Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/241

 ii s. xii. SEPT. 25, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

233

LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER -2',, 1915.

CONTENTS. No. 300.

NOTES : Nelson Memorial Rings. 233 The Great Fire, 234 Words in Bishop Douglas's ' Eneados,' 235 A German Pilgrimage of Fifty Years Ago Ugo Bassi, 237 The Site of the Bear Garden " Anzac," a New Place- Name Handbombs Origin of the Alphabet" Est, Est, Est," 238 The Caul, 239.

-QUERIES :-St, Michael's Mount, 239-Relics of Mary, Queen of Scots Sir John Maxwell of Terregles Thomas Hardy and Victor Hugo Giles Knight J. R. Read Bedford, Artist Advertisements on Official Documents "Dragon's Lamp," 240 Scott as a Cornet of Hussars Arthur Young Arch at Head of Constitution Hill Gale Family Count Stewarton John Davenport, Lexico- grapher, 241 C. Barnard, Astrologer Ancient Isle of Wight Port, 242.

REPLIES : The Knollys Family, 242- Dr. Roger Mander, 243 Mediaeval Fur-Names" The Eight Valyauntes " Payne <fe Foss Cat Queries, 244 The Virtues of Onions, 245 King of Poland Wanstead Park, 246 Kaye's 4 History of the Sepoy War ' " The Shakespeare's Head " Authors Wanted General Sankey. 247 Dr. Busby: Roberts, 248 Berardier Arms Heraldic Query Weight after a Meal ' Dame Wiggins of Lee ' : 'Six Little Princesses,' 249 Vincent Le Blanc The Cuckoo in Folk- LoreSampler Verses Author of Parody Wanted. 250 The Split Infinitive Queen Elizabeth's Fifth Parliament Tubular Bells in Church Steeples Atlantis and Leamria, 251.

NOTES ON BOOKS :-' Ipra Opulenta 'Mythology in the Italian Painting of the Renaissance.

Notices to Correspondents.
 * L'Interme'diaire.'

Jlofes.

NELSON MEMORIAL RINGS.

SHORTLY after Lord Nelson's funeral some memorial rings were ordered, chiefly for relatives and friends. They were made by John Salter in the Strand, a silversmith who had long served the Admiral. They are gold enamel, with the gilt letters " N. B." : the former surmounted by a Viscount's coronet, the latter by a Ducal coronet, representing the Sicilian Dukedom of Bronte. Underneath, in gold letters, is "" Trafalgar." Round the circlet is engraved " Palmam qui meruit ferat " (Let him bear the palm who has won it). The inscription reads, " Lost to his country 21st October, 1805, aged 47."

The vicissitudes of some of these me- morials have been remarkable, notably the one given to " Robert Suckling, Esq., of Woodton Hall, Norfolk." whose son, Maurice William Suckling, served as a mid- shipman with Nelson in the Boreas and after- wards in the Agamemnon, and apparently gave his father's ring to his niece, Lucy

Henley Armstrong, wife of Capt. Archibald Armstrong of the 71st Regiment. It seems eventually to have gone to Australia in the possession of their daughter, Margaret Armstrong, wife of Mr. Alexander Mathews ; and this lady, while engaged in taking part in the public ceremony on the occasion of the opening of the railway from Castlemaine to Sandhurst, lost it, and, although 100Z. was offered as a reward, no trace of it was discovered for seventeen years. Then, by chance, a person sitting "in a Melbourne theatre saw the ring, and recognized it by the published description. The wearer stated that he had purchased it from a pawnbroker, and the latter, on being interviewed, said that a man named Scott had left it with him as a pledge, and Scott was a school- master who had died about three years before.

The ring was subsequently restored to Mrs. Mathews's grandson, Mr. G. E. P. Philpots, and the publication of its story in the newspapers brought a letter to the press from a Mr. A. J. Scott curiously enough, also a schoolmaster at Green- borough who made a statement that makes the strange story still more remarkable. Mr. Scott said that he was living near Sand- hurst some seventeen years prior to the loss of the ring, and as he was the lawful possessor of its replica, he felt that a public explanation was advisable. His ring had been given to his father, a son of John Scott, R.N., Lord Nelson's secretary, who was killed on board the Victory shortly before his beloved chief. Nelson fell in the pool formed by Scott's blood, Scott having been cut almost in two by a chain shot.

Lord Nelson had two secretaries his chaplain, usually called Dr. Scott, and John Scott, public secretary. There are refer- ences to the latter in Capt. Mahan's ' Life of Nelson,' pp. 7, 32, and in Sir Harris Nicolas's dispatches. In the latter, in the published list of the memorial rings, is the name of "Mrs. Scott," evidently the widow of the secretary, and it is presumably her ring which now belongs to Mr. A. J. Scott of

reenborough, Australia.

Another ring, given to young Thomas Bolton, the Admiral's nephew (afterwards second Earl Nelson), was, shortly after its acquisition, lost in a garden, and was found many years later by a man in digging.

Possibly others can give interesting his- tories of these memorials of the hero of Trafalgar. F. H. S.

Highwocd.