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NOTES AND QUERIES. [lo* s. m. MARCH is, 1905.

information is more than a thousand years old.

The words to-day, to-morroio, and the prov. E. to-year all contain the preposition to, as can be seen by reference to any English dictionary, and especially to the wonderful article on the A.-S. prep, to in Bosworth and Toller's 'A.-S. Dictionary,' which fills three whole pages in double columns. At p. 992, col. 1, there are many examples of to dcege, to-day, including such phrases as to dnum dcege, for one* day ; to sunnedcege, for the Sunday, &c. At p. 991, col. 2, are examples of to with the inflected infinitive, &c. Really, I need not say more. WALTER W. SKEAT.

"UNDERTAKER" (10 th S. iii. 188). O. P. asks when this word began to be used exclusively in its modern vulgar limitation. The reply is, never ! In one of our latest Statutes, the Workman's Compensation Act, "undertaker" means contractor. D.

Moscow CAMPAIGN (10 th S. iii. 167). Alison ('History of Europe') deals with this in his fifteenth and sixteenth volumes, giving in his atlas plans of the battles of Smolensko and Valtelina, Borodino, Malo - Jaroslawitz, Krasnoi, and the passage of the Beresina, with an interesting map to illustrate the campaign. He quotes also from the imperial muster rolls the force of the French army which entered Russia in 1812, likewise that on the Russian side. He goes fully into detail as regards battles, and though called "the great Mr. Wordy," his work is also described as "supplying a felt want," and it has gone through numerous editions. In an appendix is to be found Napoleon's twenty- ninth bulletin, which describes the horrors of the retreat. Sir Archibald gives as authori- ties Jomini, Chambray, Clausewitz, St. Cyr, Dumas, Larrey, Boutourlin, Napier, and Comte Segur, whose account of this campaign "has been translated into almost all the lan- guages of Europe." Mr. Henty, in the preface to his novel "Through Russian Snows,' which deals with this campaign, tells us that this Count Segur "served on Napoleon's staff during this fatal expedition," and he men- tions also the narrative of Sir Robert Wilson, British Commissioner with the Russian army. EDWIN S. CRANE.

Thringstone Vicarage, Leicester.

I do not think VALTYRE could do better than consult Count Segur's ' History of the Expedition to Russia in 1812.' I have a copy, in two volumes, of the English translation, published (fourth edition) London, 1825, with map and two portraits. Should VALTYRE

care to drop me a line, I should be very pleased to forward the work.

HERBERT B. CLAYTON. 39, Renfrew Road, Lower Kennington Lane.

[Cot,. F. E. R. POLLARD-URQUHART also refers to Alison.]

SONG WANTED (10 th S. iii. 169). The name of the song asked for is 'The Postillion,' words by F. E. Weatherly, music by J. L. Molloy. It is published by Boosey & Co. My copy must be some twenty years old. The third verse, which MR. W. H. PARKS tries to remember, runs as follows :

Oh, I've a wife in Bristol town,

A wife au' children three, An' they are sleepin' safe an' soun',

But she keeps watch for me ; An' who would quake the road to take,

With such a prize in store, Tho' ravens croak on Hangman's Oak, An' a storm be at our fore ?

Ho-la! Ho-la! Ho-la ! Who's for the coach to-night? For we are boun' for Bristol town before the morn- ing light.

Ho-la! Ho-la! Ho-la!

JOHN T. PAGE. West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

[MR. R. FYNMORE, MR. HOLCOMBK INGLEBY, MR. W. JODE, D. 0., and C. R- S. thanked for replies.]

SIR JAMES COTTER (10 th S. iii. 167). The Rev. Wm. Henry, F.R.S., in his 'Upper Lough Erne in 1739,' which I edited and published in 1892, mentions that

"Lord Clare's regiment of dragoons were the flower of K. James's army. These were com- manded by Sir James Cotter, whom K. James had, from a trooper in the Guards, raised to a Lieutenant- Colonel's commission, the honour of knighthood, and an estate in the co. of Cork, for his assassi- nating Lord Lisle, as he came out of a church in Switzerland."

In notes I referred to an article in 'N. & Q.' for 1 June, 1889, questioning Sir James's participation in this crime, and mentioning that his son was executed, 1720, for his devo- tion to the Stuarts, and that his grandson was created a baronet in 1763.

John Lisle, one of Cromwell's peers, was assassinated at Lausanne, or Vevay, 1667. Burke's ' Landed Gentry ' for 1859, &c., s.v. ' Phillipps of Garendon Park and Grace Dieu Manor,' gives his biography, the fact of his assassination, and the barbarous execution of his widow, aged eighty, one of Jeffreys's victims, in 1685 ; the ' D.N.B.' mentions his murder "at Lausanne by an Irishman known as Thomas Macdonnell, really named Sir James FitzEdmond Cotter."

CHARLES S. KING, Bt.

St. Leonards-on-Sea.