Polls in Smith, 1727, 1747, 1780, 1784.
Poole.

Polls in Smith, 1741, 1761, 1774, 1784, 1795, 1796, 1802, 1765 On the resignation of Mr. Gulston. 1806, 1812, 1820.

Corfe Castle.

Joseph Gulston, Jun.

Joshua Mauger

...

43

41

Polls in Smith, 1774, 1790, 1807, 1826, 1831 (vice Pon

85

70

63

52

4, Montague Place, Bedford Square.

St. Ives.-Crosby's 'Contested Elections' gives

78

53

ford by the Mayor's approbation.

This does not correspond with the Blue - book,

This was a double return. Churchill was declared duly which gives Willlam Praed and Jonathan Raine

elected.

as returned on July 9, 1802.

Q. V.

JAMAIS "NON, MONSIEUR, NOUS NE TIRONS LES PREMIERS."-In Macmillan for September Mrs. Ritchie asks attention, at p. 348, to the story of the interview between Lord Charles Hay and the Count d'Auteroches before the battle of Fontenoy began on April 30, 1745 (O.S.). It appears that Lord Gifford sent to Carlyle a letter of Lord C. Hay, in which he spoke of the scene, upon which Carlyle wished to found a tale, but was not able to obtain permission to make use of the letter. This is a more authentic anecdote than is very frequently the case, and has received confirmation in the Revue des Deux Mondes (February, 1851), and also in E. Fournier's 'L'Esprit dans l'Histoire' (pp. 348-51, Paris, 1883). But it is not so commonly known that this practice was a tradition of the French army:

"Or c'était de tradition dans l'armée; on laissait toujours, par courtoisie, l'advantage du premier feu à l'ennemi."

In this instance the advantage of the first shot was so great that it was the cause of the loss to the French of more than a thousand men (foot-note, p. 349).

Count d'Auteroches is also the author, by reputation, of another famous mot :

"C'est lui qui dit encore, à propos du siége de Mäestricht, à quelqu'un qui prétendait que la ville était imprenable Ce mot-là, Monsieur, n'est pas français. C'est ce qu'on a dit depuis pour impossible."-P. 350. This, however, is questioned by Fournier in a note, in which he states, on the authority of a MS. in the National Library, that it was a little earlier: "Je la trouve attribuée au duc De Bourbon, en 1744, devant une Place de Piémont." For this last phrase compare N. & Q.,' 7th S. v. 466; vi. 193. ED. MARSHALL.

"THE INSANE ROOT." (See 8th S. ii. 112.)— Mr. David Hooper, writing from Ootacamund to the Chemist and Druggist (to which journal I had sent a query on this subject), identifies the Pruna insana of Clusius with the fruit of Hydnocarpus inebrians, a tree of the natural order Bixineæ, and a native of Ceylon and Southern India. The tree he describes as like a cherry-tree in habit, but with The fruit leaves resembling those of the peach. is round, about the size of a plum, and covered with a hard shell. These particulars coincide exactly with the description given by Clusius, but there is one point in which the two descriptions differ. Mr. Hooper says the fruit contains "several oily seeds," Clusius (as reported by Gerarde) that that it has one "membranous stone or kernell."

C. C. B.

66

sopher, which he gives as 1775. I have before
me a short account of his life by his cousin, the
better-known Pierre Prevost, also of Geneva, in
which he states that I. B. Prevost was born on
August 7, 1755, and so it is rightly given in Pog-
Pierre Prevost himself was
gendorff's valuable 'Biographisch - Literarisches
Handwörterbuch.’
four years older, having been born on March 3,
1751. It is amusing to read his quotation from
his cousin's journal, relating his own ineffectual
attempts to persuade him, when a boy, that his
teacher at Aubonne was wrong in telling him
que les philosophes prétendoient que la terre
tournoit autour du soleil, mais que cela n'était
pas vrai." Pierre Prevost, not many years after-
wards, was engaged in some of the earliest investi-
gations (his were made about the same time as
the first of those of W. Herschel) to show that the
sun itself moves, though in a very different sense
from ancient ideas, and to determine approxi-
He died,
mately the direction of its motiou.
where he was born, at Geneva, in the eighty-ninth
year of his age, on April 8, 1839; his cousin,
Isaac Bénédict, had predeceased him by nearly
W. T. LYNN.
twenty years.
Blackheath.

DEATH OF LORD TENNYSON. — The following statement is made on the authority of the Daily News of October 7, in reference to the death-bed of the Laureate. Sir Andrew Clark, in an interview with a representative of the press, said :— "Lord Tennyson has had a gloriously beautiful death. In all my experience I have never witnessed anything more glorious. There were no artificial lights in the chamber, and all was darkness save for the silvery light of the moon at its full. The soft beams of the light fell upon the bed, and played upon the features of the dying poet like a halo of Rembrandt."

The night of October 6, when the great poet passed away, was a lovely one, the moon being at the full. As I lay awake on that night the fine lines occurred to me in the 'Canto Notturno' of Giacomo Leopardi, and are quoted in illustration :

Intatta luna, tale
E lo stato mortale.
Ma tu mortal non sei,

E forse del mio dir poco ti cale.
Pur tu, solinga, eterna peregrina
Che si pensosa sei, tu forse intendi,
Questo viver terreno,

Il patir nostro, il sospirar, che sia;
Che sia questo morir, questo supremo
Scolarar del sembrante,

E perir della terra, e venir meno
Ad ogni usata, amanti campagnia.

Vv. 56-68.
JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.
MR. MORLEY AND ST. JUST.

ISAAC BÉNÉDICT PREVOST.-It may be worth Mr. Morley, while to note, in accordance with Captain Cuttle's maxim, that Larousse, in his famous' Grand Dictionnaire,' makes a mistake of twenty years in the in his 'A Few Words on French Models,' first date of birth of this Swiss naturalist and philo-published in March, 1888, and reprinted in his

346

William he found out, I fancy, that Fort William with a judgeship was not William's forte. Still, he was a model judge, if uprightness can consti

'Studies in Literature,' 1891, p. 156, takes exception to Mr. Goschen's description of him in a Dublin speech as "the St. Just of our revolution." Mr. Morley quotes Taine's very unflatter-tute one. Directly, however, that the leisure came, ing description of St. Just, “blood calcined by study, a colossal pride, a conscience completely unhinged, an imagination haunted by the bloody recollections of Rome and Sparta," &c., and goodhumouredly continues :

"It is, no doubt, hard to know ourselves. One may entertain demons unawares, and have calcined blood without being a bit the wiser. Still, I do not find the likeness striking. It would have done just as well to call me Nero, Torquemada, Iago, or Bluebeard."-P. 160.

We may take it that Mr. Goschen had not been reading Taine before he spoke. Whence, then, his literary inspiration? Was it from Carlyle's 'French Revolution? Yet even there the references to St. Just are shadowy enough, and do not suggest to an ordinary mortal any nineteenth century As Mr. Morley has fairly parallel personage. removed the question from the political arena to that of literature, can any one clear up the matter? Except that Carlyle incidentally mentions that St. Just was a writer of books, and more like a student than a senator before he went up to the National Convention (vol. iii. bk. i. ch. vii.), Mr. Goschen's reference seems to want elucidation. Still, I fancy Mr. Goschen had a haunting, vague recollection of Carlyle.

back he went to the only thing he was fit for, the
culture of his great and preternatural linguistic
gifts. What a lamentable thing it is that modern
education and modern life should insist upon
teaching broadcast everything to the incompetent
multitude that it cannot learn, and, at the same
time, prevent all men who have a resplendent gift
and endowment of Heaven bestowed upon them
from devoting their whole lives in happiness to
working it out into translucent perfection and
glory for the common good. We have books of
200 pages devoted to the pruning of apple trees. Is
intellectual fruit worth so much less than an apple
C. A. WARD.
that we must mew up a born linguist like a Bajazet
in a cage of quibbling law?
Chingford Hatch, E.

'DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY.'
You have several times admitted into your columns
corrections of errors occurring in the Dictionary
of National Biography.' Will you kindly allow me
to call attention to two rather curious ones? (1.)
In the account of the well-known tutor of Trinity,
Thomas Jones, the writer (vol. xxx. p. 1676) makes
him "senior wrangler in 1778," and then states
he graduated B.A. in 1779" (why he waited a
The writer
year for his degree is not stated).
WILLIAM GEORGE BLACK.
has simply blundered over the account in Herbert
Marsh's memoir of Jones, where it is stated that

Glasgow. JOHN CONSTABLE, R. A. (1776-1837), LAND-Jones "degraded," that is, he went in for his SCAPE PAINTER.-It may be mentioned, as an addition to the account of him appearing in the 'Dict. Nat. Biog.,' vol. xii. p. 37, that his wife, Maria Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Bicknell, Esq., solicitor to George IV. and the Admiralty, was born January 15, 1787, died November 23, 1828, and lies buried with her husband in Hamp-sight and special literary tastes, have been more stead churchyard, co. Middlesex.

DANIEL HIPWELL.

tripos in 1779, not in 1778. (2.) In the article on C. W. King, Fellow of Trinity (vol. xxx. p. 1256), it is stated "about 1866 he was one of H.M. Inspectors of Schools." To those who knew and loved dear old Mr. King this statement was startling. For no post could he, with his weak

utterly unsuitable, and no one would have been more astonished at the statement than himself. A glance at an old Crockford explained the matter. There was a Charles William King, Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, who was an inspector of schools, while this Charles William King was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. The writer R. S. doubtless felt he had got things sufficiently near.

Trinity College, Cambridge.

ORIENTAL LITERATURE.-Sir William Jones, at the end of his admirable preface to his 'Grammar of the Persian Language,' has these strange words in a note: "My professional studies having wholly engaged my attention, and induced me not only to abandon Oriental literature, but even to efface, as far as possible, the very traces of it from my memory," &c. In furtherance of this he 'MY BEAUTIFUL LADY.'-The writer of an adds that the revisal of this very grammar he 666 "My Beautiful entrusts to Mr. Richardson, in whose skill he has obituary notice of Thomas Woolner in the Saturperfect confidence. I suppose this was in 1771; day Review of October 15 says: if so, he was then twenty-five. But Lord Teign- Lady' has not been reprinted until this very week mouth's edition of the works carefully abstains since 1865." This is to overlook the fact that the As the volumes of the from giving any necessary information of the kind. poem forms No. 82 of "Cassell's National Library." This must have been when Jones was working published in 1887. desperately hard to become the very so-so lawyer" Library" cost only 3d. each in paper covers, or that he was. When he went out as judge to Fort | 6d. in boards, and as they were sold in enormous

SIR JAMES MACDONALD, K.C.B., distinguished altar" has never entirely ceased in the Cathedrals himself at the defence of Hougomont, where, assisted of Canterbury, Durham, and perhaps Carlisle. only by one sergeant of the Guards, he slew or drove back six French Grenadiers, who had found

their way into the courtyard. For this exploit he

and his comrade were awarded 1,000l., which was given by a patriotic Englishman as a reward for valour. The Duke of Wellington being appointed judge, Sir James renounced his share in favour of his companion in arms. Where can I find details of the gift and the donor's name? I am anxious to know without delay, by answer addressed to me (Rev.) A. W. CORNELIUS HALlen.

here.

Alloa, N.B.

6

BISHOPRICMAN.

English Traits, referring to the freeholders of SOURCE OF QUOTATION WANTED.-Emerson, in Wordsworth: "Many of these humble sons of the Westmoreland, quotes the following passage from bills had a consciousness that the land which they tilled had for more than 500 years been possessed by men of the same blood." From what work of Wordsworth's is this passage taken? C. F. H.

JONATHAN GORSTELOW SNOW, Recorder of Boston, 1685, deputy recorder for the borough of Stamford, 1704, buried at All Saints', Stamford, Nov. 26, 1710; married (before) 1693, Anne (baptized at Careby. Oct. 17, 1657, buried at All Saints', Stamford, March 22, 1708/9), daughter of John Hatcher, of Careby, co. Lincoln, Esq. Richard Snow, gent., one of the six clerks in Chancery, youngest son of John Snow, heretofore of Somerby, co. Lincoln, purchased of Ezekiel Johnson, clerk, July 2, 1686, the manor and perpetual advowson of Clipsham, and land, &c., in Pickworth, Stretton, and Thistleton, co. Rutland. Richard Snow married Grace, eldest daughter and coheiress of Edmund Bolsworth, citizen of London. Perhaps your old correspondent MR. HIPWELL will be able to supply me with some additional particulars respecting Jonathan Gorstelow Snow. JUSTIN SIMPSON.

Stamford.

THE WEDDING KNOCKER.-At a church in Warwickshire there is a ring handle on the south door inside the porch, which I have been told is called the wedding knocker, and that it was formerly used at weddings. This clearly points to some connexion with the wedding at the church door, which lasted for several centuries and was abolished at the Reformation. I shall be glad if any one can give me any information on this point or tell me where I can obtain it. Hone, Chambers, Brand do not mention it, and Jeaffreson, in his Brides and Bridals,' gives a fair account of the wedding in the porch, but does not allude to the knocker. CHARLES J. HART. Selly Oak. UMBRELLA.-In the Nineteenth Century (Aug., p. 314) I read, "As a direct competitor for the throne [of Morocco], or, strictly speaking, for the Shereefian umbrella, he [Muly Abbas] could JOHN BRETON.-I shall be glad of any informascarcely hope to escape." I have long been search-mentioned in an article in the Daily Telegraph of tion concerning the ancestry of the John Breton ing for a solution to the common phrase of July 16, as being "Custos" of London in the "Sitting under Gladstone's umbrella.' No doubt it is to the "Shereefian umbrella," and so far the reign of Longshanks. And what is the equivalent ground is clear; but will some correspondent in-office of "Custos" at the present time? H. B. form me in what way the umbrella is a symbol of office? I think I remember reading somewhere SCHOOL OF NEEDLEWORK.-Can any reader of that a red umbrella was a sort of button or horse-'N. & Q.' oblige me with particulars of a school of tail in Morocco. E. COBHAM BREWER. needlework established by Queen Charlotte at Windsor for four pupils, the daughters of poor 'JUPITER AND Io.'-Where can I find a poem clergy or other professional men? The ordinary by one Fields entitled 'Jupiter and Io.' The sub-education of these young ladies was supposed to ject is that a lady possesses a picture with this be finished when they entered this school, but classic title, which she insists on calling "Jupiter SIDNEY JOHNSON. SOKE-Can any of your readers tell me the origin of the term soke? I came upon it as applied to the town of Peterborough.

and Ten."

they continued to receive music and drawing lessons. The greater part of their time, however, was devoted to decorative needlework, embroidery, &c., for her Majesty. Janet Taylor, well known some thirty years ago for her valuable works on latitude and other nautical subjects, who at that time gave lessons in navigation, was one of the last pupils at Queen Charlotte's school, which, in consequence of the interruptions caused by her Majesty's too frequent visits, was removed from Windsor to Ampthill.

I want the date of this school and of its removal from Windsor; also any information connected