Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/20

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. XL JAN. 2, 1915.

Charlie, and was one of a party of twenty- three rebels sent from Manchester to Roch- dale on Saturday, 30 Nov., 1745, to demand the militia arms. Four of the rebels are said to have deserted at Rochdale, of whom George Williamson was one. He was asso- ciated with three other Scotsmen, who, like him, settled in the Rochdale district and founded families there.

F. WILLIAMSON. Derby.

LIEUT. -COL. THOMAS CABTEBET HABDY.

(11 S. x. 449.)

THE books upon the campaign of the Duke of York in Flanders in 1793-4 are not numerous. There is L. T. Jones's contem- porary account (1797), which is a poor, thin affair. Far better is General Calvert's ' Journa 7 s and Correspondence,' issued as late as 1853. But neither of these works refers to the incident in question, as far as I can tell (no index is granted in either book). There is, however, a less-known book, pub- lished anonymously immediately after the campaign, which throws considerable light upon the affair. This book is entitled :

" An Accurate and Impartial Narrative of the War. By an Officer of the Guards. In two volumes. Comprising the Campaigns of 1793, 1794, and the Retreat through Holland to Westphalia, in 1795. Introducing also the Original Poetical Epistles from Head -Quarters, &c. 3rd edition, enlarged. Pub- lished by Cadell & Davies, Strand, London 1796," 8vo.

It is a clever and entertaining book, consist- ing of a series of letters in rime from an officer in the campaign, written to his lady at home in England. It has additional value in the elaborate notes at the foot of each page. The first reference in the book which I take to be to Hardy is in vol. ii. p. 14. It occurs in a poetical letter dated Ghent, 22 Feb., 1794 :

Letter III.

Head-Quarters, Ghent, Feb. 22, 1794. Each Aid-de-Camp soon may expect some snug

place, To comfort his age, arid to keep him in case;

No matter if forc'd like his to toil,

In a dung hill his delicate fingers to soil ?

He'll soon get them sweet, as justly supposes,

With essence of vi'lets, and otto of roses. Now C G in the room of Sir J M IB we see, While CR WF RD signs thus with a dash ;

D.A.G. And H R Y appears Deputy's Deputy.

ne snorted and. rear a : , tho' often applied, ^ I, buried deep in each I

,nd plung'd in the tide. J

But the historical incident to which MR. PRICE refers did not happen until 18 May, 1794, three months later than the date of the letter above. It occurred at the battle of Tournay, and is referred to in the same book as follows :

Letter VIII.

Head-Quarters, Tournay, May 19, 1794. We wheel'd on a pivot, no time to be lost, And push'd tow'rds a river, or ditch, which we

cross'd. In the 's horse strong symptoms of madness

appear'd,

For at sight of the water he snorted and rear'd : And kick d at the rowels, tho' often applied, Till the spurs disappear'd,

side,

So his rider dismounted and ^ Like a second Leander he beat back the billows, And at length gain'd dry land by the help of the

willows.

The Carmagnols judging pursuit was in vain, Like Hell hounds still eager our lives to obtain, An eight pounder planted, and levelling well, Each ball they dispatch'd from it, close to us fell ; For the beautiful star they would fain have possest, Which dazzled their eyes on his Highness's breast. But, LUCE, tho' my legs to their mercy I yielded, BRUNSWICK'S sinewy shoulders my head fully

shielded,

For it rush'd on my mind, that at Norwood a witch Had declar'd like a dog I should die in a ditch ; And tho' all superstition as nonsense I treat, I fear'd her prediction, those dogs would complete. A horse* at a distance I spied on the shore, And his Highness was mounted as well as before. Our fears lent us wings, and we quickly gain'd sight Of OTTO, and halted with him for the night.

There appear to have been Press Censors in this campaign as in more recent ones, but we are, at any rate, allowed to know that a horse belonging to a captain whose name ended in the letter y was found to be useful. Facing p. 60 of vol. ii. is a drawing of the incident, a copy of which I will forward to MR. PRICE if he wishes. Thomas Carteret

" * This was generally supposed to have been a led horse, belonging to one of his Royal High- ness's Aid-de-Camps ; but that gentleman gives the following account of the circumstance. He was riding, attended by an orderly Dragoon, leading a horse loaded with body cloaths ; and finding the girths of his own saddle loose, dismounted to buckle them up tighter, when his charger alarm'd by the fireing galloped off. Not conceiving the batt horsef properly caparisoned for an Aid-de- Camp, to the Commander in Chief, he mounted the Dragoon's, leaving him with the other ; which must have been the one on which his Royal Highness so fortunately escaped, unless the Soldier caught

Capt. Y'S original runaway steed, as indeed

appears highly probable, the only historical account which has transpired, informing us the horse was led."- Vol. ii. pp. 59-61.

" t Bait horse: A horse which carries an officer's baggage."