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 prioratû 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.
_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 their necks. Travellers passing by were ordered not to feed them; but one compassionate horseman as he rode along threw the core of an apple to one, on which she subsisted for three days. Wonderful is it to state that three groups of firs sprung up miraculously from the graves of the three maids. Thus their memories have been perpetuated. The peasantry of Winchester and its neighbourhood for the most part accredit the story, and I see no reason for disbelieving the first part of it myself. Does any one know of a like punishment being awarded in olden times, when the tender mercies of the law were cruel and arbitrary?