or **Quæstor**, in Roman antiquity, an officer who had the management of the public treasure.

The questorship was the first office any person could bear in the commonwealth, and gave a right to sit in the senate.

At first there were only two; but afterwards two others were created, to take care of the payment of the armies abroad, of selling the plunder, booty, &c., for which purpose they generally accompanied the consuls in their expeditions; on which account they were called *prætor*, as the first and principal two were called *urban*.

The number of questors was afterwards greatly increased. They had the keeping of the decrees of the senate: and hence came the two offices of *questor principis*, or *augusti*, sometimes called *candidatus principis*, whose office resembled in most respects that of our secretaries of state; and the *questor palati*, answering in a great measure to our lord chancellor.

**QUEBE**, in heraldry, signifies the tail of a beast; thus if a lion be borne with a forked tail, he is blazoned double-queued.

**QUEVEDO de Villagas** (Francisco), a celebrated Spanish poet, born at Madrid in 1570. He was... Quicklime, or Quickset Hedge, among gardeners, denotes all live hedges, of whatever sort of plants they are composed, to distinguish them from dead hedges; but in a more strict sense of the word, it is restrained to those planted with the hawthorn, under which name those young plants or sets are sold by the nursery gardeners who raise them for sale. See the article Hedge.