Sir,--Possibly some one of your literary correspondents, who may be
versed in the, what D'Israeli would call _Secret_ History of the
Jacobite Court, will endeavour to answer a "Query" relative to the
following rare medal:--
_Obv._ A ship of war bearing the French flag; on the shore a
figure in the dress of a Jesuit (supposed to represent Father
Petre) seated astride of a _Lobster_, holding in his arms the
young Prince of Wales, who has a little windmill on his head.
Legend: "Allons mon Prince, nous sommes en bon chemin." In the
exergue, "Jacc: Franç: Eduard, supposé. 20 Juin, 1688."
_Rev._ A shield charged with a windmill, and surmounted by a
Jesuit's bonnet; two rows of Beads or Rosaries, for an order or
collar, within which we read "Honny soit qui _non_ y pense;" a
_Lobster_ is suspended from the collar as a badge. Legend: "Les
Armes et l'Ordre du pretendu Prince de Galles."
The difficulty in the above medal is _the Lobster_, though doubtless it
had an allusion to some topic or scandal of the day; whoever can
elucidate it will render good service to Medallic History, for hitherto
it has baffled all commentators and collectors of medals. The windmill
(indicative of the poplar fable that the Prince was the son of a
miller), and the Roman Catholic symbols, are well understood.
There is an engraving of this medal in Van Loon's _Histoire Metallique
des Pays Bas_. It is also imperfectly engraved in Edwards' _Medallic
History of England_, for the Jesuit is represented kneeling on the
shore, and Pinkerton, who furnished the text, calls it "a boy kneeling
on the shore." The medal is so rare that probably the artist could
obtain only a rubbed or mutilated impression to engrave from. My
description is from a {59} specimen, in my own collection, as fine as
the day it was minted.
I may add that both Van Loon and Pinkerton have engraved the legend in
the collar erroneously, "honi soit qui _bon_ y pense;" it should be
"_non_."