[from Manx Soc vol 16]

ARMS OF MAN.

Quaint suggested translation of Motto for a " Cockney."

IN Pegge's Anecdotes of the English Language, edited by the. Rev. Henry Christmas B.A (published in 1844) ; the editor gives in an appendix a number of " Cockney Colloquialiasms," with explanations and notes. At page 297 he says, " We have the proverb, for such we might call it, 'As right as a trivet.'-A trivet, as all Cockneys know, is an iron frame to support saucepans over a kitchen-fire ; and anciently it was so constructed as to be sure to fall right, whichever way it was thrown. It was of course triangular; and hence, if a Cockney understood Latin, and the noted motto of the Isle of Man were submitted to his notice, he, observing the allusion to the three legs, would naturally translate 'QUOCUNQUE JECERIS STABIT' into his own vernacular, "It's as right as a trivet."
The iron article referred to by the Rev. H. Christmas, though formerly commonly used in the Isle of Man, was not there called a trivet, but a Crow.

In the English and Manx Dictionary (vol xiii of the Manx Society), the word Trivet is thus rendered in Manx.-

1. " Red-erbee, three-chassagh."
2. " Brattagh, Ellan Vannin." The translation of which is-

1. Anything with (or having) three legs (or feet).
2. The flag (or ensign) of the Isle of Man.