Dec. 17. 1849.
P.S.--I may add, that there was affixed to the bottom of the frame of
the picture a board, on which was painted, in conformably large
letters--
"LORD, remember David and all his trouble."
_Psalm_ cxxxii. 1.
The italics in part of the Note above quoted are mine.
_Autograph Mottoes of Richard Duke of Gloucester, and Henry Duke of
Buckingham._--In the volume of the Cottonian MSS. marked Vespasian F.
XIII., at fol. 53., is a slip of parchment, upon which is written by the
hands of Richard Duke of Gloucester, and Henry Duke of Buckingham, the
following couplet:--
"Loyaulte me lie
Richard Gloucestre
"Souente me souène
Harre Bokingh'a'm."
A fac-simile is engraved in _Autographs of Royal, Noble, Learned, and
Remarkable Personages in English History_, engraved by C.J. Smith, and
edited by Mr. John Gough Nichols, 1829, 4to., where the editor suggests
that this slip of parchment was "perhaps a deceitful toy," or it may
have been attached to some present offered by the Duke of Gloucester to
his royal nephew Edward the Fifth. The meaning of Gloucester's motto is
perfectly free from misapprehension; but he asserts his fidelity to the
crown, which he soon so flagrantly outraged--"Loyalty binds me." In the
work above mentioned, the motto of Buckingham is interpreted by these
words, in modern French:--"Souvent me souviens." This does not appear to
me perfectly satisfactory; and I have to request the opinions of such as
are conversant with old manuscripts, whether the true meaning, or even
the true reading, of the Duke of Buckingham's motto has as yet been
ascertained?