kwaw said:
There are several different images of the man in the moon, would you say this one recalls our favourite lunatic, ill matto?
http://www.inconstantmoon.com/map_near_mans.htm
Kwaw
"Mr. Hudson Taylor submitted to the Committee a drawing of an impression of a very remarkable personal seal, here represented of the full size. It is appended to a deed (preserved in the Public Record Office) dated in the ninth year of Edward the Third, whereby Walter de Grendene, clerk, sold to Margaret, his mother, one messuage, a barn and four acres of ground in the parish of Kingston-on-Thames. The device appears to be founded on the ancient popular legend that a husbandman who had stolen a bundle of thorns from a hedge was, in punishment of his theft, carried up to the moon. The legend reading Te Waltere docebo cur spinas phebo gero, 'I will teach you, Walter, why I carry thorns in the moon,' seems to be an enigmatical mode of expressing the maxim that honesty is the best policy."
As quoted in 'Moon Lore' 1885 BY THE REV. TIMOTHY HARLEY, F.R.A.S. - originally from 'The Archæological Journal' for March, 1848, pp. 66, 67. (public domain source)
"Moon Lore" is a collection of lunar folklore and includes several interesting illustrations, a few of which I have placed on line here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51129451@N00/
The complete text is available on-line from sacred texts here:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/astro/ml/index.htm
Kwaw