Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/526

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [iq s. VIL JUNE i, 1907-

lies some elusive property by which certain allied arts are generated and fertilized within circumscribed areas only. In other words, genius is confined to specific families, which blossom into painters, poets, and musicians, but never into, say, lawyers, statesmen, or great captains of industry. To cite one or two examples: Dr. Burney, the author of the 'History of Music,' transferred some of his fine energies to his daughter Fanny, who wrote ' Evelina.' Moses Mendelssohn, poet, philosopher, and litterateur, justified his genius through his son Bartholdy. Ford Madox Brown, the eminent painter, manifested the allied tendencies of his brain through his son Oliver (1855-74), who would have made his mark as poet and novelist.

It may be an idle speculation, but it seems to the writer that, given the requisite conditions of environment, the cultivation of distinguished abilities (if not precisely of genius) is not so very difficult, after all. One has but to recall the lives of many persons who have left details of their child- life, and of the influences by which it was nurtured, in order to perceive the force of this remark. Montaigne, John Stuart Mill, Sir F. H. Doyle, Lady Morgan, and Miss Mitford to mention a few persons at random have all told us how happy their childhood was, and how favourable occa- sions were seized upon by their guardians to bring out their nascent powers. Wherefore we can realize the loving oversight where- with the elder D'Israeli encouraged the future' statesman and novelist to read the books in the Bradenham Library, and to treasure up the brilliant repartees which fell from the lips of his father's friends, and of which he was one day to make such excellent use : in which act Isaac displayed a praiseworthy regard to one of the 613 precepts of the Old Testament, where Jews are enjoined to give personal attention to the education of their offspring, and not to delegate that important duty to hired teachers. Speaking of parental influence, one recalls the famous lines of Horace :

Purus et insons

si et vivo et cams amicis.

Causa fuit Pater his ;

wherein we see the piety of the ancients, both f Jews and pagans, in blending their fathers' memories with their own person- alities, thus doubling their own utility and power. Plutarch, Gibbon, Buffon, and Pitt all record indebtedness to their fathers' sympathetic interest in their childish likings.

Nor can maternal supervision and affec- tion be disregarded as powerful factors. Different orders of mind have testified to it. Cowper, Kant, Sir William Jones, and Burns sang or wrote of such tendance and vigilance. That special ability is continued in family groups seems an inevitable corollary from the following miscellaneous examples of family life. The Evelyns were distinguished botanists ; the Portas and the Villanis acquired fame as historians, the Scaligers as scholars, the brothers Grimm as philologists, the Corneilles as dramatists, the Buxtorfs as Biblical exegetes, the Rossettis as poets and painters, the De Veres as poets, and the Brontes as novelists ; while Albert and Horace Smith, authors of the ' Rejected Addresses,' were humorists. And if one may cite examples from one's own nation, Jews can bring forward the Ibn Ezras as poets, the Kimchis as great exegetes, the Ibn Tibbons as translators, the Luzzatos as litterateurs and diplomatists, the Rappaports as scholars and doctors, the Ascolis as philologists, and lastly the magnificent family of the Don Yechayas, who held sway in Spain during the Moorish domination, and who exercised (so tradition runs) almost imperial power through several generations. M. L. R. BRESLAR.

Percy House, South Hackney.

NAPOLEON'S CARRIAGE : JOSEPH BONA- PARTE'S CARRIAGE (10 S. vii. 170, 236, 313, 357, 393). I was mistaken in my belief (ante, p. 313) that the silver " article " taken from Joseph Bonaparte's carriage is in the possession of the 13th Hussars. J. R. F. G. is right : it belongs to the 14th.

As to the capture of the carriage or car- riages, there is much which apparently cannot be made certain :

" After clearing various obstacles in their front, the 13th approached Vittoria, when the royal carriages were perceived, and Major-General Long instantly ordered a squadron commanded by Captain Doherty to pursue them; this was promptly exe- cuted, and the whole were captured after a smart

skirmish In the meantime the remainder of the

regiment formed in front of a compact body of the enemy, whom they vigorously charged and routed. Captain Doherty, observing this movement, left the royal carriages in charge of Sergt. Scriven and 12

men and joined the regiment Sergt. Scriveii

reported his having given up the royal carriages to an officer, with a party of infantry, who said he had orders to take charge of them, but he omitted taking a receipt or demanding the officer's name." ' Historical Records of the 13th Regiment of Light Dragoons, containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment in 1715 and of its Subsequent Services to 1842' (London, John W. Parker, 1842 : Author's name not given). " It was probably in this pursuit, commenced on