Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/14

 8

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. JULY 6, 1907.

Walk and China Walk see the communications by PROF. SKEAT and other correspondents at 10 S. v. 245, 312, 375, 415, 476.]

DUKE OF WELLINGTON ON UNIFORMS. I should be glad to have the reference to an oft-quoted saying of the Iron Duke on the moral effect of uniform upon the wearer. I do not know whether it is to be found in his dispatches, letters, or table-talk. It is in substance this, that he had known cases where the donning of the uniform seemed to turn a man from a coward into a hero.

KOM OMBO.

SHREWSBURY CLOCK : " POINT OF WAR." In a book entitled ' Random Shots from a Rifleman,' by Capt. J. Kincaid, Rifle Brigade, published in 1847, the following passages occur :

1. Speaking of a soldier-servant, he says that he was " as regular as Shrewsbury clock." What was Shrewsbury clock ?

2. " ' Old Trousers ' was a name given by our soldiers to the point of war which is beat by the French drummers in advancing to the charge." What is the origin of the phrase " point of war " ? J. H. LESLIE.

Dykes Hall, Sheffield.

GOTHAM IN DERBYSHIRE. On the map of Derbyshire comprised in Letts's ' County Atlas,' issued about twenty years ago, I observe the place-name Gotham plotted immediately to the west of the High Peak Railway, between Heathcote and Min- ningley Grange. The name does not occur in any of the directories or gazetteers that I have consulted, so that it cannot refer to a place of any importance. Probably it is associated with some local story of folly, and is thus a sort of offshoot of the original Gotham, in Nottinghamshire. Some reader acquainted with the district may perhaps explain the matter. A. S.

158, Noel Street, Nottingham.

" HEREFORDSHIRE WINDOW." What is the precise architectural meaning of this term ? I find it used in a recent article on ecclesiastical architecture in a way that implies that the author expected it to be understood as a term of art, but I fail to find its signification in books of reference.

W. B. H.

MUSICAL SERVICES ON CHURCH TOWERS. (See 10 S. vii. 306, 384.) I should like to obtain the names of places where services similar to that on Magdalen Tower on May morning are held. On Ascension Day this year an anthem and hymn were sung bv the choir on the summit of St. Mary's

Church tower, Warwick. From a newspaper paragraph recording this event I gather that " similar services were also held at the Priory Church, Malvern, and at Bromsgrove.' r In a note on Holman Hunt's picture ' May Morning on Magdalen Tower ' (vide catalogue of his works exhibited last year at the Leicester Galleries) I find the follow- ing sentence :

" It is said that on the roof of Durham Cathedral at the present time a service of song is held in commemoration of a victory obtained while prayer was offered there."

Particulars of this and any such musical services held on church towers would be appreciated by JOHN T. PAGE.

Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

ARCHER GORDON. In ' The Court of the Tuileries,' just published by Chatto & Windus y appears a long account of Eleonore Marie Brault (wife of Archer Gordon), who was the " friend " of Napoleon III. Her hus- band is given as " Archer Gordon or Gordon Archer, a colonel of the Foreign Legion in the service of Isabella II. of Spain," and the account in Larousse is enlarged. Who was. Archer Gordon ? J. M. BULLOCH.

118, Pall Mall.

" EL CHICO TERENCIO." What was the real name of the writer who adopted this pseudonym ? I have before me a pamphlet of 38 octavo pages :

"A la Luna de Paita. Zarzuela en un acto. Letra de el Chico Terencio. Musica de Reynaldo- Rebagliati. Lima, imp. de Ef National, 1875."

The scene is laid at Callao, and the plot depends on the return of " Mr. Guillermo,. marino ingles," in time to prevent the second marriage of his wife, who supposes him dead an old theme of poesy and romance.

WILLIAM E. A. AXON. Manchester.

MACKEACHAN PROVERB. Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' inform me of the origin of the saying, " As gleg as MacKeachan's elshin, that went through sax plies of bend leather,, and half an inch into the king's heel " ? Sir Walter Scott makes mention of it in ' The Heart of Midlothian,' when Robertson is escaping at Salisbury Crags, but gives no> note. J. MACKEACHAN.

133, St. Vincent Street, Glasgow.

ROSE AND GORDON FAMILIES. On 8 Jan., 1861, Gertrude Mary, only daughter of Col. Gordon, died at Linton House, aged thirty- five. She was widow of the Rev. Henry Fitzroy Rose. Can any one throw light on the lineage of this clergyman, or on