marble steps, and above the 
 portico hung the arms of Spain, a globe, repre- 
 senting the world, and a horse leaping upon it, 
 and the motto was inscribed on a scroll proceed- 
 ing from his mouth. Sir Francis Drake levelled 
 both palace and escutcheon to the ground in his 
 crusade against the Spaniards everywhere and 
 the infamous deeds of their Inquisition, per- 
 
lo House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 petrated chiefly on our sailors. The acquisition 
 of spoil was not lacking in attraction, but only 
 regarded by that dauntless man as some just 
 compensation for risk, and loss of life, and the 
 chance of tortures in case of defeat. 
 
 Recrossing the Atlantic, and passing up the 
 Mediterranean to Sicily, we may see the splendid 
 Saracenic palace at Palermo. This building is 
 decorated round the upper part by a wide 
 ' string-course ' balustrade, which is occupied by 
 a beautiful inscription in relief, and by battle- 
 ments. I regret that of this I have not got a 
 translation, nor of those in the interior of the 
 palace, where such are likewise conspicuous 
 above the ' string-course,' painted arabesques, 
 and bordering the high arched vault above them, 
 these being records of thought, and of history 
 which time has not yet obliterated. 
 
 Travelhng north-eastwards, we find in the ruins 
 of Pompeii that pictorial signs were employed to 
 supersede the use of written words, so following 
 ancient custom ; and, indeed, such was commonly 
 the case in our own country. The reason is not 
 far to seek, for to the great majority of the old- 
 time folk letters were unknown, and education 
 was not compulsory, although the horn-books 
 were in use in our schools, dating from before the 
 Elizabethan period till the reign of George II. 
 But as these books bore no date, it seems difficult 
 to assign one to their earliest origin. Letters 
 were also employed in Pompeii, for under the 
 
Ancient Inscriptions 1 1 
 
 sign of the two gladiators there was the follow- 
 ing inscription : ' abiat venerem pompenanama 
 IRADAM QUI HOC L^SERiT ' {i.e., ' Hobeat venerem 
 Pompeianam iratam,' etc.). There was also in- 
 scribed beneath the sign over a baker's shop : 
 
 ' HIC HABITAT FELICITAS.' 
 
 Above the door also of a Pompeiian house, 
 once inhabited by a surgeon, there remains the 
 following intimation : ' eme et habebis.' 
 
 While still engaged on the subject of ancient 
 inscriptions, I should not omit to name the 
 existence of some Scandinavian records, en- 
 graved on stone, and belonging to the United 
 Kingdom. 
 
 At Maeshowe, Orkney, there is a very remark- 
 able mound, containing a large chamber, three 
 cells, and a long entrance passage, entered by a 
 low door. It is of unknown antiquity. The vault 
 is built of slabs of stone, 15 feet square. At 
 the corners there are buttresses, and the roof, 
 composed of arched masonry, has an aperture for 
 ventilation. Runic inscriptions and emblematic 
 figures are carved on some of the stones, which 
 have been explained partly by the aid of Nor- 
 wegian scholars, who say they refer to the 
 Vikings and Scandinavian heroes. But one of 
 these informs us that ' Those Robainsson cut 
 these runes (on) this cave.' A winged dragon 
 and the figure of a horse are amongst the sculp- 
 tural designs, and it is supposed that these in- 
 scriptions were the work of Scandinavian rovers 
 
12 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 of far later times than those of the ancient build- 
 ing itself. 
 
 One of our own most ancient engraved stones 
 is an obelisk standing at a short distance from 
 the town of Forres, Co. Elgin, N.B. It is cut 
 out of a large block of granite, the hardest to 
 be found in Scotland, and measures 23 feet in 
 height — the top having been broken off — and at 
 its base nearly 4 feet in width, the monument 
 surmounting four steps. It is divided into several 
 compartments horizontally marked across, and 
 each part is engraved with representations of 
 men, on horseback and on foot, spear or bow 
 men, and with other symbols. The origin of 
 the erection of this record of the past is unknown. 
 The hypothesis of the Rev. Charles Cordiner, a 
 distinguished antiquary, is regarded as supply- 
 ing the most probable origin of this monument, 
 amongst other suggestions made. It is that it 
 was erected to commemorate the victory of the 
 Scots over the Scandinavian adventurers, who 
 in the ninth century had established themselves 
 on the neighbouring promontory of Burghead. 
 The name Sueno's Stone seems to point to 
 some connection with the Norwegian King so 
 called. 
 
 ' There is nothing new under the sun ' was the 
 opinion of the ' wisest of men,' and as the years 
 in centuries have rolled onwards, we find old 
 ideas and practices handed down and widespread 
 amongst different peoples. In our own country, 
 
Ancient Inscriptions 13 
 
 on our old castles and the mansions of our titled 
 and untitled aristocracy, the knightly escutcheons 
 of each family were set up, after the manner of 
 signs, to notify, either with mottoes or with 
 unwritten words, to those who passed by the 
 family to whom the feudal castle or country seat 
 belonged. Just so was it customary for the 
 visored knight to proclaim his personal identity 
 by means of his crest and his coat of arms 
 emblazoned on his shield or on his person. His 
 retainers and dependents likewise, who lived under 
 his protection, and on his means and property, 
 proclaimed their attachment to his service by 
 wearing his livery, and placing a representation 
 of his armorial bearings over their public hostel- 
 ries to serve as a name. This was in imitation 
 also of their liege Iprds' custom, whose castles 
 and mansions were greatly appropriated as hostel- 
 ries to the use of wayfarers as well as to personal 
 friends. 
 
 It will probably occur to many of my readers 
 that in the sculpture or painting of the family 
 insignia over the entrance door of our ancient 
 houses (equally obtaining on Continental palaces 
 and castles), we followed the Mosaic command 
 to the heads of the several tribes of Israel — i.e., 
 to place the hereditary device (divinely appointed 
 to every one of them) on a banner at the door of 
 their respective tents. These were equivalent to 
 house mott6es. 
 
 With certain interesting exceptions, we find 
 
14 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 that what was equivalent to house inscriptions in 
 our own country served to distinguish our old 
 hostelries ; and no less to provide landmarks, 
 guiding the stranger on his ill - directed way 
 through unnumbered and nameless streets. But 
 the language on the tavern signs was for the 
 most part pictorial, and the paintings and 
 letterings were not (as in most other countries) 
 executed on the walls of the house, but were hung 
 from them on an iron bracket, or else, in banner 
 fashion, on an upright post in front of the dwelling, 
 out on the road. Thus the language of signs that 
 obtained in ages long gone by, again found its 
 expression in our own land, as all over the 
 civilized world, in some form or other, and served 
 the same purpose after a kindred manner as the 
 ancient hieroglyphics. 
 
 Before giving any examples, I may remark on 
 the curious fact that we have so many mottoes in 
 Latin, German, and Dutch on our own houses. 
 That such as the first-named should appear on 
 the gateways and walls of religious houses and 
 churches is not surprising, as the learned clerks 
 employed in connection with them directed 
 repairs and improvements, and naturally used 
 the language of letters, rather than what is called 
 ' the vulgar tongue ' (meaning in this sense 
 ' ordinary language ' or that in ' common use '). 
 
 Having traced back the origin of house inscrip- 
 tions to very remote ages of the world, and proved 
 the truth of the statement that ' there is nothing 
 
Ancient Inscriptions 15 
 
 new under the sun' (or was not in the days of 
 the wise man who propounded it), I shall give a 
 few specimens of English, Scotch, and Irish 
 examples, and some collected from Switzerland, 
 the Tyrol, Italy, France, and Germany, as space 
 may permit. 
 
 That mottoes on sundials, and monumental 
 records should be strongly imbued with rehgious 
 feeling is very obviously natural, but that this 
 should be so generally evidenced in house in- 
 scriptions seems characteristic of certain epochs 
 and nationalities. Such demonstrations of pious 
 and devout thought are especially remarkable in 
 Germany, Switzerland, and the Tyrol. In our 
 own country we have a goodly collection of such 
 like, but there are not wanting some of a facetious 
 character, as well as others of hospitable intent. 
 
 Wood-working is the oldest of the decorative 
 arts, and one which even among savages still main- 
 tains its former excellence. The New Zealander's 
 club and the ancient Aztec's gods, the Hydah 
 Indian's pipes and the paddles of the Polynesian 
 canoe-man, are marvels of carving, executed with 
 the rudest tools, or with bits of obsidian, or 
 sharpened shell, which the civilized workman 
 would scarcely recognise as worthy of the name. 
 The few travellers who have penetrated the mys- 
 terious Kaffir country of Central Asia describe 
 entire villages, composed of wooden houses, 
 elaborately carved on post and pillar. Until the 
 fear of fire led to the use of iron and stone 
 
1 6 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 as building materials, and the disuse of wood 
 reacted prejudicially on wood-carving, such towns 
 were common in Europe, and remnants of them 
 may still be seen in Blois, Chester, and Coventry. 
 Beams, brackets, door-heads, and gable-ends 
 were effectively hewn with grotesque images of 
 demons, heraldic devices, and those saintly faces 
 which still look down on us with a glance so 
 benign. After the Renaissance the great masters 
 practised carving in wood with such success that 
 the chefs d'ceuvre of Wohlgemuth of Nuremberg, 
 Albert Durer, Ludwig Krug, and Peter Flotner, 
 whether in wood or, as some of Properzia de 
 Rossi's are, in peach-stones, can only be redeemed 
 for ' a ransom,' which courtesy likens to that 
 ' of kings.' 
 
 I have given but few illustrations. Of the sun- 
 dial of the knights of St. John of Jerusalem facing 
 the title-page, a description will be given later on. 
 
 The specimen given of Egyptian hieroglyphics 
 represents a scene taken from a bas-relief sculp- 
 tured on a wall of a corridor in the temple built 
 by Seti I., King of Egypt, about B.C. 1370, at 
 Abydos. The relief contains the names of 
 seventy-six Kings, beginning with the reign of 
 Menes and ending with that of Seti I. Menes was 
 the first historical King of Egypt. In the above- 
 named relief we see the King and his son, burning 
 incense to their deceased ancestors. 
 
 This information I received from the celebrated 
 writer and Egyptologist, Dr. Budge, taken down 
 
li^tMm 
 
 
 I iiliSSP^HH^lilB 
 
 I Mks^^SSS^SM^E^ 
 
 
 
 IliCEEl 
 
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 ■r 
 
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 r-< 
 
 
 
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Ancient Inscriptions 17 
 
 at his dictation, and the copy is from Marietta, 
 ' Abydos,' vol. i., p. 43 (Egyptian Department, 
 British Museum). 
 
 Egyptian inscriptions are read either from 
 right to left or left to right, and sometimes 
 vertically. 
 
 According to the great authority, Mr. W. 
 de Gray Birch, Egyptian hieroglyphics are read 
 both vertically and horizontally, or promiscuously 
 in the field, to right or to left, as the case may be. 
 Sometimes the animals face one way, and some- 
 times the other ; all depends on the circumstances 
 of spaces, forms, and respective arrangement. 
 
 It seems scarcely excusable to omit any notice 
 of the glyptic art, but it will suffice to refer my 
 readers to a work entitled ' Engraved Gems,' 
 by C. W. King. I will only observe that the art 
 owes its origin to the artificers of Nineveh, who 
 employed fragments of crushed diamonds, secured 
 in an iron tool. Prior to this the Egyptians used 
 sharpened flints, fastened - on arrows, for en- 
 graving softer substances than gems. To the 
 appliance which the Ninevites employed, see an 
 allusion made in Jeremiah xviii. i. The inven- 
 tion dates back to about 729 B.C., just prior to 
 the reign of Sargon. 
 
PART II 
 
 ENGLISH INSCRIPTIONS 
 
 London. 
 
 AS I have already forewarned the reader, I 
 am only about to give a representative 
 selection of house mottoes and other 
 inscriptions. They have been collected from 
 various countries, beginning with our own United 
 Kingdom, and giving our Metropolis the first place, 
 although it supplies by no means the most inter- 
 esting amongst them. 
 
 It will be observed that the Scotch mottoes, 
 like those of all the German-speaking countries, 
 are characterized by great piety of feeling, and in 
 the case of the first-named of a rather gloomy 
 kind. The Irish are of a facetious and jocular 
 description, the Dutch are very quaint, and even 
 grotesque, and the English are of a well-mixed 
 character. 
 
 In beginning with England, and naturally with 
 her Metropolis, I will give a modern example, 
 and conduct my readers to the Ladies' Tea-room 
 
in^^sB^^s^ fS-Si^ 
 
 
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 bjiom^rr- 
 
 i^if><2i." 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 ►4 
 
 y 
 
 S 
 o 
 
 H 
 
 H O 
 
 w ^ 
 H H 
 
 g (d 
 ■<s 
 
 < H 
 
 O K 
 S ^ 
 
 3 
 
 1^ ^ 
 °& 
 
 H « 
 
 K w 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 H 
 
 < 
 
 H 
 
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 u 
 
English Inscriptions 19 
 
 in the House of Commons, which boasts a sug- 
 gestive and somewhat uncomplimentary piece of 
 advice, scrolled, and in Gothic characters, of 
 which I have not seen one similar in any of the 
 men's departments, where it is much wanted, i.e. : 
 
 ' GET UNDERSTANDING.' 
 
 It is probable that Pope's satirical exposure 
 of the * evil-speaking, lying, and slandering,' that 
 seems to have been rife in his day at these re- 
 unions, was in the mind of the suggester of such 
 a motto for such a place, to quell the ardour of 
 the feminine promoters of ' tea-table toasting.' 
 
 There is an inscription on the new Royal 
 Exchange, one very appropriate, and calculated 
 to make the busy money-makers reflect : 
 
 •the earth is the lord's, and the fulness 
 
 THEREOF.' 
 
 If supplemented by, ' It is He that giveth thee 
 power to get wealth,' the inscription would have 
 been improved. With reference to the motto as 
 it stands, I may observe that, in conversation 
 with the architect. Sir William Site, the Prince 
 of Wales drew attention to the fact that in 
 Germany it was the custom to place one in a 
 conspicuous place on important public buildings, 
 and he consented to suggest one. Some time 
 afterwards the Prince informed Sir William that, 
 after consulting Dean Milman, the latter suggested 
 the motto afterwards inscribed, having been 
 approved by himself. 
 
 2 — 2 
 
20 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 Another remarkable edifice bearing on three 
 sides Latin inscriptions is the Monument, built 
 by Sir Christopher Wren, and completed in 1677. 
 It is composed of great blocks of Portland stone. 
 The basso - relievo on one side was carved by 
 Caius Cibber (born 1630), representing King 
 Charles in a Roman costume protecting the 
 ruined city ; and the four dragons at the base 
 by Edward Pierce, who often worked for Wren, 
 and left some fine sculptures behind him. In- 
 scriptions in Latin occupy the other three sides, 
 giving the history of the Great Fire, and ascribing 
 its origin to the furor Papisticus, and a short in- 
 scription beneath on the pedestal, but in English, 
 repeats the unfounded charge. But Wren had 
 prepared one in Latin, stating that the fire had 
 originated in a humble house and thence spread. 
 The objectionable inscriptions were effaced by 
 Charles II., but unhappily recut in the reign of 
 William III. I will not record them here. Those 
 who desire to know more about them can visit 
 the Monument themselves. 
 
 There is an inscription on a private dwelling- 
 house in Chelsea, built for the painter Whistler 
 by Godwin. The former is noted for very peculiar 
 ideas on the subject of art and the beautiful, and 
 whether the criticism immortalized on this struc- 
 ture be just and fair to the distinguised architect 
 the passers that way must severally form their 
 own judgment. The proprietor who employed 
 his services quarrelled with him, and to revenge 
 
English Inscriptions 21 
 
 his disappointment at the result he inscribed the 
 following lines over the entrance door : 
 
 ' EXCEPT THE LORD BUILD THE HOUSE, THEY 
 
 LABOUR IN VAIN THAT BUILD IT. 
 
 THIS HOUSE WAS BUILT BY GODWIN.' 
 
 If the reader should wend his way to the City 
 and walk up Ave Maria Lane, he will read over 
 the entrance to the Oxford and Cambridge Press : 
 
 ' VERBUM DOMINI MANET IN STERNUM ' 
 
 (or. The word of God endureth for ever). 
 
 Near London Wall there once flourished an 
 inn in Philip Lane. All that now remains of the 
 ancient house recording its character is a stone 
 carving of a monkey squatting on its haunches 
 and eating an apple, and inscribed beneath it the 
 date ' 1670, B.' The courtyard is now an open 
 space surrounded by modern houses. 
 
 Another famous hostelry was the Old Pied Bull 
 Inn, Islington, which was pulled down about the 
 year 1827, its existence dating from the time of 
 Elizabeth. In the dining-room there was a fine 
 chimneypiece, decorated with figures of Faith, 
 Hope, and Charity, with a border of cherubs, 
 fruit, and foliage, and the ceiling represented the 
 five senses in stucco. Sea-horses, mermaids, 
 parrots, etc., were represented in a stained-glass 
 window. It seems to be thought that the house 
 was not originally an inn. The sign of the Pied 
 Bull is sculptured in stone and in relief on the 
 
22 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 south front, and bears the date 1730, long sub- 
 sequent to its conversion into a hostelry. 
 
 There was once a public-house near St. Chad's 
 Well, called Balnigge House, in the garden wall 
 of which there was a stone thus inscribed : 
 
 's. T. 
 
 THIS IS BALNIGGE 
 
 HOUSE. NEARE 
 
 THE PINDAR A 
 
 WAKEFEILD 
 
 1680.' 
 
 All the words were cut in capital letters. 
 
 ' Jerusalem ' figured early on the signboards of 
 those inns where the pilgrims put up on their way 
 to the Holy Land, and they retained them long 
 after the pilgrimages were discontinued. For 
 example, there was one in Fleet Street a.d. 1657. 
 
 There used to be a sign of the Three Foxes in 
 Clement's Lane, Lombard Street, the three sitting 
 in a row carved in stone. But the latter was 
 plastered over by the legal firm that took the 
 house in possession, fearing the satirical jokes at 
 their expense which the representatives of cunning 
 might bring upon them. 
 
 Where Bethlehem Hospital now stands in St. 
 George's Fields there once stood one of the 
 notorious Dog and Duck taverns, with a long 
 
English Inscriptions 23 
 
 history attached to it. The old stone sign is still 
 preserved embedded in the brick wall of the 
 hospital, and visible from the road, representing 
 a dog squatted on his haunches, holding a duck 
 in his mouth, and accompanied by the date 1617. 
 There is also an old stone carving of a pelican 
 inserted in the front wall of a house in Alderman- 
 bury, but whether the sign of a religious house or 
 a tavern I cannot say. 
 
 I have found it necessary to include a few 
 specimens of our English signboard inscriptions, 
 which are often full of historical interest, but I 
 limit the number to so few because they form 
 the exclusive subject of an interesting work by 
 Larwood and Hotten. 
 
 I now proceed to make a review of, and small 
 collection from, the several counties of England, 
 which may bear a representative character and 
 prove sufi&ciently interesting for transcription. 
 
 Surrey. 
 
 Perhaps there is scarcely a house so rich in 
 inscriptions as Loseley House, near Guildford, 
 Surrey, at one time belonging to the More family, 
 and, amongst others, rebus allusions to the family 
 name carved on the ceilings of two of the rooms. 
 On that of the drawing-room there is a repre- 
 sentation of a mulberry-tree, and round this in 
 four panels : 
 
 • MORUS TARDI MORIENS, MORUM CITO 
 MORITURUM ' 
 
24 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 (or, The mulberry-tree, slow in dying, warns 
 More that he will die soon. — The word monet 
 must be supplied). 
 
 In the same house we find : 
 
 ' AVERSOS COMPONO ANIMOS, ET SECULA COGA ' 
 
 (or, I compose estranged hearts, and bring 
 together distant ages). 
 
 Over the drawing-room door : 
 
 • PROBIS, NGN PRAVIS ' 
 
 (or, To the good, not to the wicked). 
 Over that of the cellar : 
 
 ' SITI, NGN EBRIETATI ' 
 
 (or. Sufficient, not drunkenness). 
 
 A moorhen is introduced into several of the 
 compartments of the ceiling of the principal bed- 
 room. Over the entrance door is the motto : 
 
 ' INVIDI^ CLAUDGR, PATEG SED SEMPER AMICG ' 
 
 (or, I am closed to envy [ill will], but am always 
 open to a friend). 
 
 Another Latin inscription may be seen over 
 the doorway of Holy Trinity Hospital at West 
 Croydon, f 
 
 'QUI DAT PAUPERIBUS l^NQUAM INDIGEBIT,' 
 
 which, rendered in English, means ' Who giveth 
 to the poor will never want.' 
 
English Inscriptions 25 
 
 Kent. 
 
 Kent also supplies contributions to our collec- 
 tion of English house inscriptions. At LuUing- 
 stone Castle, Kent, the seat of the Dykes 
 (Baronets), the following inscription surrounds a 
 rose nearly 2 feet in diameter : 
 
 ' Kentish true blue, 
 
 Take this as a token, 
 That what is said here 
 
 Under the Rose is spoken.' 
 
 Somewhat satirically grotesque is the following 
 example. In the High Street, Rochester, there is 
 an old house standing on the original site of 
 Watts's Charity, and an inscription states that 
 by his will, dated 1579, he founded it 'for six 
 poor travellers, who, not being rogues or proctors, 
 were to receive a night's lodging, entertainment, 
 and fourpence each.' Now, the dictionary tells 
 us that our modern proctor is ' an attorney in a 
 spiritual court,' or ' a college official,' so it would 
 seem that their morals were of no great account, 
 as they are debarred from any participation in 
 the benefits of the institution, and placed in the 
 same category as the ' rogues.' 
 
 Still making a search in Kent, you will find 
 a modern house at Chislehurst which bears the 
 motto : 
 
 ' This is the welcome I'm to tell, — 
 Ye are well come, ye are come well.' 
 
26 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 I now pass on to 
 
 Sussex. 
 
 I was once visiting near Midhurst, and, driving 
 through the latter small town, I observed an 
 inscription on an old wall nearly obliterated : 
 
 ' LIBERTY OF ST. JOHN. 
 
 ' IN 181I THE COMMANDARY HOUSE OF THE 
 
 KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN STOOD HERE.' 
 
 A sketch was taken in pencil, but without 
 signature, of the house within the wall thus 
 inscribed, and a photograph of the same I have 
 sent to the chancellry at St. John's Gate, Clerken- 
 well. For another memorial of the Knights I 
 must turn out of my way into another county — 
 i.e., Hampshire — for the manor and lands of 
 Baddesley, three miles east of Romsey, belonged 
 to the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of 
 Jerusalem, temp. Edward I. By the registers of 
 the diocese this is shown, and it became a 
 ' commandery,' and the first was Sir Thomas 
 Seymour, Knt., afterwards created Baron Sudley, 
 to whom they were given in Edward VI.'s reign, 
 when the Knights were deprived of them. Sir 
 William Weston, then Lord Prior, died of a 
 broken heart at the breaking up of his house. 
 His tomb may be seen in St. John's Church, 
 Clerkenwell. The ancient building of the com- 
 mandery was afterwards destroyed by fire. One 
 very ancient tomb in the chancel of the church is 
 
English Inscriptions 27 
 
 rudely sculptured, and at each end there is the 
 eight-pointed cross of the Knights ; on the side 
 are smaller ones, arms, and roses, and the 
 escutcheon is that borne by them, but with the 
 exception of two initials, F and T, in floriated 
 Gothic type, we find no inscription. 
 
 A modern example may be found in this county 
 by taking a walk on the Ditchlingly road to the 
 Brighton Downs, where, at Hollinbury Copse, the 
 residence of Mr. Phillipp, an inscription runs 
 round the whole south front under the eaves : 
 
 ' Come hither, come hither, come hither, 
 Here shall you see no enemy but winter and rough weather.' 
 
 Also one by the outside entrance to the study : 
 
 ' OPEN LOCKS, WHOEVER KNOCKS.' 
 
 These mottoes are painted in black. The house 
 is a wooden structure. 
 
 At Lacies, Salvington, Sussex, John Selden 
 was born (1584), his father a wandering fiddler. 
 
 Over the inner lintel of the cottage door is the 
 motto, 
 
 ' Gratus, honeste, mihi, non claudar, inito sedebis 
 Fur abeas, non sum facta soluta tibi,' 
 
 said to have been composed and carved by Selden 
 when only ten years old. Translated it reads 
 thus : 
 
 Walk in and welcome, honest friend, repose. 
 Thief, get thee hence, to thee I'll not unclose. 
 
28 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 The parish register says : ' 1584. John, the 
 son of John Selden, the minstrell, was baptized 
 the XX day of December.' 
 
 Another ancient but very different order of 
 dwelling in the same county, and bearing in- 
 scriptions, are the stately ruined remains of the 
 famous Halnaker House, formerly Helnache. It 
 was built by Thomas West, second Lord de la 
 Warr, temp. Henry VIII. The gateway remains, 
 with angular towers on each side, and much of 
 the walls surrounding the courtyard, as well as 
 the east end of the chapel with its triplet window. 
 The doors of the hall bear the inscription 
 
 • LES BIEN VENUS.' 
 
 The rooms on the right side of the square court 
 were ' my lord's side, and the left side my lady's 
 side.' Halnacher stands opposite the entrance to 
 Goodwood Park. 
 
 Extending our quest through this county, we 
 may visit the Church of St. John the Baptist at 
 Crawley, and find an inscription on the oak roof: 
 
 ' Man yu wele bewar ; for warldly good maketh man blynde. 
 Bewar for what comyth behinde.' 
 
 Over the chief entrance of the beautiful ruins 
 of Cowdray Castle, the seat of the Earl of Egmont, 
 in Sussex, I lately read the inscription, 
 
 * SVYVE RAYSON.' 
 
 The building was almost destroyed by fire, and is 
 left uninhabitable, to fall to pieces, with only a 
 
English Inscriptions 29 
 
 bar of iron here and there to supply the fallen 
 shafts of the windows. Some large sculptured 
 figures yet adorn the chapel, roofless and grass- 
 grown. 
 
 Hampshire. 
 
 This county has some interesting house 
 memorials by the engraver's chisel and the 
 painter's brush. In the hall of Farnham Castle, 
 the residence of the Bishop of Winchester, there 
 is this inscription : 
 
 ' AU DIEU FOY, AUX AMIS FOYER ' 
 
 (To God faith, to friends home — or hearth). 
 
 At Winchester College there is the motto in 
 Latin 
 
 ' HAPPY HOME.' 
 
 The remarkable inscription at the entrance 
 of the kitchen of St. Mary Winton College, 
 Winchester, cannot be omitted from my list. 
 It is a wall picture of the Trusty Servant — an 
 allegorical figure clad in livery of blue and red, a 
 pig erect and clad as a man. The snout denotes 
 that he is not dainty in his food ; the closed pad- 
 lock held in his mouth that he betrays no secret ; 
 the long ass's ears his patience; the hart's feet 
 his speed as a messenger; his open right hand 
 fidelity. The left hand holds a shovel, broom, 
 fork, and curry-comb, denotes his readiness for 
 labour of all descriptions, and the sword and 
 shield his power and goodwill to defend his 
 
30 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 master. At the side there is an inscription in 
 Latin, of which I only give the English trans- 
 lation : 
 
 ' This figure well survey, who'er you be ; 
 The porker's snout not nice in diet shows ; 
 The padlock shut, no secret he'll disclose ; 
 Patient, to angry lords the ass gives ear ; 
 Swiftness on errand, the stag's feet declare ; 
 Laden his left hand, apt to labour saith ; 
 The coat his neatness ; the open hand his faith ; 
 Girt with his sword, his shield upon his arm. 
 Himself and master he'll protect from harm.' 
 
 I have given two only of the wall records of 
 this county, but opportunity has failed me, so I 
 pass on to 
 
 Oxfordshire. 
 
 Here my researches have been still less fruitful, 
 although I feel such a rich collection might be 
 made in this ancient seat of learning. 
 
 At a place called Collins End, between Hard- 
 wick House and Goring Heath, there is a small 
 rustic inn called the King's Head, and its name is 
 illustrated by an excellent portrait of Charles I., 
 apparently copied from Van Dyck. When a 
 prisoner at Caversham, he is said to have ridden 
 with an escort to this part of the Oxfordshire 
 hills, and hearing that there was a bowling-green 
 belonging to the inn frequented by the neighbour- 
 ing gentry, he endeavoured to divert his thoughts 
 for a while by joining in a game. In commemora- 
 
English Inscriptions 31 
 
 tion of this visit the following lines were inscribed 
 beneath the signboard : 
 
 ' Stop, traveller, stop ; in yonder peaceful glade 
 His favourite game the Royal Martyr played. 
 Here, stripped of honours, children, freedom, rank, 
 Drank from the bowl, and bowled for what he drank ; 
 Sought in a cheerful glass his cares to drown. 
 And changed his guinea ere he lost his crown.' 
 
 Berkshire. 
 
 Berkshire is rich in inscriptions. An example 
 may be seen on the Corn Exchange, Windsor, 
 dated 1707 : 
 
 ' Arte tua sculptor non est imitabilis Anna ; 
 Anna ; vis similam sculpere sculpe Deam,' 
 
 which may be rendered in English : 
 
 In thine own art a sculptor, Anna is inimitable. 
 
 Anna, if thou wiliest one in sculpture, produce a goddess. 
 
 At Long Whittenham, in the same county, and 
 where a Saxon cemetery has been discovered, the 
 old church shows specimens of the various styles 
 of architecture, ranging from the Norman to the 
 Elizabethan. It was restored in 1850, and here 
 we find an inscription which takes the form of a 
 Latin epigram. It is surmounted by the royal 
 arms painted in the reign of Charles II. : 
 
 ' Qui Leo de Juda est et Flos de Jesse, leones 
 Protegat et flores, Carole magne tuos.' 
 (or: 
 
 May He who is the Lion of Judah and the Flower of Jesse 
 Protect thy Lions and thy Flowers, great Charles ! 
 referring to his heraldic insignia. 
 
32 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 In this county — as I said, so full of interesting 
 historical remains — Bare Court, near Pangbourne, 
 supplies some inscriptions. It was given to the 
 Abbot and Monastery of Reading a.d. 123a by 
 Brigham, Bishop of Salisbury, and passed into 
 the family of Breedon, having been purchased by 
 Sir John Davis, the sea-captain of Elizabethan 
 history, who was buried in Pangbourne 1625, and 
 whose monument may be seen in the old church. 
 The house is curious, and contains a chapel of 
 the fourteenth century beautified with coloured- 
 glass windows, the designs being figures of our 
 Lord, the Blessed Virgin, St. John, four of the 
 Apostles holding scrolls, on which are inscribed 
 the articles of the Creed ; and one containing a 
 portrait of Hugh Farringdon, Abbot of Reading, 
 in full canonicals, kneeling, and out of his mouth 
 issues a scroll inscribed : 
 
 ■ IN TE DOMINE, SPERAVI ' 
 
 (In Thee, Lord, I have hoped). 
 
 But not alone in the private chapel of Bere 
 Court do we find such-like memorials, but in the 
 dining-hall there are (or were) inscriptions on 
 glass, eight in number, which are deserving of a 
 record, for which I am indebted to the late Mr. 
 Edward Walford, the writer of so many inter- 
 esting historical works (I believe some sixty in 
 number altogether). I will not make an extract, 
 as I should like to do, in full, because it would 
 swell the proportions of this book too considerably 
 
English Inscriptions 33 
 
 if I entered upon inscriptions on coloured-glass 
 windows, or scratched with a diamond on the 
 white panes, so I will add a few more to my 
 selection of inscriptions provided in this county. 
 The following is of a very unique character. 
 
 The village of Pusey in the same county deserves 
 a brief notice from the curious fact that the estate 
 was granted to the original family of that name 
 by Canute, and held by tenure of a horn, still pre- 
 served in Pusey House, bearing the inscription : 
 
 ' KYNG KNOUDE GAVE WILLIAM PEWSE YE HORN 
 TO HOLDE BY THY LONDE.' 
 
 Amongst the good-advice class of mottoes, there 
 is one over the alms' box in St. Mary's Church, 
 Reading : 
 
 ' 1627. REMEMBER THE POORE, AND GOD WIL 
 BLES THEE AND THY STORE.' 
 
 Not more than a mile and a half from the 
 interesting old town of Newbury (Berkshire) is 
 Sandleford, which formerly belonged to a religious 
 foundation, and the priory founded before 1205 
 by Geoffrey, Earl of Perche, Earl Marshal of 
 England, and Maud, his wife. The former came 
 over with William the Conqueror. On the walls 
 of the old church there is this inscription : 
 
 ' Lancea, crux, clavi, spinas, mors quam tolerari, 
 Demonstrant qua vi miserorum crimina lavi. 
 In cruce sum pro te, qui peccas : desine pro Me ; 
 Desine ; do veniam ; die culpam ; corrige vitam.' 
 
 3 
 
34 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 These lines may be thus translated : 
 
 The lance, the cross, the nails, the thorns, the death which I 
 
 have endured, 
 Show with what effect I have washed out the crimes of 
 
 wretched sinners. 
 I am on the cross for thee, who sinnest : cease for Me ; 
 Cease* ; I give pardon ; confess thy sin ; correct thy life. 
 
 Somersetshire. 
 
 Almost the only inscription with which I am 
 acquainted in this county is composed of lines 
 which have been found on the doors of several 
 proprietary chapels, the cellars of which were let 
 to wine and spirit merchants, including those of 
 the Octagon Chapel, Bath. They were composed 
 impromptu by the late Mr. Evan Evans, of Caer- 
 philly, and were in the first instance suggested by 
 observing Colson's wine stores under a Dissenting 
 chapel in Bristol, and were copied for the same 
 reason at Bath : 
 
 ' There's a Spirit above, and a spirit below, 
 A spirit of bliss, and a spirit of woe ; 
 The Spirit above is a Spirit Divine, 
 But the spirit below is a spirit of wine.' 
 
 But little chance as I have had of adding to 
 my collection from this large county, and long as 
 my connection with it has been in years gone by, 
 I have one more example to give of a motto- 
 inscribed house. A little town in Somersetshire 
 * I.e., cease sinning. 
 
English Inscriptions 35 
 
 puts us in possession of the three or more mottoes 
 to be seen on the Montacute House. Over the 
 chief entrance we find the hospitable welcome : 
 
 ' Through this wide opening gate 
 None come too early, none return too late.' 
 
 The second surmounts the north porch, making 
 the visitor truly at home : 
 
 'and yours, my friends.' 
 
 The third is inscribed over one of the lodges : 
 
 ' Welcome the coming, 
 Speed the parting guest.' 
 
 This last motto has been repeated at Pont- 
 newydd House, Monmouthshire, painted round 
 the cornice in the modern dining-room. 
 
 Gloucestershire. 
 
 Some of our old houses in the United Kingdom 
 have mottoes inscribed in Latin, as at Wymond- 
 ham, and in German or Dutch. In the village of 
 Stoke Bishop, near Bristol, there used to stand a 
 house, dating back to about the middle of the last 
 century, which could boast of a Latin as well as 
 an English motto, or, more correctly speaking, 
 the English one constituted its name — i.e., ' Wise 
 in time.' Over the front door the Latin one 
 appears, carved in the stone, viz. : 
 
 ' U|/ corpus animo. 
 Sic domus corpori ' 
 
 3—2 
 
36 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 (As the body is to the soul, so is the house to the 
 body). 
 
 Another motto, in Dutch, inscribed along the 
 front of what is called the Dutch Farm, about a 
 mile distant from Cheltenham, runs thus : 
 
 ' NICTZ ZONDEK ARBYT ' 
 
 (Nothing without work). 
 
 There is a roadside house between Cheltenham 
 and Gloucester which bears a similar inscription, 
 only spelt a little differently : 
 
 'NICTS ZONDEK AKBY.' 
 
 A similar proverb exists in Latin, viz.. Nil sine 
 labore. Nicts clearly stands for the German Nichts, 
 and the y in arby stands for the ei in arbeid. 
 Translated it would be rendered, ' Nothing with- 
 out labour.' 
 
 An inscribed stone was built into the wall 
 near the west end of the Norman portion of the 
 chapel at Horton Court, near Chipping Sodbury, 
 Gloucestershire. It is oblong in form, 15 by 12 
 inches ; in the centre is a monogram, T.L. ; 
 above, in Old English characters : 
 
 ' LAUS TIBI CHKISTE ' 
 
 (Praise to Thee, O Christ) ; and below, the initials 
 and date W. 1492 B. This monogram appears 
 to be that of Thomas Langton, Bishop of Salis- 
 bury, 1433-94, and the initials those of William 
 Burton, lessee of Horton Court. 
 
English Inscriptions 37 
 
 Two miles north-east of Chipping Sodbury 
 there is an inscription which, from its antiquity, 
 claims a notice. The Manor of Horton belonged 
 to Ulf, a son of Earl Harold, and when banished 
 to Normandy he gave his estate to his standard- 
 bearer, Robert de Todeni, which is recorded in 
 Doomsday Book. 
 
 This manor, I may observe, went to Todeni's 
 daughter Agnes, wife of Hubert de Ria, who gave 
 it to the church at Sarum, A.D. 1125, the charter 
 of the prebend being confirmed by Henry II., and 
 was called the ' Golden Prebend.' Dr. William 
 Knight, created Bishop of Bath and Wells by 
 Henry VIII. in 1541, built the manor-house, 
 and on a memorial of him, inscribed on a stone 
 built into the garden wall, are to be seen the 
 words 
 
 ' WILHELMUS KNYGHT, PR° THONO 
 TARIR ANO 152I.' 
 
 I am indebted to ' Some Ancient English Homes,' 
 by Mrs. E. Hodges, for the above. 
 
 Devonshire. 
 
 We may now travel southwards to Devonshire, 
 which supplies a few examples more or less 
 interesting. Here we find some cottage homes 
 bearing mottoes. For example, in the village of 
 Axmouth — built of cobble-stones from the beach, 
 but after the old usage — the chimney-stacks were 
 carefully constructed of cut stone, with in some 
 
38 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 cases elaborate ornamental inscriptions on the 
 chimney-tops. On one of these, of a house 
 standing at the entrance of the village, we find : 
 
 ' 1570. GOD GIVETH ALL ;' 
 
 and in the same hamlet there is another inscribed : 
 
 ' ANNO BRITANNICO 
 ILLO 
 MIRABILIS 
 164I.' 
 
 Another example of a house inscription in the 
 same shire is that over the almshouses (adjoining 
 Ford's House for Widows), viz. : 
 
 ' Is't strange a prophet's widow poo re should be ? 
 If strange, then is the Scripture strange to thee ?' 
 
 The first Eddystone lighthouse, of ill-fated 
 memory, was decorated by the too confident 
 architect on the outside with mottoes of various 
 kinds, as well as representations of suns, com- 
 passes, etc. One or two of the inscriptive mottoes 
 were as follows : 
 
 ' POST TENEBRAS LUX ;' 
 
 ' GLORY BE TO GOD ;' 
 
 ' PAX IN BELLO.' 
 
 The architect, Winstanley, a retired London 
 mercer, declared he would Uke to be in the light- 
 house during the greatest storm that ever blew 
 
English Inscriptions 39 
 
 under the face of heaven. Though warned that 
 the structure was not strong enough to resist the 
 power of the waves, he went into it to super- 
 intend some repairs, shortly before a great storm 
 came on, and was swept away in its destruc- 
 tion, together with five other persons. This 
 terrific and memorable hurricane, of a week's 
 duration, commenced on the morning of Novem- 
 ber 27, 1703. We hope the poor man realized 
 in his own case the blessedness of the motto he 
 inscribed on his ill-fated work : ' After darkness 
 Light.' 
 
 Cornwall. 
 
 At Tintagel, on the north coast (or Trevena), 
 there are inscribed ancient crosses, the letters 
 being rudely-formed Anglo-Saxon capitals, and, 
 as read by the Rev. W. lago, mean : 
 
 'alnat made this cross for the benefit of 
 
 HIS SOUL.' 
 
 On the back of the shaft, and in the same 
 description of lettering, the names of the four 
 Evangelists are recorded. 
 
 At Redgate, St. Clear, there are sculptured and 
 inscribed words, i.e. : 
 
 ' DONIERT ROGAVIT PRO ANIMA ' 
 
 (or, Doniert has begged that prayers be offered 
 for the repose of his soul). 
 
40 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 The taller of these stones is like the spill of a 
 cross, 7 feet 6 inches high above the ground, 
 and was apparently the plinth of one. Borlase, 
 quoted by A. G. Langdon in his charming work 
 on old Cornish crosses (to which I am now 
 indebted for the extract), says : ' That by Doniert 
 is meant Dungerth, King of Cornwall about the 
 beginning of the ninth century, drowned in the 
 year 872 or 873, cannot be disputed.' 
 
 The name is a name of dignity, and this 
 Doniert was not only a Prince, but a man of 
 peace and of a peaceful country, and of great 
 piety, as this solicitude for his soul testifies. 
 
 This county is richer in ancient stone crosses, 
 sculptured and inscribed, than any other in the 
 United Kingdom. In * Dives et Pauper,' a ' worke 
 emprynted by Wyken de Worde,' in 1476, there is 
 the following assertion : 
 
 ' For thys reason ben crosses by ye waye than 
 whan folke passyinge se ye crosses, they shoulde 
 thynke on Hym that dyed on ye Crosse, and wor- 
 shippe Hym above al thynge.' 
 
 On a panel in Pengersick Castle, Cornwall, the 
 following lines are inscribed, under a painting 
 representing water dripping from a well : 
 
 ' What thing is harder than a rock ? 
 What softer is than water clear ? 
 Yet will the same, with often drop. 
 The hard rock pierce which doth appear ; 
 Even so, there nothing is so hard to attayne, 
 But may be had with labour, and with pain.' 
 
English Inscriptions 41 
 
 At Boconnoc (three miles north-east of Lost- 
 withiel Railway-station) there are the remains of 
 an ancient cross, erected on a modern shaft and 
 pedestal, raised on three steps, and upon it the 
 following inscription : 
 
 ' ON THIS HILL, 
 
 ONCE THE SITE OF DRUID IDOLATRY, 
 
 AND IN LATER TIMES 
 
 THE SCENE OF CIVIL BLOODSHED, 
 
 THIS ANCIENT SYMBOL 
 
 OF THE HOLY RELIGION OF THE REDEEMER 
 
 IS ERECTED, 
 
 IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT 
 
 OF THE BLESSINGS OF A PURE FAITH.' 
 
 Norfolk. 
 
 From the far south-west I now conduct my 
 readers to the north-east of England, where the 
 large majority of house inscriptions is certainly 
 of a religious character ; but we sometimes find 
 some of a quaint and amusing kind. At Wymond- 
 ham, Norfolk, such are to be found. One is 
 engraved on an oak board, and all on one line, 
 viz. : 
 
 * NEC MIHI GLIS SERVUS, NEC HOSPES HIRUDO.' 
 
 Translated from the Latin, in which it appears 
 in antique Roman capital letters, it may be 
 rendered : No dormouse as a servant for me, 
 
42 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 neither a horse-leech for a guest. (N.B, : Glis 
 is not classical Latin.) In reading this shrewd 
 advertisement and timely warning to all who 
 would seek a domicile within, it seems to me 
 that the old-time owner of the house had had 
 experience of a guest such as, some years ago, 
 imposed her company on a friend of my own. 
 She was a travelling acquaintance, and exerted 
 herself — as an item, I suppose, of her stock-in- 
 trade — to make herself specially agreeable. The 
 bait took my hospitable but most unwary friend, 
 and, at parting at the post-town near her own 
 country place, she said that if the pleasant 
 stranger were ever passing that way again she 
 would be pleased to meet her. What was her 
 surprise and dismay when, one not-to-be-forgotten 
 day, a cab drove up covered with luggage, and the 
 traveller entered, saying sweetly : ' You see, I 
 have taken you at your word, and am come to 
 pay you a visit.' A week passed over, but no 
 word of parting was uttered. A fortnight dragged 
 through its weary length, and hints began to give 
 warning to the guest ; but ' none are so blind as 
 those who won't see,' and the third week was 
 creeping through, when, in sheer desperation, the 
 hostess informed the ' leech ' that they were all 
 leaving home next day, and the house would 
 be shut up in their absence. Then only they 
 shook her off and saw her no more. I was living 
 in the parish when this episode took place. 
 
 But not alone are mottoes restricted to our old 
 
English Inscriptions 43 
 
 county houses, for some make picturesque and 
 interesting our little cottage homesteads in other 
 counties than Devonshire, and it is pleasant to see 
 the ancient practice revived also on many of our 
 modern buildings. One of these humble domi- 
 ciles, standing close to the road leading from 
 Sedgeford Village to the Hall so named, in Nor- 
 folk, is decorated with two painted inscriptions — 
 one on the east, and the other on the west side. 
 The former bears the couplet, 
 
 ' Oh, timely happy, timely wise, 
 Hearts that with rising morn arise,' 
 
 and the latter side, 
 
 ' Though the day be never so long, 
 It ringeth at length to evensong.' 
 
 The White Hart Inn at Scole, in the same 
 county, is thus described by Sir Thomas Brown : 
 ' (1663-4) : I came to Scoale, where is a very 
 handsome inne and the noblest signe post in 
 England ; about, and upon which, are carved a 
 great many stories, as of Charon and Cerberus, 
 Actseon and Diana, and many others. The signe 
 itself is a white hart, which hanges down, carved 
 in a stately wreath.' The building is a large one 
 of brick, adorned with imagery and carved work, 
 in several places as big as life. It was built in 
 1665, by James Peck, Esq., whose arms, impaling 
 his wife's, are over the porch door. 
 
 The sign is very beautiful, covered all over with 
 
44 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 a great number of figures of large stature, carved 
 in wood, the work of Fairchild ; and the arms 
 about it are those of the chief gentry and towns 
 in the county. The sign was not taken down till 
 after the year 1795. It passed across the road, 
 attached to the house on one side and to a pier of 
 brickwork on the other, and carriages could drive 
 under the arch. The respective arms of Mr. Peck 
 and his wife are supported by an angel each, and 
 under the sign of the inn itself the motto is 
 inscribed : 
 
 'IMPLENTUR VETERIS BACCHI PINGUISQUE 
 FERINE. ANNO DOM. 1655,' 
 
 also the name of the sculptor and designer, 
 
 •JOHANNES FAIRCHILD, STRUXIT.' 
 
 Amongst many other figures, mythical and 
 otherwise. Time was represented as devouring an 
 infant. The inscription underneath them ran : 
 
 'tempus edax rerum,' 
 
 and below the figure of Actseon the words, 
 addressed to his dogs, who surrounded him : 
 
 'acTjEon ego sum dominum cognoscite 
 
 VESTRUM.' 
 
 Suffolk. 
 
 Of a grotesque character I may gather a 
 specimen in the neighbouring county of Suffolk. 
 
English Inscriptions 45 
 
 It is one at West Stow Hall, where some paint- 
 ings were discovered within the past century. I 
 cannot tell the precise date, but that they are 
 ancient is evident. One of them represents a boy 
 hawking, who is saying, ' Thus doe I all the day.' 
 The next shows a young man courting, who says, 
 ' Thus doe I while I may.' The third picture is 
 that of a man of middle age, who says, with 
 apparent regret, ' So did I while I might.' And 
 the last of the series shows an aged man, groping 
 along on his weary way, and exclaiming, ' Good 
 Lord, let not this life last for ever !' — a somewhat 
 unnecessary petition. 
 
 That Latin should appear in churches and on 
 church gates is natural, as the learned clerks, 
 conducting the services and directing repairs and 
 improvements, were likely to adopt the language 
 of letters. Thus, on the steeple of Helmington 
 Church, in the same county, an inscription may 
 be seen running thus : 
 
 'SCANDIT AD .ETHEREA VIRGO PUERPERA 
 VIRGULA JESSE,' 
 
 which means, The child-bearing Virgin rises to the 
 heavens ; the rod of Jesse. 
 
 Lincolnshire. 
 
 In the South Kensington Museum a plaster cast 
 may be seen, taken from the chimney-piece on 
 the entrance floor of Tattershall Castle, Lincoln- 
 
46 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 shire, described by Mrs. Palliser as a ' stately ' 
 building, erected by Ralph, Lord Cromwell 
 (Lord High Treasurer from 1434 to 1444). The 
 chimney-piece is of stone, and carved upon it, in- 
 alternate succession with his arms and Treasury 
 purses, together with his motto, is : 
 
 ' NAY JE DROIT.' 
 
 Essex. 
 
 Driving through several pretty villages in the 
 neighbourhood of Colchester, I recently passed 
 a cottage having a square inscribed stone over 
 the door. The road led up and down a series of 
 steep hills, which elicited the benevolent address 
 to the passers-by : 
 
 'the dumb animals' humble petition. 
 
 ' Rest, driver ; rest on this steep hill ; 
 Dumb beast pray use with all good will. 
 Goad not, scourge not with thonged whips ; 
 Let not one curse escape your lips. 
 God sees and hears.' 
 
 It is an expression of humane thought, doing 
 credit to the little village of Dedham. 
 
 Lancashire. 
 
 There is a long inscription on the colonnade end 
 of Knowsley Hall, Lancashire on the ill return 
 made by Charles IL to the Derby family : ' James, 
 
English Inscriptions 47 
 
 Earl of Derby, Lord of Man and the Isles, having 
 been beheaded for his adherence to him at Bolton, 
 XV October, MDCLIL, and was rewarded for his 
 fidelity by the King's refusal to sanction a Bill 
 passed by both Houses of Parliament for restor- 
 ing to the family the estate lost by his loyalty 
 to him.' 
 
 At Speke Hall, near Liverpool, there is an 
 inscription of special interest on the frieze of 
 the panelling in the hall, because it is credited 
 with having been transferred to its present posi- 
 tion from Holyrood Palace, after the Battle of 
 Flodden Field. It runs thus : 
 
 ' SLEPE . NOT . TEIL . YE . HATHE . CONSIDERED . 
 HOW . THOW . HATHE . SPENT . YE . DAY . 
 PAST . IF . THOW . HAVE . WELL . DON . 
 THANK . GOD . IF . OTHRWAYS . REPENT . YE.' 
 
 There is another over the door of the oak 
 drawing-room, which reads thus : 
 
 * THE STREGHTEST WAY TO HEAVEN IS GOD TO 
 LOVE, AND SERVE ABOVE ALL THING.' 
 
 There is a couplet to be seen on a beam of 
 what remains of the fine old country seat, Brad- 
 ley Hall, Lancashire, now reduced to the level of 
 a farmhouse, viz. : 
 
 ' Here Mister doth and Mistress both agree, with one accord. 
 With godlye Mindes and zealous heartes to serve the living 
 
 LORDE.' 
 
48 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 A modern example appears over the staircase 
 of a handsome house near Wavertree, in the same 
 county, near Liverpool : 
 
 ' BENEDIC ANIMA MEA, DOMINO, ET NOLI OBLI- 
 VISCI OMNES RETRIBUTIONES EJUS' 
 
 (Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all 
 His benefits — or recompenses). 
 
 Westmorland. 
 
 The ancient mansion of Leven Hall, Westmor- 
 land, at about six miles south of Kendal, is famous 
 for its wood carvings. The chimney-piece in the 
 library consists of representations of the seasons, 
 the elements, and five senses, and the jambs of 
 the figures of Hercules and Samson. The follow- 
 ing lines are cut in the old oak : 
 
 ' Thus the five senses stand portraited here, 
 The elements four, and seasons of the year ; 
 Samson supports the one side as in rage, 
 The other, Hercules, in like equipage.' 
 
 Durham. 
 
 On a ceiling at Brancepeth Castle, South 
 Durham, the stronghold of the Nevills in time 
 of war, are the two mottoes : 
 
 ' MOYS (or mens) DROYTE,' 
 'OU JE TIENS FFRME.' 
 
English Inscriptions 49 
 
 The latter was the ancient motto of the family, 
 changed in later times to Ne vile velis, a pun on 
 their name. 
 
 Cumberland. 
 
 Carlisle contributes a brief but admirable motto 
 to our list, in the words : 
 
 • BE JUST, AND FEAR NOT.' 
 
 I regret that it is the only one I know in this 
 county. 
 
 Yorkshire. 
 
 Yorkshire contributes several examples to our 
 collection of inscriptions and mottoes, as, for 
 example, in the same fretwork letters which form 
 a parapet (giving the French word Desormais) on 
 Skipton Castle, Yorks, the ancient seat of the 
 Cliffords, now of Lord Hothfield. Also the quaint 
 rough lines of appeal to the worshippers in 
 Aldmondbury Church, Yorks, bearing date 1522 : 
 
 ' Thou man unkind, have in thy mind 
 
 My bloody face ; 
 My wounds wide on every side 
 
 For thy trespass. 
 Thou sinner hard, turn hitherward : 
 
 Behold thy Saviour free. 
 Unkind thou art from me to depart, 
 When mercy I would grant thee.' 
 
 There is an old manor-house, likewise in York- 
 shire, of the time of either Edward VI. or Mary, 
 
 4 
 
50 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 on which there is a carved inscription on wood, 
 viz. : 
 
 ' SOLI DEO HONOR ET GLORIA. 
 I.H.C. FOR THY WOVNDES SMERTE, 
 ON THY FET & HONDES TWO, MAKE 
 ME IN . . . 
 
 ***** 
 . . . TER IS POVERTE WI . . . 
 . . . NES THEN . . . ISE 
 WITH SORO AND SADNESS. 
 I.H.C. KEPE THE FOWNDER. AMEN.' 
 
 Over the door of the schoolmaster's house at 
 Leyburn, Yorkshire, the following motto is to be 
 seen, of which I cannot give the date : 
 
 ' Time is thou hast ; see that thou well employ. 
 Time past is gone ; thou canst not that employ. 
 Time future is not, and may never be ; 
 Time present is the only time for thee.' 
 
 At Hexham, in the same county, we find a 
 Latin inscription, and one with which we are 
 well acquainted, viz. : 
 
 • HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENS. W. S. ANO DOMINI 
 1638.' 
 
 ' SOLI . DEO . CCELI . AC . SOLI CREATORI . LAUS . 
 IVLII . 15 AO DNI . 164I .' 
 
 (From God all things, everywhere around. To the 
 God of the sun, of the sky, and to the Creator 
 of the sun, be praise. July 15, a.d. 1641.) 
 
English Inscriptions 51 
 
 NORTHANTS. 
 
 In most of our counties such memorials of the 
 thoughts of wise men — or, perhaps, of quaint and 
 mirthful ones — are still to be found, although 
 comparatively but sparsely scattered about the 
 country. There is one which conveys a salutary 
 hint or reminder to future generations who may 
 pass that way, inscribed over the door of a house 
 at Towcester, Northants, cut on stone : 
 
 ' Here that eameth wages 
 By labour and care By 
 The Blessing of GOD may 
 Have something to spare. 
 
 T. B. 1618.' 
 
 (The second ' By ' should have begun the following 
 line, but did not do so.) 
 
 On the roof of the ancient Castle of Rocking- 
 ham, in the same shire, the following inscription 
 may be seen : 
 
 ' The house shal be preserved, and never will decay. 
 Where the Almightie God is honoured and served daye by 
 daye.' 
 
 If this be true, even as a general rule, the 
 deplorable condition of most of our magnificent 
 old castles speaks but ill of their possessors. But 
 it is probable that the frequent change of owner- 
 ship, and the inadequate means possessed by the 
 successive heirs or purchasers, proved the natural 
 cause of their decay, and ' the stitch in time ' was 
 
 4—2 
 
52 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 not taken. The castle above named is at present 
 the seat of the Watson family, and is attached to 
 the remains of one of much earlier date. It was 
 occupied by Edward III. and his Court, and 
 garrisoned for Charles I. by Sir William Watson, 
 subsequently created Lord Rockingham. 
 
 The castle was originally erected for the 
 defence of the extensive ironworks in Rocking- 
 ham Forest. In olden times the dining-halls 
 were specially selected places for mottoes and 
 addresses of a religious and moral character, 
 such as that recorded in the ancient castle above 
 named. 
 
 Still gathering my collection from the shire of 
 Northampton, the motto 
 
 ' UP, AND BE DOING, AND GOD WILL PROSPER,' 
 
 may be seen on a kind of memorial-stone in 
 Althorpe Park, which, it appears, had reference 
 to the plantation made there by Sir William 
 Spencer in 1624. 
 
 A subsequent peer of the name placed another 
 stone in the park, who had improved the demesne 
 in the same way in 1798, and again a third in 
 1890. The first bore the words : 
 
 ' SERIS FACTURA NEPOTIBUS ' 
 
 (About to do [good] to distant grandchildren) ; and 
 the second : 
 
 ' UNO AVULSO NON DEFICIT ALTER ' 
 
English Inscriptions 53 
 
 (or, One being plucked up, another is not wanting) 
 — a quotation from Horace. 
 
 Buckinghamshire. 
 
 Some thirty-one mottoes severally surmount the 
 doors of Harleyford, Marlow, Buckinghamshire, 
 of which I shall only give two or three specimens, 
 which are quite worth recording, as representative 
 of devout feeling and the good breeding of the 
 proprietor, that over the entrance portico being 
 a specially good one, viz. : 
 
 'if thou speakest evil of thy neighbour, 
 
 COME NOT nigh THE DOOR OF THIS HOUSE.' 
 ' PEACE ON EARTH, GOODWILL TOWARDS WOMEN,' 
 
 seems somewhat prophetic of present progress ; 
 also, 
 
 'for GOD, QUEEN, AND COUNTRY,' 
 
 a motto resembling the national motto of the 
 Tyrol — ' God, King, and country.' 
 
 A very noteworthy piece of advice, anent the 
 rules of good breeding, is found over another 
 door, i.e., 
 
 ' IN WAITING FOR A LATE GUEST, INSULT IS 
 OFFERED TO THE PUNCTUAL ONES;' 
 
 also, 
 
 *AS CREATURES PASSING FROM TIME TO ETERNITY, 
 LET US REMEMBER OUR BED MAY BE THE 
 BRIDGE ;' 
 
54 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 and, 
 
 ' AN OBEDIENT WIFE GOVERNS HER HUSBAND ' 
 
 — a hint worth recording. We recommend it to 
 the serious consideration of every young wife. To 
 yield in the first instance is the most gracious and 
 the surest way to conquer in the end. 
 
 Hereford. 
 
 A curious inscription of a comical kind is to be 
 seen on a house on Dinmore Hill, Herefordshire, 
 between the town and Leominster. It is illus- 
 trated by the figure of a man holding an axe, and 
 the words run thus : 
 
 ' He that gives away before that he is dead, 
 Take this hatchet and chop off his head.' 
 
 It would seem that the proprietor had suffered 
 from a too generous and confiding disposition, 
 and was over-reached by some unworthy subject 
 of his kindness. Thus he sought to warn the 
 equally good and ' green,' and it might be, too 
 trustful, reader of making what is known, in law 
 phraseology, as a ' deed of gift,' meant only to 
 come into force after death. But this is only my 
 private supposition. 
 
 Huntingdonshire. 
 
 At Folkesworth, near Stilton, Huntingdonshire, 
 an inscription accompanies the tavern sign of the 
 Fox, due to a Cockney poet : 
 
English Inscriptions 55 
 
 ' I • Ham • a • cunen • Fox 
 You • see • ther " his • 
 No • harm " atched • 
 To • me • It ■ is ■ my • Mrs. 
 Wish • to ■ place " me ' 
 Here • to • let • you • no • 
 He • sells • good • Beere.' 
 
 Northumberland. 
 
 Northumberland supplies us with a quaint piece 
 of advice of a somewhat worldly-wise character, 
 indited about a century later, or rather more, and 
 to be seen over the entrance of the Plough Inn 
 at Alnwick, the lines being written without 
 reference to their comparative length and their 
 natural punctuation : 
 
 ' That which your Father, 
 Old hath purchased and left 
 You to possess, do you dearly 
 Hold to show his worthiness. 
 
 N. W. 1714.' 
 
 Of the following three or four counties I can 
 only give single examples, although it is likely 
 that more exist unknown to me. 
 
 Worcester. 
 
 There is a motto on the Guildhall, Worcester, 
 over the principal door, viz. : 
 
 ' FLOREAT SEMPER FIDELIS CIVITOS.' 
 
 On one side is a statue of Charles I. holding a 
 
56 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 church, and one of Charles II. on the other. 
 The motto is rendered by the copyist : ' May the 
 faithful King always flourish.' 
 
 Civitos means a city or State, yet the introduc- 
 tion of a church, held in the King's hand, when 
 taken in connection with his faithfulness to her 
 (as representing the Church of England, costing 
 him his life) would seem to make the civitos 
 incorrect. 
 
 Derbyshire. 
 
 The pious mind of him who devised the motto 
 for the mantelpiece at Hardwick Hall, Derby- 
 shire, left a good lesson for future visitors : 
 
 ' the conclusion of all things is to feare 
 god and keepe his commandments.' 
 
 Shropshire. 
 
 A Latin motto surmounts the entrance of 
 Benthall Hall, Shropshire : 
 
 'tende bene et alta pete' 
 
 — to be rendered, ' Strive on well, and seek high 
 place,' explained in Archer's parlance, ' Aim at the 
 gold ' — not at the outer, less honourable circles ; 
 or. Your standard should be the highest. 
 
 Cheshire. 
 
 Cheshire is, perhaps, richer in such memorials 
 of the past than most of our English shires and 
 
English Inscriptions 57 
 
 counties. At Bramall Hall, in this shire, the 
 arms of Queen Elizabeth are shown on the 
 chimney-piece of the hall, accompanied by the 
 inscription : 
 
 ' VIVE LA ROYNE.' 
 
 A very remarkable house in that unique street 
 known as Watergate Street — so representative 
 of the beautiful ancient city — stands the most 
 interesting memorial of long-past times, called 
 Bishop Lloyd's House. It is covered with 
 sculptured representations of Scripture history, 
 but no inscriptions nor mottoes ; but one bears 
 the grateful acknowledgment of the special mercy 
 of God towards the dwellers therein, when, 
 amidst all its plague-smitten neighbours, it was 
 the one solitary dwelling where the gruesome 
 Black Death entered not. Thus, over the wooden 
 colonnade the motto was engraved by the grateful 
 owner : 
 
 ' 1652 god's providence is mine inheritance 
 1652.' 
 
 Specimens of art very often accompany the in- 
 scriptions on the houses of our predecessors, as 
 we have already observed. This is the case at 
 Moreton Hall, Cheshire, a beautiful old two- 
 story, gabled house, lined and decorated all over 
 with the characteristic outside beams specially 
 remarkable in that county. In this house we find 
 a figure of Fortune at the western end of the long 
 
58 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 gallery, carved in the panelling, and the repre- 
 sentation of a wheel, bearing the Latin words, 
 
 •QUI MODO SCANDIT CORRUET STATIM,' 
 
 which mean, ' who in a hurry climbs will 
 quickly fall,' and underneath these lines : 
 
 'THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE, 
 WHOSE RULE IS IGNORANCE.' 
 
 At the eastern end of the same gallery there is 
 a figure of Fate, holding a globe in one hand, and 
 in the other a pair of compasses (could a pair of 
 scissors have been intended ?), and the lines : 
 
 ' THE SPEARE OF DESTINY,* 
 WHOSE RULE IS KNOWLEDGE.' 
 
 In the hall or banquet-room of beautiful 
 Haddon Hall, Cheshire, where I spent a delight- 
 ful day some years ago, the words are inscribed : 
 
 ' drede god, and honour the king.' 
 
 Buckinghamshire. 
 
 At Chicheley Hall, near Newport Pagnell, 
 Bucks, the seat of the Chester family, the follow- 
 ing inscription will be seen on a beam in a large 
 room: 
 
 ' CAVE NE DEUM OFFENDAS, CAVE NE PROXIMUM 
 LIEDAS, CAVE NE TuA NEGLIGENTiA FAMI- 
 LIAM DESECRAS, 1550,' 
 
 * Spelling at fault. 
 
English Inscriptions 59 
 
 of which the translation is, ' Beware lest thou 
 offend God ; beware lest thou injure thy neigh- 
 bours ; beware lest by thy negligence thou neglect 
 thy family.' 
 
 Leicestershire. 
 
 We have a tavern in Leicestershire — i.e., the 
 Wentworth Arms at Kirkby Mallory — which sup- 
 plies us with the following : 
 
 ' May he who has little to spend spend nothing in drink ; 
 May he who has more than enough keep it for better uses ; 
 May he who goes in to rest never remain to riot ; 
 And he who fears God elsewhere never forget Him here.' 
 
 Poor, conscientious Boniface ! you were to be 
 pitied in your sore conflict between conscience 
 versus your pecuniary interests. 
 
 A specially-interesting inscription was once to 
 be seen, wrought in basso-relievo, in St. Edward's 
 Chapel, Westminster Abbey, giving the whole 
 legend of the Confessor's meeting with a pilgrim, 
 supposed to be St. John (' the Divine '). On this 
 occasion the former presented the Apostle with a 
 gold ring jewelled with a sapphire. The meeting 
 took place at Havering-atte-Bower, Essex (the 
 name originating from the event). Other records 
 say that the ring was presented to the King by 
 the pilgrim. The MS. No. 2,165 in the Harleian 
 Museum gives an illustration of St. Edward's 
 crest — i.e., a hand erect, proper, out of a ducal 
 
6o House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 coronet, holding a ring showing a flower re- 
 sembling a forget-me-not. An illustration, copied 
 from the ancient MS., may be seen in Mrs. Bury 
 Palliser's most interesting work, ' Historic Devices, 
 Badges, and War-cries,' p. 355 (Sampson Low, 
 Son, and Marston). 
 
 WALES 
 
 I regret to say that Wales has found but a 
 very small place in my collection, for I am only 
 acquainted with two examples of mottoes in that 
 part of the kingdom. One is at Lower Soughton, 
 Flintshire, viz., 
 
 • WHEN FRIENDS MEET, HEARTS WARM,' 
 
 which motto is cut in the stone mantelpiece. 
 
 A Greek inscription also is to be found on 
 Conway Castle, Carnarvonshire, which may be 
 translated ' Bear and forbear,' a curiously-selected 
 motto for a feudal stronghold built for warlike 
 purposes. 
 
PART III 
 
 SCOTTISH AND IRISH INSCRIPTIONS 
 
 SCOTLAND 
 
 AT a short distance from the town of Forres, 
 in the county of Elgin, Scotland, there is 
 a very remarkable monolith. It is ad- 
 mitted to be the most singular monument in 
 Britain — perhaps in Europe. It is cut out of a 
 large block of granite of the hardest kind to 
 be found in Scotland, and measures 25 feet 
 in height, and at its base nearly 4 feet in 
 breadth. The stone is divided into several com- 
 partments, each compartment being engraved 
 with strange figures of men on horseback, bow- 
 men, and the like. The origin of this strange 
 stone is, unfortunately, quite unknown. Almost 
 every historian, traveller, arid antiquary in Scot- 
 land has more or less turned his attention to it, 
 but no two of them are agreed as to the purposes 
 for which it was erected. Some suppose, from 
 the circumstance of a cross on the obverse side, 
 that it was erected to commemorate the first 
 
62 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 establishment of Christianity in Scotland. This, 
 however, is very unlikely, for had such been its 
 object it is difficult to see what connection so 
 many warlike figures could have had with it. 
 Others maintain that it was erected by the Scots 
 to commemorate the defeat of the Danes at the 
 Battle of Mortlach ; but this view is also very 
 improbable, as that battle was fought fully twenty 
 miles from the spot where the stone stands. The 
 hypothesis of the Rev. Charles Cordiner, a distin- 
 guished Northern antiquarian of the last century, 
 seems the most probable. His opinion is that it 
 was raised in memory of the defeat by the Scots 
 of those Scandinavian adventurers who had in 
 the ninth century established themselves on the 
 neighbouring promontory of Burghead. The 
 traditions of the country are certainly more in 
 favour of this view than of the others. The very 
 name, ' Sueno's Stone,' which it has retained from 
 time immemorial, seems, indeed, to point to the 
 Norwegian monarch having in some way been 
 connected with its erection. 
 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 My selection of representative house inscrip- 
 tions, and others, shall be taken from Edinburgh 
 in the first instance. On the house of John Knox 
 we find one in capital letters : 
 
 ' LUFE GOD ABVEE AL ; AND YI NICHTBORS AS 
 YI SELF.' 
 
Scottish and Irish Inscriptions 
 
 W3M 
 
 63 
 
 Ancient Monument near Forres, Elgin, N.B. 
 
64 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 On the front of another old dwelling in the 
 Cowgate we may read : 
 
 ' Gif we deid as we sould, 
 We myght haif as we vould.' 
 
 Again, there was a pious admonition or expres- 
 sion of thanksgiving executed in iron letters over 
 an ancient window on Tower Hill, adjoining the 
 abode of Mary of Guise, the mother of Mary, 
 Queen of Scots, which was taken down between 
 the years 1850 and i860, viz. : 
 
 ' LAUS DEO ' 
 (Praise be to God). 
 
 In the same religious spirit, we find inscribed 
 in capital letters on a house in the Fountain 
 Close : 
 
 ' ONLY BE CRYST.' ' ARYS O LORD.' 
 ' VINCET VERITAS.' ' 1573.' 
 
 There is a sculptured stone over a large window 
 in the College Wynd, Cowgate, which is sur- 
 mounted by an inscription in very antique letters : 
 
 'AVE MARIA GRATIA PLENA DOMINUS TECUM.' 
 
 Another inscription is carved on the Cordiners' 
 seat (or loft), viz. : 
 
 • THY SHOES SHALL BE IRON AND BRASS, AND AS 
 THY DAYS SO SHALL THY STRENGTH BE.' 
 
 An old member of the trade remarked that the 
 text was ' mair consolin' to a Christian than com- 
 
Scottish and Irish Inscriptions 65 
 
 fortin' to a Cordiner ; for the less iron and brass 
 about the shoon the better !' 
 
 Again, over the door of the old Assembly Room, 
 in the West Bow, the arms of the Somerville 
 family are well sculptured, with the initials P. J. 
 and J. W. and the date 1602, Peter and Bar- 
 tholomew Somerville. The architrave also bears 
 the legend : 
 
 ' IN DOMINO CONFIDO.' 
 
 Daniel Douglas's tavern, in the Anchor Close, 
 near the Cross, deserves mention. The house is 
 extremely ancient, and was probably built for 
 some religious purpose, for over the door there 
 is the following very ancient inscription : 
 
 ' O LORD IN THE IS AL MY TRAIST.' 
 
 I am speaking of the house as it was so long ago 
 as about 1625, when it had been shut up already 
 for a great many years, and the long, high, 
 church-looking windows and door were covered 
 with dust. I am unable to say whether it has 
 been under destructive agency, or even by this 
 time demolished. 
 
 If you pass down the narrow alley, you will 
 find, on the left, the entrance to a stairway, over 
 which are inscribed the words : 
 
 'THE LORD IS MY ONLY SUPORT.' 
 
 Just beyond this there is a precatory motto, 
 under an architrave : 
 
 ' BE MERCIFUL TO ME.' 
 
66 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 Further on down the close there is, or was (we 
 believe a number of these old houses have been 
 demolished), a very ancient dwelling, bearing the 
 superscription : 
 
 'augvsta ad vsvm avgvsta[m] 
 
 W. F. B. G.' 
 
 The ' speaking house,' presenting three gables 
 to the street, gives a good idea (says Robert 
 Chambers, in his ' Traditions of Edinburgh ') of 
 the insecurity which marked the domestic life of 
 300 years ago, having no door in front, a port- 
 cullis giving admittance to a close behind, which, 
 when closed, the inhabitants were in a tolerably 
 defensible position. It was built in the year of 
 the assassination of the Regent Moray. 
 
 On a tablet over the ground-floor is the inscrip- 
 tion : 
 
 ' HODIE MIHI : CRAS TIBI. CUR IGITUR CURAS ? 
 
 1570' 
 (or, I am the happy man to-day : your turn may 
 come to-morrow. Why, then, should you com- 
 plain ?). 
 
 ' UT TU LINGUiE TU^, SIC EGO MEARUM AUREUM 
 DOMINUS SUM ' 
 
 (or. As thou of thy tongue, so I of my ears, am 
 Lord). 
 Along the front of the house the owner says, 
 
 'CONSTANTI PECTORI RES MORTALIUM UMBRA,' 
 
Scottish and Irish Inscriptions 67 
 
 and the emblem of the resurrection — ears of 
 wheat springing from a handful of bones. 
 
 The early history of this house is lost, but in 
 1647 the Canongate magistrates granted a charter 
 for it to the Hammermen of that burg; and it 
 was subsequently occupied (in 1753) by the 
 Dowager Duchess of Gordon. 
 
 There is a handsome house hard by with a 
 crest over the gateway enclosing the court, viz., 
 a cock standing on a trumpet, with the motto 
 Vigilantibus and the date 1633, and over two 
 upper windows the letters S. A. A. and 
 D. M. H. These were respectively the initials 
 of Sir Archibald Acheson, of Abercairnny, Secre- 
 tary of State for Scotland to Charles I., and of 
 his wife, Dame Margaret Hamilton. 
 
 In Blackfriars Wynd, an alley leading to the 
 old monastery, we may read the following over a 
 doorway : 
 
 ' In Te Domine speravi 
 Nisi Dominus frustra. 
 
 ' BISSIT BE GOD IN ALL HIS GIFTES. 
 
 ' Pax in intrantibus 
 Salus exeuntibus 
 Misereri mei Deus.' 
 
 These latter inscriptions were written over the 
 entrance of a house of which the upper floor was 
 employed as a Roman Catholic chapel. 
 
 In the Anchor Close, over the first entrance, 
 there are these words : 
 
 5—2 
 
68 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 'THE LORD JESUS ONLY MY SUPORT.' 
 
 In the Old Bank Close, the house of most 
 ancient date is that of Robert Gourlay, which 
 has the appearance of a castle, and over a door 
 leading by a stairway to the first-floor the follow- 
 ing inscription : 
 
 ' IN THE IS AL MY TRAIST. I569 ' 
 
 — much the same motto as that over Daniel 
 Douglas's tavern. 
 
 The house of Mary de Guise, widow of 
 James V., a ruinous building now, still preserves 
 two brief inscriptions. One, over a door to a 
 staircase having a decorated architrave, are the 
 words, 
 
 ' LAUS ET HONOR DEO,' 
 
 both terminated by two pieces of complicated 
 lettering. One (says R. Chambers) is much 
 obliterated ; the other is a monogram of the 
 name of the Blessed Virgin Mary, formed of the 
 letters M. A., M. R., and A. M. ; or, Maria, 
 Maria Regina, and Ave Maria, the letter M 
 being beautifully designed, and composed of 
 emblems, quoting some passage of the life of 
 Our Lady in the empty spaces. At the extremities 
 of this stone were two large Roman letters, 
 I. R., or James Rex, for James V. 
 
 ' Bishop's Land,' in High Street, is a very large 
 and handsome structure, and the entry in the first- 
 floor bears the motto : 
 
Scottish and Irish Inscriptions 69 
 
 * BLISSIT BE ZE LORD FOR ALL HIS GIFTES. I578.' 
 
 This ancient house appears to have been occu- 
 pied in flats. Sir Stuart Threipland of Fingask 
 on the first floor ; on the second, the Hamiltons 
 of Pencaitland ; on the third, the Aytouns of 
 Inchdairnie ; and in the uppermost floor a 
 respectable tailor and his family. 
 
 There is a plain slab over the doorway of the 
 golfer John Paterson's house, in the Canongate, 
 which bears the inscription (composed by Dr. Pit- 
 cairn) : 
 
 ' Cum victor ludo, Scotis qui proprius esset 
 Fer tres victores post redimitus avos, 
 Pater sonus, humo tunc educebat in altum 
 Hanc, quae victores tot tulit una domum. 
 
 ' I hate no person.' 
 
 The explanation rests in the fact that he built 
 this house after a victory in which, though his 
 ancestors had often been renowned for similar 
 triumphs, he had surpassed them all. 
 
 Alison Square, celebrated as the residence of 
 the poet Campbell and the friend of the poet 
 Burns, Mrs. Maclehose, his ' Clarinda,' was distin- 
 guished also by the presence of two boards, 
 whereon was printed a globe in the act of falling, 
 with this inscription : 
 
 ' If Fortune smile, be not puffed up, 
 And if it frown, be not dismayed ; 
 For Providence govemeth all. 
 Although the world's turned upside down.' 
 
70 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 In the Netherbow is the manse of John Knox, 
 where he lived from 1560 till his death in 1572. 
 Over the long window and door of the hall, and 
 in very old lettering, is the motto : 
 
 ' LVFE . GOD . ABVFE . AL . AND . YI . NYCHTBOIR . 
 [as] YI . SELF.' 
 
 On the architrave of an ancient wooden-fronted 
 house near that of John Knox, and reputed to 
 have been that of a Lord Balmerinoch, there 
 appears a St. Andrew's cross, and a galley 
 between its lower limbs, also the words : 
 
 BLISSIT BE HIS 
 
 R.M. 
 
 NAME FOR EVER.' 
 
 ' THE LORD GIVETH 
 I. 
 AND TAKETH. 
 160I. 
 
 There is an antique house called by the curious 
 name of Mahogany Land, next door to this house, 
 and at the top of the stairs outside, over the 
 entrance door, there is the following motto, 
 
 • HE YT THOLIS OVERCVMMS ' 
 
 (He that endures overcomes [Old English]). 
 
 A brush manufacturer's shop, standing in the 
 garden of the Guise Palace, shows an inscribed 
 stone built into the wall, bearing this motto : 
 
 ' NOSCE TEIPSUM, 1557.' 
 
 There is a specially interesting relic, consisting 
 of a sculptured figure, presumably a Bishop, from 
 his wearing a mitre, to be seen in Baxter's Close, 
 
Scottish and Irish Inscriptions 71 
 
 Lawn Market. Above this, in old Gothic letters, 
 is inscribed the motto : 
 
 ' BLISSIT • BE • THE * LORD ' IN * HIS * GIFTES. 
 FOR • NOW • AND * EVER.' 
 
 A motto of very similar character in Bishop's 
 Close, High Street, is still to be seen on a house 
 once the residence of John Spottiswood, Arch- 
 bishop of St. Andrews, and surmounting its main 
 entrance, viz. : 
 
 ' BLISSIT • BE • GOD * YE * LORD " FOR * ALL " HIS * 
 GIFTES. I518.' 
 
 The old doorway of the typographer Andrew 
 Hart, whose office and residence were in Craig's 
 Close, is surmounted by the words 
 
 ' MY • HOIP ■ IS • CHRIST.' 
 
 Scottish Counties. 
 
 Leaving our quest in Edinburgh, we may now 
 pass on into the provinces. 
 
 There is a curious old inscription to be seen in 
 Stirling Castle, a portion of which appears on the 
 house of the Earl of Mar : 
 
 ' Espy • speik • furth • & • spair ■ notht " 
 Considder ■ well • cair • notht • 
 The ■ moir • I • stand • on " oppin • hitht ■ 
 My • faultes " moir • subject • ar • to • sitht. 
 
 1584.' 
 
 There is an inscription on a stone fountain at 
 
72 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 Linlithgow, in the main street, which is sur- 
 mounted with a quaint little angel, and with the 
 reassuring statement to the wayfarer : 
 
 ' ST. MICHEL IS VERY KIND TO STRANGERS.' 
 
 Carved in the stone over the doorway of Dun- 
 darrow Castle, Inverary, is the following couplet : 
 
 ' I man behald the end de nocht, 
 Wiser nor heiest hoip in God ;' 
 
 otherwise ' I must, or maun, behold the end of 
 nought, no wiser than (to have) the highest hope 
 in God ' (so a friend reads it). The sentiment 
 appears to me to be very obscurely expressed. 
 
 A visitor to Melrose Abbey, in Roxburghshire, 
 founded by David I., a.d. 1136, will probably 
 notice the following lines on the ruined gate : 
 
 ' The Earth goes on, the Earth glittering with gold ; 
 The Earth goes to the Earth sooner than it would ; 
 The Earth builds on the Earth castles and towers ; 
 The Earth says to the Earth, " All this is ours." ' 
 
 At an old half-ruined country seat, called Earls- 
 hall, at a few miles' distance from St. Andrew's, 
 Fifeshire, the panelled ceiling of the large hall 
 was at one time covered with coats of arms, and 
 the walls with inscriptions, which are now, unfor- 
 tunately, unreadable with little exception. Time 
 the destroyer and the changes of atmosphere, 
 touching them ' with effacing fingers.' 
 
 The poor remains of an inscription reads as 
 follows : 
 
Scottish and Irish Inscriptions 73 
 
 ' Be ■ merrye • and " glaid • honest • and • verteous ' 
 For • that • ...fficit • the • anger • of • the • invious • 
 Try ■ and ■ put • trust " eeter ■ gude • assurance • 
 Bot • trust ■ not " or • ye • try ' for " fear • of ■ repentance.' 
 
 There is a house by the Bridge of Allan, Stir- 
 lingshire, which once bore the name of the original 
 proprietor, by whom it was built. Circumstances 
 obliged him to sell it, and an unsympathetic 
 neighbour, residing opposite, ' improved the occa- 
 sion ' by inscribing the misspelt couplet of his 
 own : 
 
 ' Heir I forbeare my name or arms to fix, 
 Least I or myne should sell these stones and sticks.' 
 
 We doubt his possessing any ' arms ' but those of 
 flesh and bone. 
 
 At Inverkeithing we find the same motto on 
 an old house as that on the famous and beautiful 
 house in Chester ; it is dated 1688 : 
 
 ' god's providence is my inheritance.' 
 
 Another inscription in Scotland may be seen 
 over the police-station at Perth, said to be the 
 smallest city in the world : 
 
 ' THIS HOUSE LOVES PEACE, HATES KNAVES, 
 CRIMES PUNISHES, PRESERVES THE LAW, 
 AND HONOURETH GOOD MEN.' 
 
 The inscriptions and designs on an ancient 
 monolith stone, standing at a short distance 
 from the town of Forres, in Elginshire, N.B., 
 deserves special note in this place, for it is ad- 
 
74 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 mitted to be the most singular monument in Great 
 Britain, and perhaps in Europe. But I made 
 allusion to it in the Introduction to this work, 
 devoted specially to the origin and general 
 examples of ancient inscriptions. 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 It is curious to find both Latin and German 
 and likewise Dutch inscriptions in various places 
 in this country, and more especially when found 
 on a small country cottage or inn ; only that we 
 know that many a house (which now is poor in 
 appearance, and little pretentious) was held in 
 greater repute a hundred years ago, and persons 
 in the first ranks of society have been succeeded, 
 as their occupants, by the poorer classes. Thus, 
 at a small inn at Ghanganagh, Ireland, Co. Dublin, 
 we find the Latin inscription — a motto, amongst 
 many others, adopted by Queen Elizabeth : 
 
 ' SEMPER EADEM ' 
 
 (Always the same). 
 
 This motto was placed on the ' herse of Queen 
 Mary II., and set up in Westminster Abbey, and 
 was also assumed by Queen Anne by royal Act. 
 
 At Favour Royal, Co. Tyrone, the seat of the 
 Moutray family, there is an old inscription, 
 which belonged to the original house (destroyed 
 by fire), inserted into the present building, viz. : 
 
Scottish and Irish Inscriptions 75 
 
 ' WEL — COM — TO — COME — IN, — A — ND — AS — WEL 
 — COM — TO — GO.' 
 
 Adare Manor-house, in Co. Limerick, bears 
 the superscription : 
 
 ' THIS GOODLY HOUSE WAS ERECTED BY WYND- 
 HAM HENRY, EARL OF DUNRAVEN, AND CARO- 
 LINE HIS COUNTESS, WITHOUT BORROWING, 
 SELLING, OR LEAVING A DEBT, A.D. 185O.' 
 
 On the Oakley Arms, near Bray, Co. Wicklow 
 (Ireland), the following verses were inscribed : 
 
 'Friend Isaac, 'tis strange you, that live so near Bray, 
 Should not set up the sign of the Vicar ; 
 Though it may be an old one, you cannot but say 
 It must needs be a sign of good liquor. 
 
 ' Answer. 
 ' Indeed, Master Poet, your reason's but poor, 
 For the Vicar would think it a sin 
 To stay like a booby and lounge at the door ; 
 'Twere a sign of bad liquor within.' 
 
 At Clontra Shankill there is a couplet in 
 German to be seen over the hall door of Judge 
 Lawson's house, 
 
 ' Wer auf Gott vertraut, 
 Der hat auf einen Fels gebaut,' 
 
 which rendered in English means, ' Whoso upon 
 God relies, hath built upon a rock.' 
 
 Another example of a motto in German is 
 inscribed over the door of Brookhill, Clanmorris, 
 Co. Mayo : 
 
76 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 ' Unser Eingang segne Gott I 
 Unser Ausgang gleichen massen.' 
 
 Translated it would read thus : ' Our entrance 
 blest by God our outgoing happier makes.' 
 
 Perhaps one of the most curious collections of 
 mural inscriptions is to be found in the ancient 
 city of Galway. It has four gates, facing respec- 
 tively north, south, east, and west, and on each 
 was a precatory motto. That facing north bore 
 the words : 
 
 ' From the ferocious O'Flahertys, 
 Good Lord, deliver us !' 
 
 On the south gate : 
 
 ' From the devilish O'Dalys, 
 Good Lord, defend us !' 
 
 On the east gate : 
 
 ' From the cut-throat O'Kellys, 
 Good Lord, save and keep us !' 
 
 And on the west gate : 
 
 ' From the murderous O'Maddens, 
 Good Lord, preserve us I' 
 
 What a very undesirable collection of neigh- 
 bours the poor folk of Galway appear to have 
 had ! We can only wonder that a stone of the 
 city, or a descendant of the original inhabitants, 
 remains to bear their testimony to the ruffianism 
 of the aboriginal clans thus held up to reprobation. 
 
.V,.. ,,;w. .. 
 
PART IV 
 
 FOREIGN INSCRIPTIONS 
 Switzerland, Tyrol, Germany, and Austria. 
 
 IN the German-speaking countries of Europe 
 we find a richer collection of house mottoes 
 than anywhere else, and decidedly of a 
 higher religious type. To some of the examples 
 I am able to give the precise locality where they 
 may be seen, and the same inscriptions are found 
 to be frequently repeated. Of others I am only 
 able to state their nationality, and give the reader 
 the benefit of their religious teaching. 
 
 We will commence our researches in Switzer- 
 land. In the Pratigau, a fertile valley of the 
 canton Grisons, where old German is spoken (a 
 patois), but where, as in the Tyrol, Romanic 
 names remain, that language having formerly 
 been spoken here, we may reap a rich harvest of 
 house mottoes. 
 
 At Fidris, one of the villages of this valley, 
 we find the following : 
 
yS House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 ' Ein Pilger bin ich hier auf Erden ; 
 Und walle hier mir kurze Zeit ; 
 Oft unter mancherlei Beschwerden 
 Zu meinem Ziel — die Seiligkeit.' 
 
 Of this the following is a translation : 
 
 A pilgrim am I here on earth, 
 And travel here for but a brief season, 
 Often under many difficulties, 
 To my goal — eternal bliss. 
 
 Beyond the narrow gorge of the Klus, at the 
 entrance of the Pratigau Valley, in the little town 
 of Grusch, we find the inscription here following : 
 
 ' Christum kennen, sagt die Schrift, 
 AUes wissen ubertrift.' 
 
 (To know Christianity, saith the Word, 
 All wisdom exceeds.) 
 
 The piety of the ancient Swiss, and always of 
 the Tyrolese, is demonstrated by their mottoes. 
 ' Extremes meet.' Religious inscriptions are 
 chiefly seen in Roman Catholic cantons, and all 
 the Tyrol is of that Communion. But in our 
 United Kingdom religious mottoes are character- 
 istic of Presbyterian Scotland. 
 
 Still making our quest in the Orisons, we may 
 see a large chilet in Pratigau dated 1671. The 
 following inscription appears on the principal 
 fa9ade : 
 
 ' Dies Haus hab ich lassen 
 ( Bauwen, Gott werd alle ding, 
 
 \ Uh VertreAen, an Gottes Saegen 
 
 1st alles gelaegen ; waer as doch 
 
Foreign Inscriptions 79 
 
 Auch grawen, ist wol so 
 Gott endet ;' 
 
 of which the translation is : 
 
 J'ai fait bitir cette maison, 
 
 Confie toi en Dieu pour toutes choses. 
 
 Tout ddpend de la benediction de Dieu. 
 
 I have had this house built. 
 
 I will trust everything to God. 
 
 Everything depends on God's blessing. 
 
 A friend of mine, who had been for some time 
 at Davos-am-See (the Grisons) a place I have 
 never myself visited, gave me the following : 
 
 Mocht hier eine Gotteshiitte, bei uns, Menschenkindern 
 
 seinl 
 Liebe ! komm in unsere Mitte ; kehr in unserem Hause 
 
 ein.' 
 
 (May this be a house of God by us children of men ! 
 Love I come in our midst, enter our house !) 
 
 At Jenatz, also in the Grisons, there is a house 
 distinguished by a truly rehgious sentiment : 
 
 ' In Namen Gottes wil ich bauen mien all hier auf diesen 
 Platz ; 
 Auf Jesum steht mein Vertrauen ; im Himmel such ich main 
 Schatz ;' 
 
 which translated runs thus : 
 
 (In the name of God I will build here on this spot. 
 In Jesus I put my trust ; in heaven I seek my treasure). 
 
 Upon a picturesque house, just above the 
 arcades in the Herrengasse, Berne, I found the 
 following : 
 
8o House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 '1553- ISS3- 
 
 '1892. .. ' 
 
 ' Obs Haus gefj^Ut, ^^• 
 
 In Gottes schutz ists doch gestellt' 
 (Whether the house pleases, 
 
 Yet it has been placed under the protection of God.) 
 ' Sin • altes • Haus • mit " neuer • mascke ' 
 Steht ■ auch • noch " gut • der " Herrengasse.' 
 (His old house with a new mask 
 Does yet well in the Herrengasse [name of a street].) 
 
 On another, at the top of the street, close to 
 the former, I read : 
 
 ' Fasse du Zucht, lass nicht davon, 
 
 Behalt sy ; denn sy ist dein Laben.' 
 (Take to discipline, do not yield it up, 
 Keep it ; for it is thy life) 
 
 — an extract from the Book of Proverbs (iv. 13). 
 On a chalet of Saanen, in the same canton, we 
 
 find: 
 
 ' Cette maison s'est mise dans la main de Dieu. 
 Dieu protfege-la du chagrin, et de I'incendie, 
 Du malheur, et de I'inondation ; 
 En un mot, conserve-la telle qu'elle.' 
 
 On an inn at Bleienback the following may be 
 
 seen : 
 
 ' Comme cet hostellerie se tient au soleil 
 Aussi vrai, que celui qui n'a pas 
 D'argent aille se servir h. la fontaine ! 
 Peu de choses, mais bien k moi.' 
 
 There are few Swiss towns with which I am 
 better acquainted than Lucerne, yet when in 
 residence there I failed to collect mottoes, which 
 
Foreign Inscriptions 8i 
 
 are specially abundant in the Roman Catholic 
 cantons. But the following, which adorns a 
 farmhouse almost within the town, standing in 
 the fields behind the cathedral, I have found 
 amongst my notes. It is in old Swiss-German : 
 
 ' wo FRIEDE, DA FREUDE ' 
 
 — that is to say, ' Where peace is, there is joy.' 
 Friede is the Swiss for the German Frieden. 
 On a chalet at Bettelreid we find : 
 
 ' O Seigneur, par Ta grace et Ta bont^, gard cette maison du 
 
 malheur. 
 Donne h. tous ceux qui I'habitent, et k tous ceux qui y 
 
 passeront, 
 La paix, le bonheur, et Ta benediction. 
 Garde nous Ton aide prdsente, et que T'amour 
 Mais nous conduise de ce jour jusqu'i I'dternitd.' 
 
 On another chalet in the same village there is 
 the following : 
 
 ' La joie, le calme, et la moderation, 
 Ferm la porte au rnddecin.' 
 
 Passing on from Bettelreid, we find the follow- 
 ing at Schweitz : 
 
 ' Geh deinen Weg 
 Auf rechtem Steg. 
 Fahr wohl und leid, 
 Trag keinen Neid. 
 Bet, hoffauf Gott 
 In aller Noth. 
 
 Besuch' Gott's Haus : das vor dir ist 
 Da wirst du finden Jesum Christ, 
 Der deiner Seelen Heiland ist.' 
 
 6 
 
82 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 My next is an inscription on a church, dated 
 1755, of which I give the translation : 
 
 ' Go thy way 
 On the right road. 
 Do well and sorrow, 
 Do not be envious. 
 Pray, and hope in God 
 In all necessity. 
 Visit God's house : 
 There wilt thou find Jesus Christ, 
 Who thy soul's Saviour is.' 
 
 There are two Swiss towns of the name Brem- 
 garten — one in the canton de Bern, and the other 
 in Aargau. On the hospital in one of these (my 
 notes fail me in indicating which) a motto runs 
 thus : 
 
 ' Gott ist der Arzt, und ich der Knecht ; 
 Doch wen er will, so heil ich recht.' 
 
 (God is the physician, and I the servant ; 
 But if He will, I can heal and cure.) 
 
 There are several house mottoes and carvings 
 at Schinznach (Aargau), one of which runs thus : 
 
 ' Ein Haus ist wohl ein schone sach, 
 Von Menschenhanden ist's gemacht ; 
 Doch hangt es ab von Gott allein, 
 Ob Gliick, ob Ungliick Kommt hinein.' 
 
 (A house is a fine thing, 
 It is made by men's hands ; 
 But it depends on God alone 
 Whether happiness or unhappiness shall 
 come therein.) 
 
Foreign Inscriptions 83 
 
 Here follow a few more examples of Swiss 
 house mottoes as characterizing the old spirit 
 which formerly pervaded the country: 
 
 ' Dies Haus steht in Gottes Hand ; 
 Gott behiit's von Flur und Brand.' 
 
 (This house is in God's hand ; 
 God protect it from fire and flame.) 
 
 ' Lass Dich Herr Jesus Christ mein gebet bewegen. 
 Komm in mein hertz und haus, und bring mir deinen 
 
 Segen ; 
 All' Arbeit, Male', und Kunft, ohne dich nichts richten 
 
 aus, — 
 Wo Du mit graden bist, Kommt Segen in das haus. 
 
 ' Den Ein und Ausgang Gott bewahr 
 Vor falschem Freund und aller Gefahr.' 
 
 (The in and out going God preserve 
 From a false friend and all danger.) 
 
 ' Dies schone Haus ist sand und Stein ; 
 Wie werden die im Himmel sein ?' 
 
 (This beautiful house is sand and stone ; 
 What will it be in heaven ?) 
 
 ' Wer Gott vertraut 
 Hat wohl gebaut.' 
 
 (Who trusts in God 
 Hath built well.) 
 
 ' Hiit dich, fluch nicht in minem Haus, 
 Sonst gang" grad' zur Thiir hinaus, 
 Sonst, wiirde Gott vom Himmelreich 
 Uns beide straffen, mich und dich zugleich.' 
 
 6—2 
 
84 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 ' Take care, do not swear in my house, 
 Or else you'll go straight out of the door, 
 For God in His kingdom would punish 
 Us both, thee and me also.' 
 
 The next is a specially quaint example : 
 
 ' Gott behiiet dis Haus so lang' 
 Bis ein schneck die Welt umgang", 
 Und ein Ameis' diirst so sehr 
 Das sie austrinct das ganze Meer.' 
 
 (God protect this house so long 
 Till a snail has gone round the world, 
 And an ant has such a thirst 
 That she drinks up the whole sea.) 
 
 ' Die Starke Gotteshand 
 Will dieses Haus bewahren 
 Und von gemeiner Zunft 
 Abwenden all' Gefahren.' 
 
 (The strong hand of God 
 Will protect this house 
 And turn away all danger.) 
 
 ' Sei Jesus main Magnet, 
 Nachdem ich mich stats wende ; 
 Mein Leitstein fiihre mich 
 Bis an mein letztes Ende.' 
 
 (Let Jesus be my magnet, 
 To which I always turn , 
 My magnet lead me 
 To my last end.) 
 
 ' Lass' den Frieden bei uns wohnen, 
 Alle reinen sinnes sein ; 
 
Foreign Inscriptions 85 
 
 Die wir heir beisammen wohnen, 
 
 AUe deiner, Herr, uns freiien ! miissen'.' 
 
 (Let peace dwell with us, 
 
 Let all be of pure mind ; 
 Those who here together dwell, 
 
 Let them all, O Lord ! be thine.) 
 
 ' Der Weise hat sein Herz 
 Bei Gott und in dem Himmel ; 
 Der Geitzige bei viel Geld, 
 Und in dem Weltgetiimmel.' 
 
 (The wise hath his heart 
 With God and in heaven ; 
 The miser's is with his gold. 
 And in the turmoil of the world.) 
 
 ' Mein Ein- und Ausgang werdenbegleit, 
 Von Dir, O Herr Gott in Ewigkeit. 
 Er segne all mein Thun, und Lassen, 
 Und bekehre alle die mich hassen.' 
 
 (Accompany me in all my comings and 
 Goings, O Everlasting Lord. 
 He blesses all my deeds and omissions. 
 And converts all those who hate me.) 
 
 ' Wer ein- und ausgeht zu der Thiir, 
 Der soil bedenken fiir und fiir, 
 Dass unser Heiland, Jesus Christ, 
 Die einsige Thiir zum Leben ist.' 
 
 (Who in and out goes through the door, 
 He should constantly reflect, 
 That our Saviour, Jesus Christ, 
 Is the only door to life.) 
 
86 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 ' Durch Kreuz u. Pein sum Licht u. Schein ; 
 Durch Kampf u. Streit zur Ruh u. Freud.' 
 
 (Through cross and pain to light and brightness ; 
 Through war and strife to rest and joy.) 
 
 ' Wenn ich dieses Haus verlasse, 
 Und der Welt entrissen bin, 
 Fuhr' mich, Gott, die Himmelstrasse, 
 Zu der ewig'n Heimath hin.' 
 
 (When I leave this house, 
 And am torn from the world. 
 Lead me, God, by the heavenly road, 
 Up to the everlasting home.) 
 
 ' Herr, in deinen Namen geli ich aus, 
 Bewahr allzeit das ganze Haus ; 
 Mein Hausfrau, und auch die Kinder mein, 
 Lass dir, O Gott, befohlen sein.' 
 
 (Lord, in Thy Name I go out, 
 Preserve for ever the whole house ; 
 My wife, and also my children. 
 Left to Thee, O God, are entrusted.) 
 
 ' All mein Anfang zu dieser Frist 
 Gescheh im Namen Jesu Christ. 
 Er stehe bei mir friih und spat. 
 Bis all mein Thun ein Ende hat. 
 Nichts ist von ungefahr, 
 Von Gott kommt alles her ;' 
 
 which may be translated thus : 
 
 All my undertakings at present 
 
 Shall be done in the Name of Jesus Christ. 
 
 He stays by me early and late. 
 
 Until all my works an ending have. 
 
Foreign Inscriptions 87 
 
 Nothing happens by chance, 
 Prom God comes all. 
 
 Another old Swiss inscription may be included 
 amongst the others, viz. : 
 
 ' Der Gottliche segen erfiille dies Haus, 
 Und die da gehen ein und aus.' 
 
 (God's blessing fill this house, 
 
 And rest on those who go in and out.) 
 
 I regret that I cannot give more than one 
 illustration of a chalet bearing such characteristic 
 mottoes, which do so much credit to the moral 
 and religious feeling of the rural population — a 
 class which among us would be classified as 
 yeomen. But the majority of these inscriptions 
 are found upon old houses, and I cannot say 
 whether they would be representative of modern 
 national feeling. 
 
 I have given this promiscuous collection, so 
 characteristic of the rehgious sentiments of the 
 nationality, at all risk of exhausting the reader's 
 patience, some of them being so beautiful. I now 
 pass on to a neighbouring country, the Austrian 
 Tyrol. Here I might make a splendid collection, 
 chiefly religious, and exemplifying a strong and 
 childhke confidence in, and tenacity in holding on 
 to, the faith of their fathers. This simplicity is 
 combined with a dauntless ' courage of their 
 opinions,' a characteristic more noteworthy in 
 the Tyrol than in any country in Europe. To 
 
88 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 this enchanting country I now conduct my 
 readers — a land where a man is not ashamed 
 of the niche in which Providence has placed 
 him ; a land where religion walks hand-in-hand 
 with honour, industry, and manliness. As I have 
 given so many Swiss mottoes, I will restrict 
 myself to recording only a few of the Tyrolese. 
 
 Tyrol. 
 
 The following is inscribed on the Wirth's Stube, 
 in Mittewald (in the Tyrol) : 
 
 ' Wie du glaubst, so lebst du ; 
 Wie du lebst, so stirbst du ; 
 Wie du stirbst, so fahrst du ; 
 Wie du fahrst, so bleibst du ; 
 Im Himmel zur Freud ; 
 In HoUe zum Leid ; 
 In beiden Orten zur Ewigkeit ; 
 
 which may be rendered thus : 
 
 As thou beUevest, so livest thou ; 
 
 As thou livest, so diest thou ; 
 
 As thou actest so continuest thou ; 
 
 For heaven to happiness ; 
 
 In hell to sorrow ; 
 
 In both for everlasting eternity. 
 
 At Matters in Tyrol, the following may be seen : 
 
 ' Gott lieben macht selig, 
 Wein trinken macht frolich ; 
 Drum liebe Gott und trinke Wein, 
 So kannst du frolich und selig sein ;' 
 
Foreign Inscriptions 89 
 
 which reads thus in English : 
 
 To love God makes holy 
 To drink wine makes cheerful ; 
 Therefore love God and drink wine, 
 So wilt thou cheerful and holy be. 
 
 In Baumkirchen, Tyrol, we have the following : 
 
 ' Dies Hause gehort nicht mein, 
 Der nach mir kommt auch nicht sein ; 
 Man trug auch den Dritten, hinaus : 
 Ach Gott ! wem gehort dieses Haus ?' 
 
 of which sad inquiry — to which no reply could be 
 given, as all our earthly possessions are but a 
 loan — the translation is as follows : 
 
 This house belongs not to me, 
 Neither to him who comes after me ; 
 They carried out the third also (to burial) : 
 Ah, God ! to whom belongs this house ? 
 
 In the wonderful Dolomite department of the 
 Austrian Tyrol, not very far from Cortina, is the 
 little hamlet of Venas, and above the door of the 
 white church at the roadside there is the following 
 inscription (in Latin) translated thus : 
 
 ' The external temple belongs to God ; see that the heart 
 be not given to His enemy. 
 
 ' The temple made with hands is pleasing to God, but the 
 temple more pleasing to Him is the heart free from evil.' 
 
 At Domegga, a village near Pieve di Cadore, in 
 the Italian Tyrol, on a fine Gothic window of a 
 splendid palace of the long past (one of about 
 fifty houses of the old Cadorin type left standing 
 
90 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 after the fire of 1871, which destroyed the wooden 
 village) the following inscription may be seen : 
 
 ' Laudate sempre sia 
 II nome di Gesu, e de Maria ; 
 E sempre sia laudato 
 II nome de Gesu, Verbo incarnate' 
 
 Austria. 
 
 Turning from the Austrian Tyrol to Austria 
 proper, I can give two examples of inscriptions, 
 taken from the old castle at Lachsenburg, near 
 Vienna : 
 
 ' Rerum irrecuperabilium felicitas est oblivic' 
 
 (Happiness is the forgetfulness of things beyond recall.) 
 
 In the grounds surrounding the castle there is 
 a representation of a hermitage, over the door of 
 which are the words, 
 
 ' BEATA SOLITUDE ' 
 
 (what a misanthropic sentiment 1), and on the 
 inner wall : 
 
 ' Mensch, Konig der Erde, Meisterstiick der Schopfung, 
 Ven Gottes Hauch, bescelt, fiille deine hohe Bestimmung.' 
 (Man, king of the earth, masterpiece of creation, 
 Inspired by God's breath, fulfil thy high destiny.) 
 
 Germany. 
 
 Some inscriptions upon an old house in Berlin 
 are, or were to be seen within the last ten years, 
 or thereabouts. 
 
Foreign Inscriptions 
 
 ' Ohne Gottes Gunst 
 1st das bauen unsunst.' 
 (Without God's favour 
 We build in vain.) 
 
 ' Mit Gott begonnen 
 1st halb gewonnen.' 
 (With God begun 
 Is half accomplished.) 
 
 In einer Kunstuhr in der Willibrodkirche in 
 Wegel, vom Jahr 1603 (in a clock-tower) : 
 
 ' Dies Werk, in seiner Ordnung rund, 
 Zeigt an Jahr, Monat, Woch, Tag und Stund. 
 O Jesu Christ, du wollest geben 
 Dass wir ein selig' Uhr erleben.' 
 (This work, round in its shape, 
 Indicates the year, month, week, day, and hour. 
 O Jesus Christ, grant us 
 That we may pass a blessed hour.) 
 
 In the old town of Hildesheim in Hanover, 
 enclosed by ramparts, and having a cathedral, 
 dating back to the ninth century, house inscrip- 
 tions might naturally be expected. Of those that 
 might be added to my foreign list I select one as 
 representative, viz. : 
 
 ' Durch deinen heiligen Tod lebe ich, 
 Und werde nicht sterben ewiglich. 
 Deiner Auferstehung erfren' ich mich, 
 Das verdriesst den Satan flcherlich. 
 
 1565.' 
 (Through Thy blessed death live I, 
 And shall not die eternally. 
 Thy resurrection cheers me, 
 And certainly causes despair to Satan.) 
 
92 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 At Tegernsee, near Munich, the following motto 
 is of the same character : 
 
 ' Wer will Jesum einquartieren 
 Muss sein Herz mit Tugend zieren.' 
 (He who will give Jesus (free) quarters 
 Must deck his heart with virtue.) 
 
 An interesting mural inscription may be seen 
 on a church at Lubeck, one of the free Hanse 
 towns, on the Trave, some thirty-six miles north- 
 east of Hamburg, viz. : 
 
 ' You call Me the Master, and you do not question Me ; 
 
 (The) Light (yet you do not) Look to Me ; 
 
 (The) Way (yet do not) Follow Me ; 
 
 (The) Life (yet do not) Wish for Me ; 
 
 Wise (yet) Give Me no attention ; 
 
 Lovely (yet) Love Me not ; 
 
 Rich (yet) Ask Me nothing ; 
 
 Everlasting (yet) Seek Me not ; 
 
 Merciful (yet) Trust Me not ; 
 
 Noble (yet) Serve Me not ; 
 
 Almighty (yet) Honour Me not ; 
 
 Righteous (yet) Fear Me not. 
 
 I condemn you, and you cannot blame Me.' 
 
 At Aix-la-Chapelle, in Rhenish Prussia, the 
 favourite residence of Charlemagne, I obtained a 
 contribution to my too scanty German representa- 
 tive examples. The motto is in Latin, and of a 
 creditable character, i.e. : 
 
 ' DEO OMNIA RENDE ' 
 
 (or, [Ascribe] to God all things). 
 
Foreign Inscriptions 93 
 
 Yet one more motto from Germany, to be seen 
 on the Klosterkirchshof at Halberstadt, in Prussian 
 Saxony : 
 
 ' Hier ist die Pforte zur Ewigkeit. 
 Menchen, da giebts Ruhe !' 
 (Here is the door to eternity. 
 Mortals, there Hes peace !) 
 
 Inscriptions in Italy. 
 
 My collection made in Italy, though not as 
 large as I could easily have made it had I had 
 more timCj as well as space at my command, is 
 worth a record. Many have been found in 
 Herculaneum and Pompeii — some printed, but 
 mostly inscribed in stone or terra-cotta relievo, 
 which tablets were inserted in the pilasters at the 
 sides of the open shop-fronts. 
 
 The representation of two gladiators appears in 
 a street of Pompeii, surmounting the inscription : 
 1 e 
 
 ' POMPEIl|\NIMA IRADAM QUI HOC LASERIT HABEAT 
 VENEREM POMPEIIANAM IRATAM ' 
 
 (or, The spirit of Pompeii [saith] May he who 
 shall have injured this [sculpture] experience the 
 wrath of Venus). 
 
 In good Latin anima is never used of a place. 
 
 On a baker's shop there was the phallus and 
 the words : 
 
 •hic habitat felicitas' 
 (or, Here dwells happiness). 
 
94 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 On their tombs and in the Catacombs of Rome 
 we iind sculptured representations or signs of the 
 occupation of the deceased, or the emblem or 
 signification of their names — as, for instance, on 
 the tomb of Diogenes, the grave-digger, there is 
 a pickaxe and lamp ; on that of Veneria, a tire- 
 woman, there was a mirror and a comb ; and a 
 first drawing of heraldic thought shown, amongst 
 others, on the grave of Dracontius, on which is 
 sculptured a dragon ; on that of one Onager, a 
 wild ass ; on Leo, a lion ; on Porcula, a pig ; and 
 on Herbacia, two baskets of herbs. 
 
 It was from the Romans that we borrowed the 
 sign indicating a tavern, the bush and likewise, 
 our well-known proverb, ' Good wine needs no 
 bush ' (as a reminder of where it is to be found 
 after the tasting). 
 
 According to Pliny, Lucius Mummius was the 
 first man in Rome to affix a picture to the outside 
 of a house, and after this they were commonly 
 placed in the Forum. To these brasses the orator 
 jokingly made reference, the sign being that of 
 an old shepherd with his staff, and the German 
 Legate, being asked for his opinion of the work, 
 replied ' he would not care to have such a man 
 given to him as a present, even if he were real 
 and alive.' So in that wonderful hotbed of art, 
 Rome, outside house paintings were not always 
 superior to our own. 
 
 This use of pictorial representations, only occa- 
 sionally accompanied by painted or sculptured 
 
Foreign Inscriptions 95 
 
 words, shows that, as exemplified amongst our 
 own lower classes (till quite recently) the know- 
 ledge of letters was comparatively rare, and they 
 had to be substituted by the language of signs. 
 
 Nevertheless, Italy is rich in house inscriptions. 
 At Rome many are the inscriptions to be seen, of 
 which two or three only shall be here recorded. 
 For example, that round the cornice of the Palazzo 
 Borghese : 
 
 ' BONITATEM ET DISCIPLINAM ET SCIENTIAM DOCE 
 ME ' 
 
 (or, Teach me goodness and discipline and 
 learning). 
 
 On the Via de Cornari, over the door of the 
 palace there is a shield with the device of a lily, 
 and the words : 
 
 ' TUA PUTA QVM TUTIFACIS ' 
 
 (or, Think those things to be yours which you 
 yourself have done). 
 
 Surmounting the first-floor windows there is 
 the name of the owner, and over those of the 
 second floor the inscription : 
 
 'NGN OMNIA POSSUMUS OMNES ' 
 
 (or, We are not all [of us] able to do all things). 
 Over the third-floor windows : 
 
 ' PROMISSIS MANE ' 
 
 (or, Stand to your promises). 
 
 At Subiaco, thirty-one miles from Rome, long 
 
96 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 a summer residence of the Popes, a monastery was 
 founded in the fifth century, and in the oratories 
 of the cave, there are frescoes and inscriptions 
 — amongst others, some respecting Popes Inno- 
 cent III. and Gregory IX., who respectively 
 made pilgrimages there, the former in 1203, the 
 latter in 1227. An inscription records that 
 Gregory ' macerated his sacred limbs there ' 
 during two months of penance and humiliation, 
 and a fresco represents him as holding an open 
 book, in which the words are inscribed : 
 
 ' VERE LOCUS ISTE SANCTUS EST IN QUO STAMUS ' 
 
 (Truly that place in which we stand is holy). 
 
 In the burial-ground of the monks there is a 
 fresco representing the triumph of Death, who, 
 on horseback, is riding over a multitude of people, 
 and on his scythe are engraved the words : 
 
 'mors malis formidabilis; bonidesi derabilis; 
 nemini evitabilis ' 
 
 (or, Death is to the bad formidable ; to the good 
 desirable ; to all inevitable). 
 
 In the Rose Garden there is another fresco, 
 referring to St. Benedict, with the lines : 
 
 ' Quos tinxit sancto Benedictus sanguine vepres 
 Francisci gignunt insitone rosas.' 
 
 (The brambles which Benedict has sprinkled with his 
 
 holy blood 
 Become, through ingrafting, the roses of Francis [of 
 
 Assisi].) 
 
Foreign Inscriptions 97 
 
 Over the door of the Holy Cave the visitor is 
 greeted with the inscribed benediction : 
 
 ' SIT PAX INTRA.NTI SIT DRATIA DIGNA PRECANTI ' 
 
 (or, Grace and peace be to him who prays 
 worthily). 
 
 A visitor to Gubbio in the Marches, twenty-seven 
 miles south of Urbino, in Central Italy, will find 
 the famous Eugubean Tables — plates of bronze 
 inscribed with the famous Umbrian and primitive 
 Latin characters — which were discovered in the 
 ruins of Jupiter Appeninus in 1446. There is a 
 memorial of Dante on the Casa Faluccei, which 
 reads thus : 
 
 ' HIC MANSIT DANTES ALIGHERIUS;' 
 
 and this statement seems to be more or less con- 
 firmed by the fact that in 1865, when the six hun- 
 dredth anniversary of the poet was celebrated, 
 an inscription was put up in the great hall of the 
 Palazzo Pubblico in his honour, in which the cir- 
 cumstance of his having found refuge in Gubbio 
 during the period of his exile is recorded. 
 
 Extending our quest northwards into Tuscany, 
 volumes, instead of a few paragraphs, might be 
 written, supplied by the ancient inhabitants of 
 that * sunny south.' On the way to Fiesoli from 
 Florence, to which I made a delightful excursion 
 in the lovely spring-time of a year long buried in 
 the past (on the occasion of my first visit) we 
 
 7 
 
98 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 passed a villa on which were inscribed the 
 words : 
 
 ' SCACCIA PENSIERE ' 
 
 (Scatter your thoughts). 
 
 Again, near Giotto's Tower, another house 
 bears the old proverbial saying : 
 
 ' Casa mea, casa mea ; piccola che sia, 
 Sei sempre, casa mea ;' 
 
 in English to be rendered : 
 
 My house, my house ; small as it is, 
 Still always my house. 
 
 I have spent many months at a time at Pisa, 
 and often passed the old Palace Lanfraducci, on 
 the Lung' Arno, and wondered why a thick iron 
 chain was suspended over the great entrance door, 
 with the inscription : 
 
 "ALLA GIORNATO' 
 
 (To the day). 
 
 On this some light has been thrown, for it 
 appears there . is a local tradition that a former 
 proprietor of the palace had captured a Saracen 
 slave at sea in one of the Pisan wars. The poor 
 fellow wore a chain, which he entreated his 
 captor to remove. The inexorable master swore 
 that he would never do so till he saw him eat 
 meat on a Friday, and so finally dismissed the 
 question. But it so chanced that Christmas 
 Day fell on that fast-day, and the slave, seeing 
 
Foreign Inscriptions 99 
 
 his tyrant eating meat on that day, reminded 
 him of his stipulation on oath. The galling 
 chain was there and then struck off, and was 
 suspended over the entrance door as a memorial 
 of the event. 
 
 The inscriptions on the cathedral, chapels, and 
 religious houses at Pisa and other ancient cities 
 of Italy, need not be transcribed — one expects to 
 find them in such places — so I am generally 
 restricting my collection to non-ecclesiastical 
 buildings. 
 
 On the house of Rossini, Bologna, we read : 
 
 ' Nee non Threicius longa cum vesta sacerdos, 
 Obliquitur numeris sceptem discrimina vocum.' 
 
 These are two lines from Virgil slightly para- 
 phrased (according to the late Edward Walford). 
 The following is the literal translation : 'Moreover, 
 a Thracian priest, with long robe, utters in num- 
 bers (verse) the seven distinctions (notes) of the 
 voice.' 
 
 On the other side we read : 
 
 •non domo dominus, sed domino domus' 
 
 (or, Not the master for the house, but the house 
 for the master). 
 
 At Padua, Merceria, Vicenza, Perugia, near 
 Tivoli, and, in fact, all over Italy, mottoes and 
 historical memorials are to be found, and revela- 
 tions of thought representative of the times 
 which gave them birth. 
 
 7—2 
 
loo House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 Allow me now to conduct the reader to a his- 
 torical spot in the North of Italy, and take a 
 pleasant drive to the small fishing-town of Cogo- 
 letto, which has the credit of being the native 
 place of Columbus. It is situated at some ten 
 miles' distance from Genoa, and, at least within a 
 few years past, a house bearing two inscriptions 
 still existed, indicating its claim to having been 
 that of his birth. One inscription is dated 1576, 
 and is only in part preserved, i.e. : 
 
 ' Con generoso ardir, ubbidiente al voler, Colombo, 
 Corre s'aggire.' 
 
 (With generous daring, obedient to will, Columbus, 
 It runs [it wanders]). 
 
 The second, under the date 1826 : 
 
 ' Hospes siste gradum ; foit hie 
 Lux prima, Columbc' 
 (Guest, hold thy step ; here came 
 His first day, Columbus.) 
 
 Although I have paid flying visits to the 
 venerable and most interesting historical cities 
 of the North of Italy, I cannot supply more 
 than two or three house mottoes ; nor do I thus 
 fail in the accomplishment of my first intention. 
 Taking leave of Cogoletto, we may turn our steps 
 to another historical spot, Terrara, in Emelia. 
 
 Over the house of Ariosto, which, from his 
 limited means, was built of small dimensions, he 
 inscribed this distich in Latin : 
 
 ' Parva, sed apta mihi, sed nuUi, obnoxia sed non. 
 Sordida, parta meo sed tamen asre domus ;' 
 
Foreign Inscriptions loi 
 
 which, as translated by Hoole, reads : 
 
 ' Small is my humble roof, but well designed 
 To suit the temper of the master's mind ; 
 Hurtful to none, it boasts a decent pride, 
 That my poor purse the modest cost supplied.' 
 
 Mrs. Bury Palliser, from whose interesting 
 work I quote, gives also a French rendering, i.e. : 
 
 ' Maison petite, mais commode pour moi ; mais incom- 
 mode k personne ; mais assez propre ; mais pourtant 
 achet^e de mes propres fonds.' 
 
 Those who have not seen St. Marc's, Venice, 
 not merely as cursory observers, who only wish 
 to be able to say they ' have done ' it, will have 
 probably read the inscriptions, especially one 
 under the mosaic of Christ enthroned, 
 
 ' I AM THE DOOR,' etc., 
 
 and, inlaid in the red marble moulding which 
 surrounds the mosaic : 
 
 • I AM THE GATE OF LIFE ; LET THOSE WHO ARE 
 
 MINE ENTER BY ME;' 
 
 and likewise on a fillet of marble on the west wall: 
 
 • WHO HE WAS, AND FROM WHOM HE CAME, AND 
 
 AT WHAT PRICE HE REDEEMED THEE ; AND 
 WHY HE MADE THEE, AND GAVE THEE ALL 
 THINGS, DO THOU CONSIDER.' 
 
 Of course, passages of Scripture and religious 
 advice are, naturally, to be expected in places of 
 
I02 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 worship, so I only give this example as an excep- 
 tion, for the main subject of this article has refer- 
 ence to house mottoes. Miss Busk relates that 
 when in Tuscany, after descending three hundred 
 slimy steps into a copper-mine, and threading 
 many dark passages, she came across the highly 
 appropriate inscription : 
 
 ' IN THY HANDS O GOD, ARE ALL MY WAYS.' 
 
 Of course the original was in Italian (or Latin). 
 
 Visitors to the South Kensington Museum may 
 have observed a remarkable piece of Delia Robbia 
 ware, of circular form and nearly ii feet in 
 diameter. The arms and crest of the ' good 
 King Ren^ of Provence ' (Duke of Anjou and 
 Lorraine, 1480) are encircled by a massive border, 
 and underneath the escutcheon there is a crescent 
 inscribed with a motto, and on each side a 
 burning brazier, united by a scroll bearing the 
 words : 
 
 'dardant desir.' 
 
 This fine example of enamelled terra-cotta 
 formed a portion of the external decoration of a 
 villa near Florence, called the Villa Pantiatici- 
 Ximenes. 
 
 Mottoes in France. 
 
 A few French examples must enrich my collec- 
 tion of house mottoes, some of which are in Latin. 
 On the corner angle of a small house at Baug6 
 
Foreign Inscriptions 103 
 
 (Maine et Loire), dated 1561, the motto runs 
 thus : 
 
 ' On a beau sa maison bitir 
 Si le Seigneur n'y met la main, 
 Cela n'est que bitir en vain. 
 
 (Ps. cxxvii.)' 
 
 and in the same department, at Chalonnes-sur- 
 Loire, there is one engraved over the window of 
 an apothecary's house : 
 
 ' IN TE DOMINE SPERAVI ' 
 
 (In thee, Lord, is our hope). 
 
 At Abbeville another religious motto may be 
 seen : 
 
 ' FAIE LE BIEN POUR LE MAL, CAR DIEU TE LE 
 COMMANDE ' 
 
 (Do good for evil, for God commands it). 
 
 At Louvigny, near Caen, there are inscriptions 
 on the stone piers of a porte-cochere — on the right 
 the statement : 
 
 * QUI CRAINT DIEU, N'A RIEN A CRAINDRE ;' 
 
 and on the left : 
 
 ' TIMOR DEI SUMMA SECURITAS ' 
 
 (The fear of God is the chiefest security). 
 
 On a chiteau of Lavolte, situated on the 
 Rhone, there is the following inscription, cut in 
 fifteenth-century letters : 
 
 'omnia pretereunt pr^tur amare deum;' 
 
I04 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 and on the pilgrimage church of Beauvoir, above 
 Moustiers, the words, 
 
 ' BELVISURA VOCOR ; DIFFUNDIT LUM'nA LUMINA 
 NOSTRA PETENTIS ; LUMINA NOSTRA PETAT,' 
 
 ' paraphrased in local doggerel,' according to Miss 
 Busk, from whose researches I have gathered so 
 much: , 
 
 ' Je m'appelle en ce lieu la vierge de Beauvoir ; 
 Pour rdpondre k men nom je rdpands la lumifere ; 
 Sur ceux qui pour leur salut veulent en regevoir.' 
 
 At that most interesting old town of Southern 
 France, Avignon, where I have more than once 
 broken a journey and basked in the sunshine, a 
 visit to the Church of St. Pierre rewarded me as a 
 seeker for such memorials of the past as those 
 which form my present collection. On the pulpit : 
 
 ' Afin que mieux cette chaine si 
 A Dieu du del li soit plaisante, 
 Jacques Malta li cri mercy, 
 Et de bon coeur la lui presente.' 
 
 (In order that this chain 
 May be pleasing to God in heaven, 
 Jacques Make cries to Him for mercy, 
 And presents it to Him good-heartedly.) 
 
 Strange to say, I have scarcely any mottoes 
 collected in Paris, and with the omission I may be 
 to blame. On a turret of the Palais de Justice in 
 that metropolis, there is the following inscription 
 in Latin : 
 
Foreign Inscriptions 105 
 
 ' Machina quai bis sextam juste dividit horam. 
 Justitiam servare monet legesque. 
 
 ' La machine qui divise prdcisement les deux fois six heures 
 Nous exhorte h. servir la justice et k maintenir les lois.' 
 
 Under the clock of the Hotel de Ville, Neuilly, 
 we find the motto : 
 
 ' MA VOIX RESONNE, ECOUTE ! ELLE DIT QU'lL 
 EST L'HEURE de BIEN FAIRE ' 
 
 (or, My voice resounds, listen ! It says that it is 
 the hour to do good). 
 
 On the staircase of the Musee de Cluny, Paris, 
 a monition of the old monks, or Abbots, is still 
 to be seen inscribed on the outer wall : 
 
 ' SERVA MANDATA ' 
 
 (or. Obey orders). 
 
 At Rossmiere the following inscription appears, 
 filling the spaces in the panelling on the Protestant 
 parsonage house : 
 
 ' Adam Martin Curial, de la Rossini^re a fait bitir ce logis 
 en I'ann^e 1654. O eternel Protecteur, par les armes I'on 
 peut acqudrir la gloire. Mais la gloire saut plume en oublise 
 dissont. Les plus grand Rois ne sont comme que par I'istoire. 
 Leur 6p6e est muette et la plume dit tout. On peut reposer 
 tranquillement sur les lauriers si Ton a fait quelque bon 
 chose qui vaille.' 
 
 At Civray Vienne, on the Charente, the follow- 
 ing inscription may be found : 
 
io6 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 ' MIEUX V- 
 AULT EN- 
 TREE P- 
 AUVRE 
 AU CIEL 
 QUE RI- 
 CHE EN 
 ENFER ' 
 
 (It is better to enter heaven as a poor man than 
 hell as a rich one). 
 
 The celebrated French architect Puget, having 
 built himself a house at Marseilles, his native 
 place, on which he freely expended money and 
 labour, distinguished his new home by the inscrip- 
 tion of the proverbial motto, 
 
 ' NUL CHEF-D'cEUVRE SANS TRAVAIL,' 
 
 rendered in English, ' No masterpiece without 
 labour.' 
 
 ' Deus meus et omnia 
 Santo e il bene chio maspetto 
 Choyne pena me diletto,' 
 
 taken from St. Francis d'Assisi, and another 
 quotation, 
 
 ' Le plaisir de mourir sans peine, 
 Vaut bain la peine de vivre sans plaisir,' 
 
 taken from St. Frangois de Sales, are both in- 
 scribed on the remains of an old Roman temple 
 adjoining the monastery at Cimiez, near Nice. 
 
Foreign Inscriptions 107 
 
 It may be well to observe that errors in 
 grammar and spelling are not always attributable 
 to the transcriber, but to the stone-cutter, to 
 the ignorance of earlier times, and to peculiar 
 abbreviations. I may refer to an instance of 
 the latter in the motto before given — ^viz. : 
 
 ' BELVISURA VOCOR ; DIFFUNDIT LUM'NA LUMINA 
 NOSTRA PETEUS; LUMINA NOSTRA PETAT.' 
 
 Here were abbreviations, and I don't feel sure 
 as to their meaning. I think they must be 
 ' lumina luna.' (I am called Belvoisura [Belvoir] ; 
 the moon sheds abroad her light.) ' Seeking her 
 lights: let her seek my lights.' This is very 
 obscure at best. There is probably some hidden 
 allusion behind it. 
 
 The magnificent residence of the famous 
 Jacques Cceur, 1461, argentier to Charles VII., 
 which is now the Hotel de Villa at Bourges ; his 
 favourite motto is sculptured on each side of two 
 hearts : 
 
 ' A VAILLANS RIENS IMPOSSIBLES.' 
 
 It is said that on his chateau of Boisy (Loire- 
 et-Saone-et-Loire) there was formerly a very 
 audacious inscription, viz. : 
 
 ' Jacques Cceur fait ce qu'il veut, 
 Et le Roi ce qu'il peut.' 
 
 At Longpr6-les-Corps-Saints, in Picardy, near 
 the bureau de poste, you may see over the lintel 
 
io8 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 of an old uninhabited house, the following in- 
 scription : 
 
 ' JE NE VEUX PLUS ME MARIER IL Y A TROP DE 
 DANGER.' 
 
 On a house in the Rue Etoupee at Rouen, that 
 most interesting of ancient cities, where I have 
 enjoyed a six months' residence, there is a sign of 
 Jerusalem, carved on stone — a fortified town, with 
 a figure arriving on each side, representing the 
 pilgrims. 
 
 Dutch Mottoes. 
 
 In Holland the sign of the Colt and Cradle 
 (which appeared in St. Martin's Lane in 1667) is 
 a common indication of a house of evil reputation, 
 of which two examples may be seen in the Zand- 
 straat, Rotterdam, where the cradle is carved 
 over the entrance door, and with the inscription : 
 
 'het paard in de wieg' 
 
 (or. The house in the cradle). 
 
 In Dutch the word paar is employed indis- 
 criminately for either a man or woman, married 
 or unmarried. 
 
 The Three Radishes was a common sign in 
 the eighteenth century to indicate the locality of 
 a market or a nursery-gardener's abode. There 
 is one near Haarlem which deserves mention. It 
 was accompanied by a representation of Christ 
 appearing to Mary Magdalene in the garden, and 
 the following lines : 
 
Foreign Inscriptions 109 
 
 ' Christus vertoont men hier, 
 Na zyn dood in verryzen, 
 Alseen groot hovenir, 
 Die ieder een molt pryzen. 
 Dit's in de drie Radyzen,' 
 
 meaning : 
 
 Christ is represented here, 
 After His death and resurrection, 
 As a great gardener. 
 Whom everybody must praise. 
 This is at the Three Radishes. 
 
 Another inscription, at Goada, is too ridiculous 
 to be omitted : 
 
 ' Adam an Eva belfden in den Paradyze ; 
 Selden aten zy stokvisch maar veel warmoes, kropsla, en 
 
 radyzen. 
 Hier vindt gy allerley aard gewas om menschen mee te 
 
 spyzen ;' 
 
 rendered in English : 
 
 Adam and Eve lived in Paradise ; 
 
 They rarely ate stock fish, but a great deal of hotchpotch, 
 
 lettuce, and radishes. 
 All sorts of vegetables sold here for human food. 
 
 At the Hague the following couplet was in- 
 scribed over the door of a Dutch shoemaker's 
 shop : 
 
 ' Dit is suit Chrispyn, maarik hiet stoffel, 
 Ik maak een laars, schoen en pantoffel.' 
 
 And another in Bergen-op-zoom runs thus : 
 
1 1 o House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 ' Hier in Krispyn kan min de minsch int beeste villen 
 Elk schoenen na zyn voet boor gilt terstond bestillen ; 
 Doch menig beest alheer steekt in een menschevel, 
 Dragt zeep zyn breeder's huid en't staat dat beest nog 
 wel ;' 
 
 rendered thus in English : 
 
 Here at the Crispin any man may for his money 
 Immediately obtain shoes made out of animal's skins ; 
 But many a brute in this town wears a human skin — 
 Nay, wears his own brother's skin ; and the brute looks 
 even well in it. 
 
 Another Dutch inscription was that dating from 
 the seventeenth century, set up over his door at 
 Leeuwarden, Holland, by a barber-surgeon, under 
 his device of the Good Samaritan : 
 
 ' Gelyk den Wyn, fyn, 
 Dryft zorgen nit der herten, 
 Zoo geneest Medicyn pyn, 
 En outlast van Smarten ;' 
 
 which rendered in English reads thus : 
 
 Like wine, fine, 
 
 Driveth away care, 
 
 So medicine cureth pain. 
 
 And delivers us from suffering. 
 
 Belgium is specially rich in mottoes, inscrip- 
 tions, and carvings as house decorations, and no 
 town more so than curious and picturesque old 
 Bruges. In fact, sculptures and inscriptions are 
 so many that I cannot enter on their description, 
 and I now take a long flight southwards. One of 
 
Foreign Inscriptions 1 1 1 
 
 the most feeble of any house, or any other inscrip- 
 tion with which I am acquainted, is to be seen in 
 Madrid. Above the harmless-looking lions sup- 
 porting the celebrated fountain in the Alhambra, 
 the following statement may bring consolation to 
 the nervous and too imaginative spectator : 
 
 ' O THOU V\^HO BEHOLDEST THESE LIONS CROUCH- 
 ING, FEAR NOT ; LIFE IS WANTING TO ENABLE 
 THEM TO EXHIBIT THEIR FURY.' 
 
 Concluding my series of house inscriptions, I 
 now pass on to those on sundials, bells, organs, 
 etc. 
 
PART V 
 
 INSCRIPTIONS ON SUNDIALS, BELLS, 
 ORGANS, ETC. 
 
 Sundials. 
 
 THE science of marking the flight of time 
 before the existence of clocks and watches, 
 or their predecessors the clepsydras — 
 which measured the hours by the pouring of 
 water from a graduated vessel — was handed down 
 to us from the East at a very remote period. My 
 present object is to deal with the inscriptions 
 upon a few sundials, such as are to be found in 
 various parts of the United Kingdom and a few 
 other countries. 
 
 There are some in Ireland that are stated to 
 belong to the seventh and eighth centuries. Their 
 form is peculiar — flat vertical slabs of stone set 
 up in ancient graveyards, like tombstones — and 
 their special use was, apparently, to mark the 
 canonical hours for prayer. In this respect they 
 served the same special purpose as those on the 
 Mohammedan mosques, which, moreover, were 
 supplied with indicators to remind the worshippers 
 of Mecca. It may suffice to note their existence, 
 without a description of any in particular. 
 
Inscriptions on Sundials, Bells, etc. 113 
 
 A few curious dials are still extant in London, 
 and amongst them that in the garden of Clement's 
 Inn, Strand, may be worth a visit. It represents 
 a Moor, life-sized and painted black, kneeling on 
 a raised stand of four graduated stone steps — 
 after the ancient models — and supporting a dial 
 on his head. It is supposed to have been brought 
 from Italy, and placed there by John Holies, 
 second Earl of Clare, who made the Clare Market, 
 and built and improved so extensively in that 
 neighbourhood. The statue is believed to be of 
 bronze, though disfigured with paint. Speaking 
 of these same Earls of Clare, I may observe that 
 a tumulus in the churchyard of Trelleck, Mon- 
 mouthshire, which in ancient times was surrounded 
 by a moat, was surmounted by the keep of a castle 
 belonging to them. It stands in the village, and 
 in the churchyard there is a sundial, erected in 
 1689, upon three sides of which the three distinc- 
 tive wonders of the locality are depicted. First, 
 the before-named tumulus, thought to be Roman, 
 with inscriptions as to the great number of persons 
 buried there; the second wonder consisting in 
 three stone pillars, of 8, 10, and 14 feet in height 
 respectively, recording the victory of Harold on 
 that spot ; and, lastly, bearing a representation of 
 a well, and two cups. Whether the three pillars 
 were erected by the victorious Harold, or were of 
 still more ancient date, and due to the Druids, is a 
 matter of question. 
 
 We have a considerable number of dials, but 
 
 8 
 
1 1 4 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 none bear a better motto than that to be seen 
 on one near Lichfield, in Shenstone Churchyard. 
 The cross surmounts a pillar, and is placed in a 
 leaning position, and the shadows are cast on the 
 figures engraved on the sides of the shaft by the 
 arms of the cross. It is not one of the ancient 
 examples, but the lady who erected the dial had 
 drunk deeply into the same pious and poetical 
 spirit which imbued her predecessors in perform- 
 ing similar good work : 
 
 ' If o'er the dial glides a shade, redeem 
 The time ; for, lo, it passes like a dream. 
 But if 'tis all a blank, then mark the loss 
 Of hours unblest by shadows from the cross.' 
 
 The above-named cruciform dial is, as you might 
 observe, vertical in its position ; but it is some- 
 times employed horizontally, as, for example, at 
 Hurstpierpoint, Sussex. There it is placed on 
 the schoolhouse, and its motto is a good one, in- 
 scribed in Latin, but translated for the benefit of 
 general readers, and runs thus : 
 
 * THE WAY OF THE CROSS IS THE WAY OF LIGHT.' 
 
 Another example is to be found on an old- 
 fashioned dial in a Sussex Garden, bearing a 
 fourfold inscription on its plate, each severally 
 designed for one of the four seasons, beginning 
 with spring : 
 
 ' After darkness light ; 
 Alas ! how swift ! 
 I warn whilst I move ; 
 So passes life.' 
 
Inscriptions on Sundials, Bells, etc. 1 1 5 
 
 Returning on our quest to London, we may 
 find a few more worth notice. One stood in the 
 old Temple Gardens, the inscription on which is 
 reputed to have been given by the Lord Chan- 
 cellor Bacon. The story recorded in connection 
 with it is, that when hard at work in his chambers 
 a student intruded on him to ask for a motto for 
 their new sundial. He had to prefer his request 
 a third time before receiving an answer, when the 
 great man looked up, and replied with irritation, 
 ' Sirrah, be gone about your business.' ' A thou- 
 sand thanks, my lord, the very thing for a dial ! 
 Nothing could be better !' 
 
 Another of our London mottoes was that on a 
 dial at Paul's Cross, in Latin : 
 
 •l NUMBER NONE BUT SUNNY HOURS.' 
 
 Over a house built by Lord Stair (Sir James 
 Dalrymple), in an old court entitled General's 
 Entry, there is an ancient dial bearing the motto, 
 
 ' WE SHALL DIE ALL,' 
 
 a play on the designation of the time-recorder. 
 
 No resident in this vast Metropolis of ours, nor 
 any acquainted with Edward Walford's most 
 interesting history of old London, could be 
 ignorant of the name of one locality designated 
 the Seven Dials. In former times I have driven 
 through that queer old, disreputable -looking 
 quarter, the repository for birds, squirrels, dogs, 
 cages, curiosities, and dirt, and always wondered 
 
 8—2 
 
1 1 6 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 where the seven dials were, and vainly seeking 
 for some dilapidated vestiges on the corner walls 
 of every street converging there to a common 
 centre. I might have searched till the present 
 day, and abandoned the quest far sooner than I 
 did, had I earlier informed myself on the question 
 by a reference to Evelyn's Diary (October 5, 1694). 
 There it is recorded that the seven dials were all 
 represented on one pillar, the several faces turned 
 towards each street respectively, and were severally 
 constructed — of course, to suit the different aspects 
 taken. The style of the pillar was Doric, and 
 each dial measured a square foot in dimensions. 
 It was constructed by a Mr. Neale, and the old 
 relic is still in existence ; but you must go out of 
 London to find it, for having been taken down in 
 the vain hope of finding treasure buried beneath 
 it, in 1773, it was carried away, and set up at 
 Weybridge, on the village green. 
 
 Another of our London dials, and one of a 
 curious character, since it was so contrived as to 
 act without a gnomon, was made by a Mr. John 
 Leak, and set upon a composite pillar at the 
 corner of Leadenhall Street, when Sir John 
 Dethick, Knight, was Lord Mayor. The dial 
 was Si globe, so placed as to be half in sunshine 
 and half in shadow. In Joseph Moxon's old work 
 on astronomy and geography, printed and sold by 
 him A.D. 1659, at his shop, ' the Signe of the 
 Atlas,' there is an engraving of this old dial, 
 which also combined a fountain. There were 
 
Inscriptions on Sundials, Bells, etc. 1 1 7 
 
 four figures, apparently of women, and about half 
 life-size, standing just above the plinth, below the 
 column, and above the fountain ; and on a slab on 
 one side of the square four-sided plinth (raised on 
 steps from the ground) was a long inscription. 
 What information it gave I cannot say — ^what 
 solemn monitions. The whole structure per- 
 formed its work and his silent mission, however, 
 and has passed away with those whom it served. 
 
 Stanwardine Hall, near Baschurch, Salop, was 
 the seat of the Corbet family, related to friends of 
 mine. It is a fine Ehzabethan structure, now 
 used as a farmhouse ; but the dial, one of pillar 
 form, may be seen in front of the hall, on which 
 the Corbet arms are still to be seen, with the date 
 ' Anno 1560.' The silver plate upon it bears the 
 
 inscription : 
 
 ' He that will thrive 
 Must rise at five. 
 He that hath thriven 
 May lie till seven. 
 He that will never thrive 
 May lie till eleven.' 
 
 On the left side the couplet is inscribed : 
 
 ' In the houre of deathe, 
 God be merciful unto me.' 
 
 And on the right side the lines : 
 
 ' For as Tyme doth haste, 
 So life doth waste.' 
 
 To myself, as a member of the most ancient 
 and venerable of all existing Orders — the Knights 
 
1 1 8 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem — perhaps 
 the dial at Millrigg, Culgaith, near Penrith, may 
 have a special interest. Millrigg was taken from 
 the Order by Henry VHL, and given to a gentle- 
 man named Dalston. There he resided, and there 
 he died a.d. 1692. The Knights Hospitallers had 
 succeeded the Knights Templars, to whom the 
 house originally belonged, together with the 
 Manor of Temple Sowerby. But when the 
 religious houses were dissolved, and knightly 
 communities, as well as those of the monks, 
 were . despoiled of their property, the Dalston 
 family was presented with that of the nursing 
 as well as military Order of Hospitallers. 
 
 To return to the ancient dial at Millrigg. It 
 has four sides, two of these bearing inscriptions 
 of a singularly quaint character. The play on 
 two words, one in English, but the other in 
 French, points to the travels of these Crusaders 
 through France, and to their acquaintance with 
 that language. The motto consists of a dialogue 
 between the dial and the passenger on the one 
 side, and on the other the summing-up of the sage 
 monitor's conclusions from the reply received : 
 
 ' Diall. 
 Staie, Passinger. 
 Tell me thy name, 
 Thy Nature. 
 
 Pass". 
 Thy name is die 
 All. I a Mort all 
 Creation. 
 
Inscriptions on Sundials, Bells, etc. 1 1 9 
 
 Diall. 
 Since my name 
 And thy nature 
 
 Soe agree, 
 Thinke on thy selfe 
 When thov looks 
 
 Vpon me.' 
 
 I have been in Yorkshire, but never at Leyburn. 
 My indebtedness is to Mrs. Gatty for the beautiful 
 motto over the door of a schoolmaster's house at 
 that place (see p. 50), of which she does not name 
 the date. At all events, the orthography gives 
 evidence that it is not ancient. So far as pos- 
 sible, I have endeavoured to thank my fellow- 
 writers for the liberty I have taken in making 
 quotations. 
 
 I have more than once paid visits to friends in 
 Derbyshire, and while there made excursions to 
 places of interest in that beautiful part of the 
 country ; amongst others to Bakewell Church, a 
 very fine structure, and containing some remark- 
 able monuments. High up on the wall there is 
 an oval-shaped dial, dated 1796, on which is in- 
 scribed the passage of Holy Writ : 
 
 ' IN SUCH AN HOUR AS YE LOOK NOT FOR, THE 
 SON OF MAN COMETH.' 
 
 Before taking leave of this county, where there 
 is so much to admire and to linger over, I must 
 give another example of a dial, which is to be 
 seen at Eyam, where I used to visit friends who 
 owned the ancient manor-house, with its terraced 
 
I20 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 gardens and tapestried rooms. The village is of 
 historic interest, rendered so by its remarkable 
 and touching records of the Great Plague of 1666, 
 and of fortitude and passive heroism, never before 
 nor since surpassed. I saw and sketched the 
 house where the plague first broke out, and spent 
 an evening in the old rectory house, inspected the 
 ancient parish register to see the entries of those 
 who perished, and noted that only one marriage 
 took place during the three years of that awful 
 visitation, and (to my satisfaction) that the loving 
 couple survived it. In the churchyard is a beauti- 
 ful runic cross, and the tomb of the heroic 
 Mrs. Mompesson, wife of the equally heroic and 
 devoted Rector, and of these and the church I also 
 made a sketch. On the south porch of the latter 
 there is a dial, bearing the inscription of various 
 places, to signify their several differences of time 
 from our own ; also the tropics of Cancer and 
 Capricorn are denoted upon it, together with the 
 motto, 
 
 ' INDUCE ANIMUM SAPIENTEM. 1775,' 
 
 which, being interpreted, means, ' Put on a wise 
 mind.' The names of the churchwardens of that 
 time are likewise inscribed upon it. 
 
 You may often see an upright four-sided stone 
 in country graveyards and market-places, on the 
 top of which is a dial of later date, apparently, 
 than the pillar supporting it. The latter is, in 
 fact, only the broken stump of a cross, the top, 
 
Inscriptions on Sundials, Bells, etc. 121 
 
 with the arms, having been destroyed by order of 
 Queen Elizabeth, in her zeal to do away with a 
 religious emblem of that character ; but I myself 
 imagine that some of these demolitions of crosses 
 were due to the Puritan soldiers. 
 
 The so-called Queen Mary's Dial, at Holyrood, 
 is erroneously so entitled, since it was erected by 
 Charles I., and presented by him to Queen Hen- 
 rietta. He had it made by one John Mylne, at a 
 cost of £408 15s. 6d., Scotch currency. 
 
 One of the ring dials to which I before referred 
 is in the possession of Mrs. Dent, of Sudeley 
 Castle, which was found at Kemerton Court, 
 Gloucestershire. The numerals are inscribed 
 inside it, and it is designed to be hung up in 
 some place where a ray of sunshine can pass 
 through a sliding hole, and down upon the right 
 number. 
 
 Before concluding this notice of English dials, 
 I must name one more, dated 1658, and known as 
 Sir Francis Howard's dial. It is to be seen on 
 the lawn at Corby Castle, not far from Carlisle, 
 his seat. He was the grandson of Thomas, fourth 
 Duke of Norfolk. It is one that has a special 
 interest to me, for family reasons, as Sir Francis 
 married, secondly, a daughter of Sir Henry Widd- 
 rington, of Widdrington Castle, Northumberland. 
 The dial is four-sided, and bears a shield on each. 
 The emblems of the Passion, the cock that crowed, 
 and many other objects connected with our Lord's 
 trial and crucifixion, appear on one of the four 
 
122 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 shields ; the arms, impaled, of Howard and Widd- 
 rington on another ; on a third the family initials ; 
 and on the fourth the motto. And what a world 
 of intense feeling underhes the last exclamations, 
 three times repeated, and which no addition of 
 strong and more explanatory words could possibly 
 intensify. The imagination of a reflective mind 
 is left to supply these, and to realize the whole 
 of what is imphed, though unspoken. 
 
 ' DEATHE, JUDGMENT, HEAVEN, HELL — UPON THIS 
 MOMENT DEPENS ETERNITIE. O ETERNITIE ! 
 O ETERNITIE ! O ETERNITIE ! 1658.' 
 
 What more can I add to this that would not 
 serve to weaken its powerful appeal to the imagina- 
 tion and the conscience ? 
 
 And now, before taking leave of the subject of 
 sundials, I must redeem a promise of replying to 
 any suggestions of difficulty in reference to the 
 extraordinary phenomenon recorded concerning 
 the dial of Ahaz. I quote from a work entitled 
 ' True Philosophy ':* 
 
 ' When it is a question of any act performed by 
 the Creator, you must either deny His existence 
 or take for granted His omnipotence. Then, if 
 you accept the latter, that He should cast a 
 shadow on the sundial, a miraculous shadow not 
 to be accounted for by ordinary causes, or that 
 He should delay the course of this little world — 
 an atom in His great dominion of worlds on worlds 
 * By S. F. A. Caulfeild. Hatchards, Piccadilly, W. 
 
Inscriptions on Sundials, Bells, etc. 123 
 
 — must seem, as it actually must be, a matter of 
 equally trifling difficulty. The one act of supreme 
 will and iniinite power is quite the same as the 
 other.' 
 
 Over and above this view of the case, it may 
 interest the reader to know that Herodotus, the 
 father of profane history, declares (according to 
 the traditions of the priests of Egypt, from whom 
 he received the information), that ' in very remote 
 ages the sun had four times departed from his 
 regular course, having twice set where he should 
 have risen, and twice risen where he ought to 
 have set.' 
 
 Now, the existence of such a statement, related 
 and credited as history by the learned in those 
 ancient days, is a very remarkable fact, coinciding 
 as it does with the two narratives given in Holy 
 Writ. However accounted for, such extraordinary 
 phenomena are clearly attested as having been 
 seen at some certain periods, marvellous to the 
 historians, but none the less absolutely believed 
 and attested. I now quote a communication from 
 one of our most learned and able controversialists 
 of the day, Mr. B. Harris Cowper, to whom I 
 referred on the question : 
 
 ' Josh. X. 12, etc. — The incident recorded here 
 involves a double difficulty. The Hebrew itself 
 is obscure, and includes a quotation from another 
 book, the Book of Jasher — lost. But no doubt 
 a supernatural intervention is described, and one 
 to be received as a matter of faith. The physical 
 
124 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 phenomenon is of course inexplicable, unless it 
 denotes the apparent prolongation of daylight, 
 which could be produced by retarding the earth's 
 motion on its axis or by modifying the refractive 
 power of light. Your own suggestions, therefore, 
 practically accord with mine. 
 
 ' 2 Kings XX. II.* — The statement here, and in 
 Isaiah, is explicit, and I think the miracle probably 
 was due to the second of the causes suggested — 
 i.e., the modification of the refractive power of light. 
 All miracles are referable to the supremacy over 
 natural laws which He who ordained them main- 
 tains, and proves when and how He pleases.' 
 
 If you believe that the Supreme Being was 
 capable of creating what we call ' natural laws,' it 
 can be no greater difficulty to believe that He has 
 power to change those laws, or to modify them 
 according to His own supreme will and Divine 
 pleasure, condescending as He does to the neces- 
 sities and comprehensions of His finite creatures, 
 He spoke to men in ancient times ' by signs and 
 wonders ' suited to their condition ; this He has 
 declared in the written revelation vouchsafed to 
 their descendants. May not this suffice to those 
 who are compelled to accept as facts so much in 
 their own mysterious threefold being that is to 
 them inexplicable, and that in spite of all 
 their profound scientific investigations ? Yes, and 
 throughout all Nature how much is there which 
 they are as utterly unable to deny, as to explain ! 
 * Also see Isa. xxxviii. ii. 
 
Inscriptions on Sundials, Bells, etc. 125 
 
 I will now give a few examples of an interesting 
 character, to be found by ramblers on the Con- 
 tinent, beginning with a dial on a suppressed 
 monastery near Florence, which is worth a record, 
 and of which the translation runs thus : 
 
 ' My life is in the sun ; God is the life of man ; 
 Man without Him is as I am without the sun.' 
 
 There is a sundial near Venice which bears 
 the motto : 
 
 ' NGN NUMERO HORAS NISI SERENAS ' 
 
 — freely rendered, ' I count none but serene {i.e., 
 cloudless) hours '; and on a small house on the 
 Route du Var, near Nice, you may see : 
 
 '10 VADO ± VENGO OGNI GIORNI, MA TU ANDRAI 
 SENZA RITORNI ' 
 
 (I go and come every day, but thou shalt go with- 
 out return). 
 
 Horace gives the motto for one, 
 
 'CARPE DIEM' 
 
 (Make the best of the day) ; and from the Book 
 of Job another is supplied : 
 
 ' GRESSUS DENUMERAT ;' 
 
 somewhat freely rendered, ' Thy steps are counted.' 
 Another motto gives the warning : 
 
 ' DUBIA OMNIBUS, ULTIMA MULTIS ' 
 
 (Uncertain to all, the last to many). 
 
126 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 Again : 
 
 ' SUPREMA H^C MULTIS FORSANTIBI ' 
 
 (The last to many, perhaps to thee). 
 
 Another is taken from the Psalms, and a second 
 from thence or the Book of Isaiah : 
 
 ' UMBRiE TRANSITUS EST TEMPUS NOSTRUM ' 
 
 (As transitory as the shadow is our time). 
 A third, not located, runs thus : 
 
 ' DIES MEI SICUT UMBRA DECLINAVERUNT ' 
 
 (My days are as a shadow that declineth). 
 Again, we find : 
 
 ' FESTINAT SUPREMA ' 
 
 (The last hour hastens). 
 Also : 
 
 'VOLAT SINE mora' 
 
 (It flies, and tarries not). 
 
 On a dial belonging to Cardinal Richelieu was 
 the inscription : 
 
 ' NEC MOMEMTUM sine LINEA.' 
 
 At Bourges we may find the words : 
 
 ' La vie est comme I'hombre, 
 Ensensible en soil cours ; 
 Ou la croit immobile, 
 EUe avance toujours.' 
 
Inscriptions on Sundials, Bells, etc. 127 
 
 I do not know where the following is to be 
 found, but it might at least serve as a suggestion : 
 
 ' SI NESCIO, HOSPES, SUNT NEC OEACULA PHCEBE, 
 CONSULA; RESPONDENT, HOC TIBI DISCE 
 MORI.' 
 
 (If thou knowest them not, stranger, these are 
 the oracles of Phcebus, consult them ; they reply 
 to thee. Learn to die !) 
 
 On the old sundial at the Palais de Justice, 
 Paris, the inscription found in letters of gold : 
 
 ' SACRA THEMIS MORES, UT PENDULA DIRIGIT 
 HORAS' 
 
 (or. Holy justice guides manners, as this dial does 
 the hours). 
 
 It would appear that M. de Fienbet, Counsellor 
 of State to Louis XIV., erected on the front o'f 
 his town residence the figures of Labour and 
 Repose, supporting a sundial, and inscribed the 
 motto : 
 
 ' PLURES LABORI, DULCIBUS QUIDAM OTIIS '* 
 
 (or, Many to labour, some to sweet ease). 
 
 In the gardens of his country-house there was 
 an isolated dial bearing the words : 
 
 ' DUM FUGIT UMBRA, QUIESCO ' 
 
 (While the shadow flies, I am at rest). 
 
 Turning our steps to Switzerland, we shall find 
 that dials are not lacking, though I shall only 
 record two specimens worthy of special notice. 
 * I think this is a misprint for oiis. 
 
128 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 In the Canton of Uri, near Altdorf, at a village 
 named Erstfelden, in the valley of the Reuss, you 
 may see a dial on the wall of the church. Those 
 who travel in Switzerland cannot fail to observe 
 that scene-paintings on the walls both of churches 
 and houses are very common ; and these are 
 representations of sacred figures and subjects, 
 legends, armorial bearings, and historical events. 
 In the case under present description the painting 
 is somewhat remarkable. The dial in question 
 seems to have heraldic supporters, for two skele- 
 tons, one on each side, hold it up. It is circular 
 in form, and the gnomon proceeds out of the face 
 of the sun, which surmounts it. The motto is 
 inscribed above it, and beneath are the crossbones, 
 and an inscription too much defaced to be de- 
 ciphered, but the following is perfectly preserved:: 
 
 ' WACHET ; DENN IHR WISSET NIGHT, UM WELCHE 
 STUNDE EUER HERR KOMMEM WIRD ' 
 
 (St. Matt. xxiv. 42). 
 At Aynho another good motto appears, i.e. : 
 
 'YET A LITTLE WHILE IS THE LIGHT WITH YOU : 
 WALK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT;' 
 
 and the warning is an apt one, whether regarded 
 as having reference to the waning of the daylight 
 on the dial, or to the brief season of life, and the 
 light of life in the soul. ' Yet a little while am I 
 with you,' said the Light of the World, ' to guide 
 
Inscriptions on Sundials, Bells, etc. 129 
 
 your steps by My Gospel of Peace, to that far-off 
 land, where your sun shall no more go down.' 
 
 Bells. 
 
 With reference to inscriptions on bells, I 
 will give some representative examples. It 
 would be outside my object to do more than 
 give a few words as to the origin of bells 
 themselves. The explorer Layard found some 
 in bronze in the palace of Nimrod during the 
 excavations at Nineveh, and it may be remem- 
 bered that even the site of the ruins was undis- 
 covered for some 2,000 years ! Bells were rung 
 in ancient Egypt to announce the festival of 
 Osiris; the Jewish high priests wore them as 
 decorations on their vestments, as, likewise, the 
 pagan priests of Cybele, at Athens, employed 
 them in their rites. They were in use amongst the 
 early Romans ; and the first indication on record 
 as to their employment in churches is ascribed 
 to Paulinus, A.D. 400. He was Bishop of Nola in 
 the Campania, from whence the term campanile, 
 a bell-tower. They were introduced into France 
 a hundred and fifty years later than in our own 
 country. Benedict, Abbot of Wearmouth, im- 
 ported them in 680 from Italy. Bede, in the 
 seventh century, names them, and St. Dunstan 
 hung many here in the tenth; but the first full 
 peal was sent over to King's College, Cambridge, 
 by Pope Calixtus III. in 1456, which remained 
 
 9 
 
130 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 the largest in England for three hundred years. 
 Bells were common in Germany and Switzerland 
 in the eleventh century. 
 
 There is a bell in the Temple of Clars, at 
 Keinto, Japan, which is covered with Chinese 
 and Sanscrit characters, but which the Japanese 
 scholars have not as yet been able to translate, 
 and no record appears to exist of the period when 
 it was cast. It is 24 feet in height, and is 16 inches 
 in thickness at the rim. It is without a clapper, 
 and is struck by a sort of wooden battering-ram 
 on the outside. The largest bell in the world is 
 that of Moscow, which is upwards of 21 feet in 
 height and diameter, and weighs 193 tons. But 
 it fell, and a piece was broken out in a fire, and it 
 has ever since been utilized as a chapel, but can 
 never more be heard as a bell. According to 
 Strabo, the monument to Porsenna was decorated 
 with pinnacles, each surmounted by bells. In 
 England, ' bellmen ' were appointed in London 
 to proclaim the hours of the night before public 
 clocks were in use, and were generally employed 
 in and about 1556. Each rang a bell, and cried, 
 ' Take care of your fire and candle ; be charitable 
 to the poor, and pray for the dead.' 
 
 At Hernhut, Moravia, a religious verse was 
 sung, significant of the number of the hour, in 
 succession, after the ringing of the bell ; and at 
 Hospenthal, Switzerland, on the old route over 
 the St. Gothard, I have myself heard such night- 
 watchmen going their rounds with lanterns, and 
 
Inscriptions on Sundials, Bells, etc. 131 
 
 pounding heavily with their long staves on the 
 road ; but they did not ring a bell — ^they chanted 
 instead. 
 
 The ancient bell of Candonagh Church, Co. 
 Donegal, is believed to date from before the 
 sixteenth century. The inscription is in Latin, 
 of very corrupt character, viz. : 
 
 'SANCTA MARIA, ORA PRO NOBIS ' RECARDUS 
 POTTER • DE VRUCIUM " NE FECIT ALLA.' 
 
 It is believed to be of Spanish origin, and saved 
 from a ship of the Armada, which was wrecked 
 off the coast of Innishowen, and found a shelter 
 and a renewed vocation at a few miles' distance 
 inland in the Co. Donegal. The height of the 
 bell is 17J inches, the diameter at the mouth 
 20 inches, and the weight 120 pounds. 
 
 Upon the most ancient specimens of bells the 
 inscriptions are in the Lombardic and black-letter 
 characters. Then followed the use of Roman 
 capitals. 
 
 The bells at Graveley, Cambridgeshire — four in 
 number — are thus inscribed : 
 
 First (treble) : ' God, of His marce, hear us all.' 
 Second : 'When vpon that we do call.' 
 
 Third : ' O priese the Lord thearfore, I say.' 
 
 Fourth (tenor) : ' I sound vnto the living when the soole 
 doth part away.' 
 
 The ancient church of Little Sodbury having 
 been demolished, and having neither chancel nor 
 graveyard, built on a rock on the western slope 
 
 9—2 
 
132 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 of the Cotswold Hills (north-east of Bristol), a 
 new church was built at the foot of the hill, below 
 the manor. Most of the materials were utilized, 
 as well as the old windows and the bell, the 
 latter being encircled by the motto : 
 
 ' GOD SAVE THE QUEEN, AND SEND US PEACE. 
 A.R. 1707.' 
 
 The modern church has been given the name 
 of its predecessor, St. Adeline. Who she was 
 appears to be a mystery. 
 
 The tenor bell at West Keal, Lincolnshire, is 
 inscribed with the couplet : 
 
 ' To speak a parting soul is given to me ; 
 Be trimm'd thy lamp, as if I toll'd for thee'; 
 
 and at Strathern, Leicestershire : 
 
 ' My roaring sounde doth warning give, 
 That men cannot heare always lyve.' 
 
 At Whitchurch, Hants, the tenor bell, serving 
 as a passing-bell, is inscribed with the words : 
 
 ' When I toll 
 The Lord save the soul.' 
 
 Two Latin inscriptions may be named, one at 
 Warmington, Northants, viz. : 
 
 ' VITAM METIOR MORTEM PLORO ' 
 
 (or, I measure life, I weep on death) ; 
 
134 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 I may now give a few examples of an earlier 
 date, on bells which were founded and inscribed 
 in the sixteenth century. At St. Peter-the-Less, 
 Chichester, the third bell bears the motto : 
 
 'PRAYSED BE THY NAME, O LORD. I580.' 
 
 At Butleigh, Somerset, the second bell: 
 
 *GEVE THANKS TO GOD. ANNO DOMINI I596.' 
 
 And in the same county, at Remington, the third 
 bell: 
 
 ' PRAYES GOD. J. W. 1592.' 
 
 In Sussex, at Lindfifeld, the fifth of the peal 
 bears the motto : 
 
 'all honer lavd and prais be vnto the, 
 o god. 1573.' 
 
 At Eaton, Leicestershire, the fourth bell is 
 inscribed : 
 
 'jhesus be ovr speed. 1589'; 
 
 and at Hacconby and Thornton Curtis, both in 
 Lincolnshire, the mottoes are respectively : 
 
 ' FEARE god, and KEEPE HIS LAVE. I596 ' ; 
 
 and on the third bell of the peal last named, the 
 Latin words : 
 
 • o DEUS absque pare fac nos tibi dulce 
 
 SONARE. 1592 ' 
 
 (or, O God, make us sound sweetly to Thee, 
 without an equal). 
 
Inscriptions on Sundials, Bells, etc. 135 
 
 On the third bell at Scalford, Leicestershire, 
 we find a loyal motto : 
 
 "GOD SAVE THE QUEENE. 1595 ' ; 
 
 and equally so the inscriptions at Arthingworth 
 and Bugbrook, and at East Farnden, Northamp- 
 tonshire, all of them of the sixteenth century, and 
 having reference to Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 At Passenham, Northants, we may find on the 
 fourth bell : 
 
 ' A TRUSTY FRENDE IS HARDE TO FYNDE. 1585. 
 
 At Chidham, Sussex, on the first bell : 
 
 'I LIVE IN HOPE. I. W. 1586.' 
 
 There are many that bear mottoes in Latin, of 
 which some have been already given, and on 
 others (tenors) reference is made to their use as 
 ' sermon bells,' as, for example, some found in 
 the midland counties, viz. : 
 
 ' I will sound and resound unto Thy people, O Lord, 
 With my sweet voice, to call them to Thy word '; 
 
 and, 
 
 ' I ring to sermon with a lusty home, 
 That all may come, and none may stay at home.' 
 
 The small ' sacring-bell,' which is named in the 
 ' Edwardian Inventories,' hung in the chancel in 
 the sixteenth century, was also called the * Agnus- 
 bell.' It was rung at the Elevation, and was 
 followed by the singing of the Agnus Dei. 
 
136 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 For much I have said on the subject of bells I 
 am indebted to ' A Book on Bells,' by the late 
 Thomas North, F.S.A., edited by the Rev. W. 
 Beresford, which I recommend to the reader's 
 study ; and only fear my extracts have been too 
 copious, my gleanings from this interesting work 
 commencing with the bells at Graveley, Cam- 
 bridgeshire. 
 
 The inscription on ' Mighty Tom,' of Christ 
 Church, Oxon, which, after sundry mischances, 
 was brought to perfection by Christopher Hodson, 
 a London founder, is a long and curious one, 
 for which I refer the reader to the book before 
 named, from which I venture to abstract a few 
 more — as, for example, the motto on a bell at 
 Alkborough, Lincolnshire : 
 
 'YESV : FOR : Yi : MODIR : SAKE : SAVE : AL : 
 YE : SAULS : THAT : ME : GART : MAKE : AMEN.' 
 
 Mr. North says that of bells cast in the four- 
 teenth century and down to the Reformation 
 period, many were dedicated to the Holy Trinity, 
 but a more usual form of inscription was : 
 
 ' JHESVS NAZARENSUS REX IVDEORVM,' 
 
 engraved in capital letters. 
 
 On the third bell at Moningham Church, Lin- 
 colnshire, may be seen : 
 
 ' HOC NOMEN IhI^SYS EST AMOR ME^S ' U^j 
 
 (This name Jesus is my love). 
 
Inscriptions on Sundials, Bells, etc. 137 
 
 In the parish church of Windsor there is a peal 
 of eight bells, of which two were presented by 
 Lord Marsham, who recast the others. On every 
 bell there is an inscription, in text characters, 
 without variation (on two the motto in prose) : 
 
 ' I and my seven sisters here 
 Were given by the Cofferer. 
 And if you wish his name to know, 
 My elder sister will you show. 
 • Lord Marsham, Cofferer to Queen Anne, gave these two 
 bells, and new cast the other six, in the year 1707.' 
 
 Leaving the shores of England we find much 
 with reference to bell mottoes in Germany, Swit- 
 zerland, and the Tyrol, and begin with an example 
 at Cologne, which I obtained from a small German 
 book respecting such, and others on organs, etc. : 
 
 ' St. Martin wennt man mich ; 
 Zum Dienste Gottes ermahne ich. 
 Den Donner Zerschlage ich. 
 Die Todten beklage ich. 
 Die Sunder bekehre ich, 
 Dass du lebest ewiglich. 
 'Edmund Pipin, in CoUen, gosse mich.' ('In Kein-Martin, 
 in Coin, 1721.') 
 
 Translated thus : 
 
 St. Martin people name me ; 
 For the service of God I take courage, 
 The thunderstorm I break, 
 The dead I mourn. 
 The sinner I convert, 
 That thou livest evermore. 
 Edmund Pipin, in Coin, founded (or cast) me. 
 
138 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 There is one on a bell at Markoldendorf, in 
 Hanover, on the Ilm, dated 1557, viz. : 
 
 ' Sanctus Martinus ben ich genannt, 
 Den von Markoldendorf wohlbekannt ; 
 Dess miissen sie oft und viel geniessen ; 
 Darum sie mich auch liessen giessen.' 
 
 (Holy Martin am I named, 
 That at Markoldendorf was well known ; 
 Which you must often, and much, enjoy ; 
 For which you also caused me to be cast.) 
 
 ' An einem Glocken kann man spuren 
 Die Ding' so einen Prediger gebuhren ; 
 Gott loben und fiihren in rechter Lehr, 
 Das Volk versammeln und die Schaar 
 Zu Kirchen und zu aller Zucht ; 
 Bringt gut Trempel und gute Frucht. 
 
 Germsa, 1650.' 
 
 (On a bell one may remark 
 
 The things which become a preacher : 
 
 To praise God and to conduct in the true doctrine, 
 
 To assemble the people and the crowd 
 
 In church, and take to discipline. 
 
 Gives good example and good fruit.) 
 
 There is an inscription to be found at Leipzig 
 — the Miinchglocke auf dem Thomasthurm : 
 
 ' Gott helfe, dass mein Klang und Schall 
 Viel lange Zeit gehoret werd 
 Bei Jung und Alt alluberall, 
 Sammt Gottes Wort auf dieser Erd'; 
 
 which I translate thus, 
 
 God grant that my clang and resonance 
 For long time may be heard 
 
Inscriptions on Sundials, Bells, etc. 139 
 
 By young and old everywhere, 
 Sounding God's word over the land. 
 
 In Switzerland, as elsewhere, bells are named. 
 At Hermanie, in Valais, the church bell is thus 
 inscribed : 
 
 ' J'appelle k vous mon Dieu 
 Les peuples de la terre ; 
 Ecartez de ce lieu 
 La foudre, et la tonnerre.' 
 
 On the silver bell of Geneva there are these 
 words : 
 
 ' J'ai una ame sainte, et spontanea pour honorer Dieu, 
 Et I'invoquer pour la d^livrance de la Patrie.' 
 
 On another bell may be found the following 
 motto : 
 
 ' Quand tu m'entends, Chretien, quel est ton sort ; 
 Je Sonne k ta naissance, et je pleure k ta mort.' 
 
 Posy Rings. 
 
 I have promised to give a few examples of 
 posy-ring mottoes, and explain, in the first place, 
 that, according to Dr. Cobham Brewer, a ' posy ' 
 means a copy of verses presented with a bouquet, 
 the term being a contraction of the word poesy. 
 It is also applied to the bouquet itself alone. 
 Shakespeare speaks of 'the posy of a ring,' 
 meaning the motto ; and Spenser speaks of a 
 ' bridegroom's posies,' meaning the flowers only. 
 One historical posy-ring must find a place in my 
 list as of the first importance amongst them. 
 
140 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 The device of the daisy and fleur-de-lis was 
 adopted by St. Louis, both as representing his 
 wife, Marguerite of Provence, and his own 
 armorial insignia, and having caused a ring to 
 be made encircled with a wreath of these flowers, 
 enamelled in relief, and holding a large sapphire, 
 he had the latter engraved. The two representa- 
 tive flowers above named formed the device, 
 accompanied by the inscription : 
 
 'HORS CEST ANEL, POINT N'AY AMOUR.' 
 
 The signification is clearly expressed that his 
 Queen and his country absorbed all his thoughts 
 and affections, so far, at least, as this world was 
 concerned. The collection of old ring mottoes 
 now given are taken as they are supplied by 
 Dr. Brewer, viz. : aei, the Greek for ' always.' 
 
 'FOR EVER AND FOR AYE.' 
 
 *IN THESE MY CHOICE I DO REJOICE.' 
 
 ' LET LOVE INCREASE.' 
 
 'may god ABOVE INCREASE OUR LOVE.' 
 
 ' NOT TWO, BUT ONE TILL LIFE IS GONE.' 
 
 'my heart AND I, UNTIL I DIE.' 
 
 •WHEN THIS YOU SEE, THEN THINK OF ME.' 
 
 'LOVE IS HEAVEN, AND HEAVEN IS LOVE.' 
 
 •WEDLOCK, 'TIS SAID, IN HEAVEN IS MADE.' 
 
 These are all old mottoes, and many more 
 could be added to the list. 
 
Inscriptions on Sundials, Bells, etc. 141 
 
 Organ Inscriptions. 
 
 Of inscriptions on organs I will give but two 
 representative examples. One may be seen on 
 the Cathedral at Marienwerder, the capital of 
 West Prussia, situated on a tributary of the 
 Vistula, and its cathedral dating from the thir- 
 teenth century. The inscription is a long one : 
 
 ' Organist, merk was ich sag : 
 Ruf Gott an, andachtig schlag, 
 Greif nicht falsch, nichts Leichtfert Gesspiel, 
 AUein der Geminde Nutz sei dem ziel, 
 Nach dem Chor dich auch richte sein, 
 Im Herzen soUst andachtig sein. 
 So wird Gott durch dies Werk geehrt, 
 Traurigkeit auch in freud' verkehr.' 
 
 Of which this is the translation : 
 
 Organist, mark what I say : 
 
 Fear God devoutly, and play not false notes ; 
 
 Only play for the benefit of the people. 
 
 Accompany the choir well ; 
 
 You must be serious at heart. 
 
 So will God be honoured by this instrument. 
 
 Sorrow will be turned into joy. 
 
 The second I read on one of our English 
 organs, but cannot now locate it — i.e. : 
 
 ' LET EVERYTHING THAT HATH BREATH PRAISE 
 THE LORD.' 
 
142 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 Coin Inscriptions. 
 
 It is a matter worth observation that the 
 singularly devout feeling in the German-speaking 
 nations not only is rendered patent to all who 
 are acquainted with their homesteads, but that it 
 finds expression even upon their coins. Out of a 
 large number given in the ' Deutsche Ausschritten 
 an Haus und Gerath ' (published by William 
 Hertz, Berlin), I give a few representative ex- 
 amples : 
 
 ' Wenn das Gliick zu der thut wenden, 
 So hast du freund' in alien Enden ; 
 Wenn aber das Gliick verschwindt, 
 Der selben sich nicht einer findt. 
 
 1583.' 
 (When good fortune to thee doth turn, 
 So hast thou friends in every place ; 
 But when good fortune vanishes, 
 You, yourself, will not find one.) 
 
 ' Gottes Wort, und steuem geben, 
 Hilft zu diesem, und jenem Leben. 
 
 Kupferschaupfennig, 
 Gotha, 1726.' 
 
 (God's Word and taxes give 
 Help [?] to this and future life [?]). 
 
 Again, the following time-honoured motto : 
 
 ' Im Kreuze nur bestandig sei, 
 Gott ficht dein' Noth und steht dir bei. 
 Medaille auf Saltburger, 
 Emigraten, 1522.' 
 
Inscriptions on Sundials, Bells, etc. 143 
 
 Translated, it reads thus : 
 
 In crosses only be constant ; 
 
 God sees thy need, and stands by thee. 
 
 When in the Italian part of the Dolomite 
 country last autumn, I visited the small museum 
 at Pieve de Cadore, the birthplace of Titian. 
 Amongst other interesting relics of ancient times, 
 there was a collection of coins and medals, and 
 on one of the latter were the following words : 
 
 ' FACIO VOTE DIO, ED A MARIA, DI NON PRESTAR 
 SOLDI, NE FAR PIGGIARIA,' 
 
 the translation of which is, ' I have vowed to God, 
 and to Mary, neither to lend money, nor to become 
 surety.' (The Italian is of ancient type.) 
 
 One of the very scarce inscriptions to be found 
 on pulpit hour-glasses, which are akin in character 
 to those on sundials, may be recorded. Indeed, 
 so far as my own researches have extended, either 
 from personal observation or from records derived 
 from others, the following example is quite unique. 
 On the pulpit hour-glass at Hurst, Berkshire — 
 a county rich in records of the past, whether of 
 ancient or subsequent times — the motto is in- 
 scribed : 
 
 'as this GLASS RUNNETH, SO MAN'S LIFE 
 PASSETH.' 
 
 It appears on the curious wrought-iron frame and 
 support, which is surrounded by oak and ivy leaves. 
 
144 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 Of Masonic inscriptions a few words may be said. 
 
 During my stay at Bergen I visited the unique 
 wooden church Stave- Kirke, at Fantoft, within a 
 drive of the first-named town, of which church I 
 took a photograph. On the left-hand door-post 
 there were very Masonic-looking inscriptions, 
 consisting of three incised devices, apparently 
 made with a knife, and headed * A,' ' B,' ' C,' 
 respectively. No light has been thrown, so far 
 as I know, upon these inscriptions. 
 
 At Guisborough (Yorks) Priory, at Elgin Cathe- 
 dral, and at Donne Church there are Masonic mark- 
 ings also, and ancient ones at Tewkesbury Abbey ; 
 at Bridlington Priory Church, Yorks, a.d. 1270 
 to 1 310 (environs*) ; at Bangor Cathedral, North 
 Wales, in the south arcade, the tower (1530), and 
 in the north arcade. Of course, being a woman, 
 I am unable to decipher their meaning, but to 
 name the fact may afford a pleasure to any Mason- 
 reader who may visit these churches. 
 
 A brass Masonic square was found at Limerick 
 in 1830, when taking down Baal's Bridge, bearing 
 the following inscription : 
 
 ' I • will • striue ' to ■ liue " [1517] 
 With • loue ■ and • care 
 Upon • ye • leul • 
 By • ye • square.' 
 
 The arms of the square measure 4J inches out- 
 side. To ' act on the square ' appears to have a 
 Masonic origin. 
 
 * French for ' about.' 
 
Inscriptions on Sundials, Bells, etc. 145 
 
 It seems a rather serious omission to record no 
 memorial epitaphs in a representative collection 
 of inscriptions. But even one or two may suffice. 
 
 In Exeter Cathedral the monument of Margaret 
 Bohun and her husband, Hugh Courtenay, third 
 Earl of Devon, may be seen, her feet resting on a 
 swan — both the charge on her family escutcheon, 
 and their personally adopted badge. Their son 
 was the ' blind good Earl ' of Devon — the fourth 
 of his line — and on his monument, at Tiverton, 
 the celebrated inscription is recorded to have been 
 sculptured; alas! no longer to be seen, as the 
 ancient church was destroyed by the Puritans in 
 the Parliamentary Wars. The inscription runs 
 thus : 
 
 ' Hoe, hoe ! who lies here ? 
 I, the good Erie of Devonshire, 
 With Maud, my wyfe, — to mee full dere, — 
 We lyved together fyfty-fyve year. 
 
 ' What wee gave, wee have; 
 What wee spent, wee had ; 
 What we lefte, wee loste.' 
 
 Another inscription, breathing the same beauti- 
 ful sentiments — but by whom written does not 
 appear to be recorded — is inscribed on a brass in 
 St. Albans : 
 
 ' Lo, all that ever I spent. 
 
 That sometime had I ; 
 All that I gave in good intent. 
 That now have I ; 
 
 10 
 
146 House Mottoes and Inscriptions 
 
 That I never gave, nor lent, 
 
 That once had I ; 
 That I kept till I went, 
 
 That lost r !' 
 
 The author's name is not attached to it, as I 
 observed, but it may be said of that gracious 
 being, whose heart and nature are thus word- 
 painted, and portrayed in lovely colours, ' He (or 
 she) being dead, yet speaketh '; or, more correctly 
 expressed, having passed out of mortal ken for 
 a brief season. 
 
 Merge any desire to ' take ' in the greater joy to 
 ' give,' yet be ready ever to receive graciously ; 
 for so you will still fulfil the obligation of ' giving ' 
 by conferring on another that greater pleasure, 
 instead of reserving it wholly to yourself ; for it is 
 said, ' It is more blessed to give than to receive,' 
 ' Do good, and lend ; hoping for nothing again,' 
 and He who left us this beautiful ' law of love,' 
 was ' kind to the unthankful.' 
 
 Elliai Stocky 62, Paternoster Row, London, E.C,