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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. x. AUG. 22, im.

infantry, and prepared to charge the instant they had retreated through my intervals (the three squadron officers were wounded at this instant). This, however, gave them confidence, and the brigades that were literally running away halted on our cheering them and again began firing. The enemy on their part began to waver. The Duke observed it, and ordered the infantry to advance. I immediately wheeled the brigade by half-squad- rons to the right and in column over the dead and dying, trotted round the right of our infantry, passed the French infantry, and formed lines of regiments on the first half-squadrons. With the 10th I charged a body of French Cuirassiers and Lancers infinitely superior to them, and completely routed them. I then went to the 18th, and charged a second body that was supporting a square of Imperial Guards, and the 18th not only defeated them, but took 14 pieces of cannon that had been firing grape at us during our movement. I then, with the 10th, having reformed them, charged a square of infantry, Imperial Guards, the men of which we cut down in the ranks, and here the last shot was fired from this moment all was deroute. Whether the Duke will do my brigade justice or riot I know not ; but Bonaparte has given them their due in his account. We are the cavalry that he alludes to when at the end he says (" at eight o'clock," &c.) ; and the colonel of the 3rd Chasseurs, who lodged the night before last in the house I occupied last night, told the proprietor "that two regiments of British Hussars decided the affair." The 3rd Regiment 1st Hussars I kept in reserve.

Of course our loss was severe ; all those returned missing are since ascertained to have been killed. I never saw such a day, nor any one else. I expect and hope that every soldier will wear a medal with " Mont St. Jean " on it. I would rather do so than be adorned by the brightest star that any potentate could bestow on me.

My best regards to Mrs. S. Yours most trulv,

R. H. V.

1st P.S. Havre, 26th June, on the road to Paris.

2nd P. S. 28th June, near Pont St. Maxance. All well.

(The last P.S. outside the envelope.)

Outside : To Wynne Pendarves, Esqre.,

No. 11, Queen Anne-street, London. R. H. V.

HARRY HEMS. Fair Park, Exeter.

MR. STANLEY WEYMAN'S * THE WILD GEESE.' In his latest novel, ' The Wild Geese,' Mr. Stanley Weyman introduces a character called O' Sullivan Og. On p. 12 we are told : " The girl vented her anger on Og." Mr. Weyman appears to use Og as a surname, whereas it only means " junior," and therefore cannot be detached from the name to which it belongs. This error should be corrected in the next edition. The passage should read : " The girl vented her anger on O' Sullivan." Og is a very com- mon suffix to Irish names. The o, by the way, is pronounced long, hence some write Ogue and others Oge. JAS. PLATT, Jun

THACKERAY'S HISTORICAL NOVELS : Two ERRORS. 1. ' The History of Henry Es- mond,' Book III. chap. iv. :

" And she spread out her beautiful arms, as if indeed she could fly off like the pretty 'Gowrie,' whom the man in the story is enamoured of. * And what will your Peter Wilkins say to your flight ? ' " The events and conversation take place before 1714. Paltock's story of ' Peter Wilkins ' appeared in 1751.

2. 'The Warringtons,' vol. ii. chap, iv., George Warrington's narrative of his escape from captivity :

" Now the leaves were beginning to be tinted

with the magnificent hues of our autumn As we

advanced the woods became redder and redder.

The frost nipped sharply of nights At this time

of year the hunters who live in the mountains get their sugar from the maples."

Any one dwelling in the United States or in Canada is aware that early spring (March) is the maple-sugar season. No sap flows in the autumn. PAUL T. LAFLEUR.

McGill University, Montreal.

" WALE " : " FOREWALE " : " AFTER- WALE." Some time ago in a London saddler's account I saw the item " new forewales to harness collars." On inquiring what this meant, I was told by one of the workmen that the rolls or ridges of a horse- collar between which the hames He are called respectively the forewale and the afterwale, it being explained to me that the forewale was so called because it was put on first in the making, and the afterwale was put on later. It is, however, pretty obvious that this explanation is incorrect, and that the words " fore " and " after " are used of position, as in the nautical sense of the words. This meaning of the word " wale " is not given in Webster or in ' The Century English Dictionary,' nor is " forewale " or " afterwale " given in the ' KE.D.' The word " wale," however, is given in the ' E.D.D.,' as meaning the " forefront of a horse's collar," from Forby's ' Vocabulary of East Anglia.' The word " wale " as applied to the rolls of a horse's collar is of course identical in origin with the same word in its ordinary significations.

H. A. HARBEN.

" SWEET LAVENDER." So much has been written of late as to the disappearance of the vendors of this fragrant plant that one is glad to be able to chronicle quite a pleasant invasion of them recently in the salubrious suburb of Hampstead. Men women, and children perambulated its streets with their bunches, chanting the