ewhere read, but where, for lack of a "note," I cannot recollect,
that in making their proofs of nobility previous to their admission into
the order, unlike the other Languages, the cavalier of England gave in only
the names of their father and mother, but at the same time it was requisite
that these two names should be able to prove a nobility of two hundred
years each.

Perhaps the custom of bearing the paternal shield impaled with the maternal
sprung from these proofs.

In the British Museum, Harl. MSS. 1386., may be seen three examples of this
custom, in a paper entitled, _A Note of certain Knights of Rhodes_, "in
prioratu Sancti Johannis Jerusalem."

1. Sir Thomas Docwra, Grand Prior of England, A.D. 1504, a knight not more
renowned as a valiant man-at-arms, "preux et hardi," than as a skilful
diplomatist; and who, on the death of Fabricio Caretto, A.D. 1520-1, was
thought worthy to be put in competition for the Grand Mastership with the
celebrated Villiers de L'Isle Adam, and, as Vertot tells us, only lost that
dignity by a very trifling majority. His paternal coat--Sable, a cheveron
engrailed argent, between three plates, on each a pale, gules--is impaled
with that of his mother, Alice, daughter of Thomas Green, of Gressingham,
in Yorkshire; Argent, a bugle-horn sable, stringed gules, between three
griffins' heads, erased, of the second; over all, the chief of the order.

2. Sir Lancelot Docwra, near kinsman to Sir Thomas, and son of Robert
Docwra, of Docwra-Hall, in Cumberland. His arms are impaled with--Or, a
cross flory sable--the coat armour of his mother, Jane, daughter of Sir
John Lamplugh, of Lamplugh, in the same county; one "of a race," as Denton
says, "of valorous gentlemen, successively for their worthiness knighted in
the field, all, or most part of them." The chief of the order also
surmounts his shield.

3. The third is the shield of Sir John Randon; Gules, a bend checquy or and
azure, impaling Argent, a frette, and on a chief, gules, three escallops of
the field; over all, the chief of the order. {299}

If any readers of "N. & Q." could furnish me with more examples, I should
be much obliged.

JOHN O' THE FORD.

Malta.

* * * * *

FOLK LORE.

_Three Maids._--There is a spot on the road from Winchester to Andover
called the "Three Maids." They are I believe nameless. Tradition says that
they poisoned their father, and were for that crime buried alive up to