Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/453

 11 S. X. DEC. 5, 1914.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

447

MARCHING TUNES. In these days, when something inspiriting is required for recruit- ing, I would call attention to the following old Irish marching tunes, viz. :

' The Girl I Left behind Me.'

' The Peeler and the Goat.'

' Maureen from Gibberland.'

' We '11 give them the Shillelagh. '


 * The Plant that Grows in Paddy's Land.'

' Billy O'Rourke.'

' The Fox.'

' Modireen a rhu ra'.'

' The Connaught Man's Rambles.'

14 The Little Home under the Hill.'

4 The Top of Cork Road.'

" The Rakes of Mallow.'

' Garry Owen na Glory.'


 * The Young May Moon.'

JAS. CURTIS, F.S.A.

SCOTS GUARDS : REGIMENTAL HISTORIES. It has recently been stated I think in The Times that " the Scots Guards was a regiment without a history." This is in- <orrect. The history of the regiment was written by Sergeant James Clark, and pub- sish -el in 1885. It commences 1678, and is written up to 1885.

'I 'iiis information is from a private MS. catalogue of regimental histories which I am compiling. Curiously no catalogue of .military histories has ever been printed. (Mrs.) E. E. COPE.

[Our contributor is hardly correct in saying that printed." That valuable work of reference, the
 * ' no catalogue of military histories has ever been

Subject-Index of the London Library,' by Dr. /. T. Hagberg Wright, 1909, has two columns of ntries under ' Regimental History, British Army. 1 This does not include, apparently, Sergeant Clark's history, but under the subdivision ' Dragoons and Hussars' it has " Rosebery (A., e. of) Soots Greys, 1907. " There is also a cross-reference to ' Army, English,' where more than a column is devoted to general histories of our army. ' The Fighting Erasers of the 'Forty-Five and Quebec,' by Bernard W. Kelly, was referred to at 11 S. viii. 355.]

THE ARMS OF ICELAND. In the notice of 'The Titled Nobility of Europe,' ante, p. 419, your reviewer says: "The substitution of a bird for the familiar crowned stockfish of Iceland in the Danish shield requires some explanation." It is not i!< 'ii 'rally known that since December, 1903, the arms of Iceland have been Azure, a falcon close argent. There is an article on the subject in Archives heraldiques suisses, 1905, p. 145. Whilst one of the most distinctive coats is thus removed from Europe's public armory, it cannot be denied that Iceland was more specially associated

with the supply of falcons throughout the Middle Ages. This and other historical considerations are noted in the article in question. A. V. DE P.

"PLATOON." That this word is no longer obsolete in the British Army has been apparent from many recent newspaper articles. The following is an example : " THE BRITISH SOLDIER iv ACTIOX.

" A RETREAT UNDER FIRE.

" An officer describes a retreat under flre as follows :

" We deployed into line about 11.30 A.M. on the Monday morning, after waiting behind a wood to see from which direction the German attack was coming. My platoon (50 men) was some 200 yards behind the firing line to start with." The Times, 15 Oct., 1914, p. 3, col. 3.

It may be noted that 25 m3n = l section ; 2 sections = 1 platoon (50 men) ; 4 platoons =* 1 double company (200 men). M.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

DREAMS AND LITERATURE. Do literary men dream and remember whole poems and stories, and how many pieces of the first order are produced in this way ? At present I can recall only Stevenson's ' Jekyll and Hyde ' and ' Olalla,' and Coleridge's ' Kubla Khan.' I believe also that Mr. A. C. Ben- son's poem ' The Phoanix,' which has been honoured by inclusion in ' The Oxford Book of English Verse ' (No. 859), was dream-work. How far the dream was improved afterwards, possibly by unconscious polishing and addi- tion, it would be difficult to determine. Authors are vain, and apt to make large statements concerning their extraordinary performances.

Constant dreamers, if I may trust my own experience, are capable frequently of dream- ng elaborate stories going through several years. One such I recall as involving two heroes and heroines who got sorted wrong, and after some tribulation, in which elder relatives played a vivid part, secured their proper spouses.

Dickens has (' Letters of C. D.,' to Prof. Felton, 1 Sept., 1843) an interesting note on his dreams :

" Apropos of dreams, is it not a strange thing if writers of fiction never dream of their own creations ; recollecting, I suppose, even in their dreams, that they have no real existence f I