The device of the charbocle is thought to emanate from an ornamental or more probably a constructional part of a shield and is most often associated with the kings of Navarre or the counts and dukes of Cleves, and as a difference with the family of Mandeville. The centre of the charbocle was sometimes known as the heart and the possibility that the heart depicted at the centre of the Basset charbocle may be a pun cannot be ignored.

He takes the prepared charcoal used by artists, brings it to a white heat, and suddenly plunges it in a bath of mercury, of which the globules instantly penetrate the pores of charcoal, and may be said to metallize it.

In the Wishverse, many of the good characters have been turned bad or are dead.

[I]t was unlikely, he says, that he could procure, in the time, a letter from Lady Betty, under her own hand, to invite me in form to her house […].