the ensign of the Jutish
kingdom of Kent, the county of Kent to this day displaying the white
horse in its armorial bearings? The standard of Wessex is by others said
to have been the _white dragon_; but Thierry supposes that this, like
the contrasted _red dragon_ of Cymbri, was merely a poetical
designation, and seems to infer that the flags of these two contending
people were without any device. Again, it has been thought that a _lion_
was the ensign of Northumbria; in which case we may, perhaps, conclude
that the lions which now grace the shield of the city of York have
descended from Anglo-Saxon times. The memory of the Danish standard of
the _Raven_, described by Asser and other Anglo-Saxon chroniclers, still
remains; but whether, when Northumbria and East Anglia fell under Danish
power, this device supplanted previous Anglo-Saxon devices, is a curious
question for antiquarian research. The famous Norwegian standard--the
Landeyda, or ravager of the world--under which Harold Hardrada triumphed
at Fulford, near York, but to fall a few days later at Stanford Bridge,
is well known; but who can inform us as to the device which it bore?
These early traces of heraldic usage appear to deserve more notice than
I believe they have received.

O.

_Burning the Dead._--Can any of your readers, who may have attended
particularly to the funeral customs of different peoples, inform me
whether the practice of burning the dead has ever been in vogue amongst
any people excepting inhabitants of Europe and Asia? I incline to the
opinion that this practice has been limited to people of Indo-Germanic
or Japetic race, and I shall be obliged by any references in favour of
or opposed to this view.

T.

_Meaning of "Shipster."_--Can any of your correspondents inform me what
is the business or calling or profession of a Shipster? The term occurs
in a grant of an annuity of Oct. 19. 2 Henry VIII., 1510, and made
between "H.U., Gentilman, and Marie Fraunceys de Suthwerk, in com Surr
_Shipster_."

JOHN R. FOX.

55. Welbeck Street, Jan. 22. 1850.

_Why did Dr. Dee quit Manchester?_--In the _Penny Cyclopaedia_, art. DEE,
JOHN, I find the following statement:--

"In 1595 the queen appointed Dee warden of Manchester College,
he being then sixty-eight years of age. He resided there nine
years; _but from some cause not exactly known, he left it in
1604_, and returned to his house at Mortlake, where he spent the
re