universally
prevailed. The numerals, it will be seen, make up the number 1661, which
was the year of the coronation of King Charles II.; and, no doubt, also the
year in which the dial in question was erected.

T. HUGHES.

Chester.

_Heraldic Notes_ (Vol. viii., p. 265.).--The bearing of the arms of Clare
Hall by Dr. Blythe is not strictly correct, because, with the exception of
the three principal Kings of Arms, the Earl Marshal, the Master of
Ordnance, and a few others especially, arms of office do not exist in
England. The general mode of bearing them is by impalement, giving the
preference (dexter) to the arms of dignity. In the example under notice,
the arms of dignity or office are borne upon a _pile_, which has somewhat
the appearance of an inverted chevron. It is not at all a common mode of
bearing additions; but I remember one case, viz. the grant by King Henry
VIII. to the Seymours, after his marriage to Lady Jane, of the lions of
England on a pile.

BROCTUNA.

Bury, Lancashire.

_Christian Names_ (Vol. vii. _passim_).--May I be permitted to correct one
or two errors in MR. BATES'S Note on this subject, Vol. vii. p. 627.?

The person described as a "certain M. L-P. Saint-Florentin" was no less a
person than the Duke de la Vrilliere, who filled several important offices
during the reign of Louis XV. The allusion in the epigram to his "trois
noms" has no reference to his _names_, whether Christian or patronymic, in
the sense in which the question has been discussed in "N. & Q.," but to the
three _titles_ which he successively bore as a public man. He commenced his
career as M. de Phelippeaux; was afterwards created Comte de
Saint-Florentin, and sometime before his death was raised to the dignity of
Duke de la Vrilliere.

My authority for this statement is the cotemporary work, _Les Memoires
secrets de Bachaumont_, where, under date of December, 1770, the epigram is
thus introduced, with a variation in the first line:

"Un autre plaisant a fait d'avance l'epitaphe de M. le duc de la
Vrilliere. Elle roule sur ses trois noms differents de Phelippeaux,
Saint-Florentin, et la Vrilliere:

'Ci-git, malgre son rang, un homme fort commun,
Ayant porte trois noms, et n'en laissant aucun.'"

The sense being, that his titles had been his only distinction, and that
even they had not been sufficient to rescue his character from obscurity
and contempt.

However "applicable" this epigram may