Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/335

. v. APRIL 7, 1906.) NOTES AND QUERIES.

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question were delivered by him, he promptly replied that probably he and I were almost the only ones left who remembered them MR. MARRIOTT'S remark that in 1850 Mr Holyoake was associated with Mr. Bradlaugh, and took the chair at one of the latter's lectures in East London, makes it possible that he may have acted in the same capacity at Sheffield. HARRY HEMS.

Fair Park, Exeter.

In pending my note on this subject I abstained from stating my recollection as to the number of special constables sworn in London (100,000), as I could not then discover any verification of this enormous number but I find in the recently published life of Archbishop Temple (vol. i. p. 73) the following :

"On April 7th what was known as the 'Gagging Act 3 was passed in a panic by an overwhelming majority in the House of Commons ; and on April 10th London was filled with troops, 100,000 special constables were enrolled, and some of the public offices were garrisoned and provisioned."

HENRY TAYLOR. Birklands, Southport.

Several years ago I used frequently to spend Christmas with a relative (now deceased), who was then in possession of our ancient family residence in the neighbour- hood of Newport, Monmouthshire ; and as the house at this season was filled with guests, the services of an old waiter in New- port (who rejoiced in the name of a country, by the way, where no doubt his ancestors had "sworn horribly") were requisitioned to assist the butler and footmen in the pantry and in waiting at table. Now F s was a comical fellow and quite a ''character," and afforded my relative and myself much amuse- ment when the former used to "draw" him, in the smoking-room of an evening, to relate some of his experiences ; but the tale which used to keep us in a roar was that of his experience as a special constable during the Chartist riot at Newport in 1839.

When the Chartists in their thousands came down from the hills to attack the town, F s, with many other special constables, took refuge in the Westgate Hotel, which was barricaded and held by a company of the 45th Regiment (see Haydn's * Diet, of Dates '). Constables and soldiers were all con- gregated in the front ground-floor room of the hotel, the latter firing on the rioters (who were vigorously attacking the hotel) through the loopholed shutters, which the Chartists, having broken all the windows, tried to batter in with heavy missiles. As the fighting grew fast and furious, our friend F s, expecting

the mob to break into the ^ hotel every moment, and thinking "discretion the better part of valour," groped his way in the darkened room to the fireplace, with the full intention of concealing himself within the great chimney. But on the unhappy F s reaching his would-be refuge and attempting to ascend, he found his efforts were in vain ; and why ? because the chimney was already filled with special constables, and there was no room left for poor F s ! However, the troops eventually drove off the Chartists, who fled, and F s and his comrades were saved.

Many a laugh have I enjoyed in old days at Christmas-time over this anecdote, and at the quaint way in which the narrator used to relate it. D. K. T.

QUARTERING OF ARMS (10 th S. v. 168, 215). Without being able to answer J. M. E 's second question as to the rights or wrongs of a quartering in the case stated by him, I can give him an instance of arms being quartered under similar circumstances. The late Sir John E. Millais, P.R.A., quartered the arms of Le Geyt. His great-great-grandfather married Rachel, daughter of John Le Geyt. The last male Le Geyt descendant of this John Le Geyt died in 1894.

I went fully into the facts of this case in 8 th S. x. 451, and there described this quartering as a mistake; but because the compiler of the Millais pedigree had approved of this quartering, in complete ignorance of the parentage of the wife of Edward Millais, whom he described as "Rachel,

d. and h. of Le Geyt," and consequently

also in ignorance of the fact that in 1865, when the pedigree was printed, a male Le Geyt descendant of Rachel's father was still living. CHAS. A. BERNAU.

The person asking the two questions will, [ fear, be in an unhappy position in regard 3eing clear whether the latter is intended as a reply to query No. 1, to No. 2, or to both. If intended as a reply to No. 1, it is clearly opposed to the opinion expressed by ULSTER. The point raised by No. 2 is simple and easily answered ; but that raised by the first query is of considerable interest. I happened ULSTER on my table, and the third work referred to at my feet, at the time of reading lis reply. I venture to think that it would lave been difficult to refer to three works more helpful to the student than these.
 * o the replies of ULSTER and B. M., it not
 * o have two of the works referred to by

trangely, however, perhaps the most useful of these on the specific point Dalla way is