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_Supposed Inscription in St. Peter's Church, Rome._--When at school in
France, some twenty years ago, I was informed that the following
inscription was to be found in some part of St. Peter's Church in Rome:
"Nunquam amplius super hanc cathedram cantabit Gallus."
It appears that the active part taken by the French in fomenting the
great schism of the Church during the fourteenth century, when they set
up and maintained at Avignon a Pope of their own choosing, had generated
an abhorrence of French interference in the Italian mind; and that, when
the dissensions were abated by the suspension of the rival Popes, the
_ultramontane_ cardinals had posted up this inscription to testify their
desire for the exclusion of French ecclesiastics from the Papal chair.
In one respect the prediction remains in force to this day; for I
believe I am correct in saying that no Frenchman has worn the triple
crown for the last 450 years. But that portion of it which is implied in
the second meaning of "Gallus," has been woefully belied in our time by
the forcible occupation of Rome by a French army, on which occasion the
Gallic cock had all the "crowing" to himself.
I have never had an opportunity of ascertaining the existence of this
inscription, and shall be obliged to any correspondent of "NOTES AND
QUERIES" who will afford information on the subject.
HENRY H. BREEN.
St. Lucia, April, 1851.
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_Rag Sunday in Sussex._--Allow me to ask the explanation of "Rag Sunday"
in Sussex. I lately saw some young gentlemen going to school at
Brighton, who had been provided with some fine white handkerchiefs, when
one observed they would not stand much chance of escape on "Rag Sunday."
He then told me that each boy, on the Sunday but one preceding the
holidays, always tore a piece of his shirt or handkerchief off and wore
it in the button-hole of his jacket as his "rag." When a boy, I remember
being compelled to do the same when at school at Hailsham in Sussex, and
all boys objecting had their hats knocked off and trod on.