Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/60

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. x. JULY is,

mentioned in the resolutions and speeches of the time. The Declaration of Indepen- dence was in course of preparation during June, and it contains a specific arraignment of the King for " transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries " to America. Towne's Pennsylvania Evening Post of 8 June, 1776, contains resolutions passed by the Penn- sylvania House of Assembly, referring with condemnation to treaties entered into by the King for engaging foreign mercenaries; and on 10 June a body of citizens in Chester, Pa., also adopted resolutions referring to these " mercenaries." It does not seem possible to escape the view that the people were greatly angered by the engagement of the Hessians.

As regards the desire of the princes that men should not be returned, the following extract from a letter dated Hamburgh, 13 Feb., 1776, appears in The Pennsylvania Gazette (established by Franklin) in the issue of 19 June :

"By the treaties concluded with the German Princes, it seems to be their interest that none of their respective corps should ever return again, for as they receive for every man thirty crown (seven guineas) as levy money, the same sum is to be paid to them whenever any of the soldiers are killed, or lost by any accident whatever, which upon the whole means 14 guineas per man, and as the princes are furnished with soldiers at a very cheap rate, it is evident they do not wish them returned."

The letter is written from an English point of view. HENRY LEFFMANN.

Philadelphia.

SCOTT'S ' ROB ROY '(US. ix. 471, 516). 6. In Andrew Lang's ' Lilac Fairy Book,' p. 1 18, is given ' The Brown Bear of Norway,' from ' West Highland Tales.' The story is similar to ' The Black Bull of Norroway,' but told with a few variations.

M. H. DODDS.

Quotation 10 :

No truth in plaids, no faith in tartan trews, is a highly inaccurate quotation from some satirical verses written by an Alexander Craig on the seventh Earl of Argvll. The verses are :

Now earl of Guile, and lord Forlorn thou goes, Quitting thy prince, to serve his Spanish foes. No faith in plaids, no trust in Highland trews, Lamehon-like, they change so many hues.

Characteristically enough, Scott quotes from memory, and makes three blunders in the one line.

Perhaps I may be allowed to say that the circumstances alluded to in the satire are

recounted in my Life of the eighth Earl of Argyll.

By the way, the same poem is quoted in an earlier passage in ' Rob Roy, ; chap, xxix., where Galbraith speaks of " thae Dukes of Guile and Lords for Lorn.".

JOHN Lerwick.

LESCELINE DE YERDON (11 S. viii. 371 ; ix. 130, 255, 330, 391). I have delaved replying to MR. RELTON'S observations and queries at the last reference given above until I had an opportunity of seeing his first communication on the subject (11 S. viii. 66). Having read this and the reply of MB. ST. CLAIB BADDELEY (11 S. viii. 171, 253), and having noted the points estab- lished at the references given above, I think the doubts and difficulties which MB. RELTON originally expressed have been sub- stantially resolved or cleared away. In view of MR. RELTON' s last communication, however, it seems necessary for me to make clearer one or two points.

1. I must admit that the evidence on which I based the opinion that Hugh de Lacy, Lesceline's husband, was not of age until about 1196 (or 1195) is merely circum-. stantial, and that the opinion is incon- sistent with the time-honoured statement (which, however, I reject) that Hugh was Justiciar in 1189-90. The authorities to which I referred in ' Ireland under the Normans,' ii. 112, are not of a high order, but they are at once independent and mutually consistent. They go to show (a) that immediately after the murder of Hugh de Lacy the elder in 1186 Meath was taken into the King's hand ; (b) that Walter de Lacy did homage to Richard I. for Meath in ll94; (c) that Walter received charters both from Richard and from John, probably at that date ; (d) and that in 1194 Walter obtained seisin of Meath (" recepit domumim de Media "). The presumption is that Walter, Hugh's elder brother, had only recently come of age, but no doubt seisin may possibly have been delayed from some other cause. This presumption is, of course, liable to be rebutted by positive inconsis- tent evidence, but is it the fact, as stated by your correspondent MR. ST. CLAIB BAD- DELEY (viii. 171), that Gilbert de Lacy, to whom, according to the agreement in July, 1191, between John and the Chancellor Longchamp, Winchester Castle was to be entrusted, was a younger brother of Hugh ? How is the relationship established ? There was a Gilbert de Lacy, brother of Walter