Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/397

 io< s. i. APRIL 23, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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ANTIQUARY v. ANTIQUARIAN. In an excel lent review of Mr. Guy F. Laking's recently published book on ' The Armoury of Windsor Castle,' which appeared in the Athenceiim for 12 March, the writer says : " Mr. Laking is a comparatively recent Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Had he been one of longer standing he would probably not have written about 'an antiquarian.'" As I have always thought that " antiquarian " employed as a substantive is a detestable word, notwith- standing its use by several respectable writers, as Dr. Murray's ' Dictionary ' will testify, I was very glad to see the Athenaeum lend the weight of its authority against a practice which seems somewhat on the increase. In the last Indian papers, for instance, I noticed that the Government of India had appointed Lieut-Co]. Waddell, Indian Medical Service, to be principal medical officer and "anti- quarian" to the Tibetan Mission. Surely "archaeologist" would have been a better word. But the Athenceum's orthodoxy in the matter renders it all the more surprising that in its issue for 13 February, p. 200, in a review of Mrs. Paget Toy n bee's edition of Horace Walpole's ' Letters/ a reference should have been made to the "Society of Anti- quarians," a body of which I can find no record in Walpole's day.

There is another apparent slip in the same review. On p. 199 the writer says that Walpole's letters to Madame du Deffand "were destroyed, at his own request, after Walpole's death, either by that lady herself or by Miss Berry." But as Madame du Deffand died several years before Walpole, it was impossible that she could have de- stroyed the letters after the latter's death. I am obliged to trust to memory at present, but as a matter of fact, I believe the letters were destroyed, in accordance with Walpole's injunctions, by Mr. Berry, the father of Horace's two young lady friends.

W. F. PRIDEAUX. Yizzavona, Corsica.

DRAKE IN MEXICO. I have a son in Mexico who keeps his eyes and ears open. His letters occasionally reveal very startling side-lights on that country. The following tit-bit is, perhaps, worth preserving in the pages of ' X. ^ <.' :

"By the way, I heard a woman calming a tempestuous child by saying 'Ahi viene Drake r I made minute inquiries, and found that it is a com- mon threat to children on this coast, like unto ' Bony will get you ! ' or ' The Black Douglas shall not get you ! ' Fancy people still living in terror of seeing Drake's topsails on the horizon ! "

EDWARD SMITH.

LINKS WITH THE PAST. In 'Old Days in Diplomacy,' by Miss Disbrowe, it is noted that a lady who died in 1882 was told by her father, who died in 1818, that he well remem- bered his great-aunt, who was married in 1693 ! Lady Burdett-Coutts, born 1814, may have known, and probably did know, Lady Louisa Stuart, Lord Bute's daughter, who died 1851, aged ninety-four. She in her girlhood met Mrs. Delany,who died 1788, aged eighty -eight,, and she knew the Countess Granville, born 1654 ; so four lives bridge 250 years. George III. was born 1738 ; his daughter- in-law the Duchess of Cambridge died 1889j which makes the time covered by two live 151 years. HELGA.

THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR. On 2 March Mr. Arnold - Forster, Secretary of State for War, declared in the House of Commons- that the casualties throughout the late war in South Africa were as follows :

Killed or died of Wounds. Officers, 719 ; Warrant, N.C.O.s, and men, 6,863.

Deaths from Enteric Fever. Officers, 183 ; Warrant, N.C.O.s, and men, 7,807.

Deaths from other Diseases. Officers, 223 ; Warrant, N.C.O.s, and men, 4,926.

This shows a total loss of 1,125 officers, and 19,596 Warrant, N.C.O.s, and men a death oil of 20,721 men of all ranks during the statement should find a permanent place in N. & Q.,' for the use of future historians of the war. RICHARD EDGCUMBE.
 * ourse of the war. I think that this official

Edgbarrow, Crowthorne, Berks.

IRVING'S 'HISTORY OF SCOTISH POETRY.' .n 1861 Dr. David Irving's 'History of Scotish Poetry' was published posthumously, with a memoir and glossary, the editor being 'arlyle's brother, Dr. John Aitken Carlyle. .n an "advertisement," prefixed to the volume, and signed with his initials, Dr. Carlyle explains how he came to undertake he editorial work, states how he has treated lis material, and makes it perfectly clear hatheisentirely responsible for the 'History' as it stands. After the table of contents .here appears a twofold memoir, written by )avid Laing and Irving's friend General Sir harles W. Pasley. Each section of the memorial tribute is signed by its respective writer, and it seems likely that the appearance of Lain g's name has misled Mr. J. H. Millar, /ho mentions the work at p. 568 of his Literary History of Scotland.' Mr. Millar credits Laing with the editorship, quite ustifiably adding that he was " probably the greatest of all the Scottish literary anti- quaries." Dr. Carlyle explains that he