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NOTES AND QUERIES, [ii s. vm. OCT. is, 1913.

HAMILTON OF BLACKHOLE. I should be glad of any information as to the ancestry of Claud Hamilton of Blackhole. He was married to Janet Orr, and their daughter Marion, in 1633, was married to Robt. Alexander of Blackhouse, Boghall, and Newtown. He was buried in Paisley Abbey Churchyard, and the arms on the tomb are those of the Abercorn family.

DAVID HAY PEFFEBS.

Crawley, Sussex.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION WANTED. I should be glad to obtain any information about the following boys who were ad- mitted to Westminster School : (1) Thomas Edward Allen, admitted 5 Feb., 1818 ;

(2) William Allen, admitted 31 Jan., 1775 ;

(3) Plomer Allway, admitted 20 Jan., 1845 ;

(4) George Anderson, admitted Christmas, 1812 ; (5) Robert Andrews, admitted 24 Jan., 1774 ; (6) Bransby Arnold, ad- mitted 28 Jan., 1839; (7) Robert Atkinson, admitted 7 Feb., 1786 ; and (8) Wynne Frederick Dott Staples Aubrey, admitted 5 Oct., 1842. G. F. R. B.

THE QUEEN OF CANDY. In the ' Oriental Annual ' for 1834 is published a portrait of the Queen of Candy by DanielL I should be very glad to know where the original of this can be seen. F. V. SHARP.

Cambridge.

HISTORY OF COUNTY DOWN. I shall be greatly obliged if any reader can tell me where I may obtain historical information of Newry and the County Down during the first half of the seventeenth century.

W. A. ADAM, Major.

Carlton Club, S.W.

ST. VEDAST'S CLOCK. Set in the steeple of the church of St. Vedast, Foster Lane, London, is a clock without a face. It has all the works of a regular clock, but no dials, a bell proclaiming the hours. I should be glad to hear of any similar clocks.

J. ARDAGH.

GENTLEMEN PENSIONERS IN His MA- JESTY'S HOUSEHOLD. Where can one get particulars of the appointments of above made in 1751 and onwards ? There is a list of their names in * The Court and City Register' for that year. S. T.

TWEEZER'S ALLEY, between Milford Lane and Water Street, Strand. Can any corre- spondent tell me the origin of this name ?

A. D. POWER.

New University Club, St. James's Street, S.W.

THE ROAR OF GUNS AND THE

GLARE OF FIRE: WATERLOO.

(11 S. viii. 269.)

I THOUGHT that it was a well-known his- torical fact of which there is abundant contemporary evidence that the cannons at Waterloo were distinctly heard on the cliffs of Kent from Dover to the Foreland ; and that it was known in London and most parts of England that a great battle had been fought, several hours before news of the battle and its result actually arrived. The distance is less than 130 miles, and the intervening surface a great plain partly land, partly water, with nothing to disturb the sound-waves.

I have myself on several occasions heard on the banks of the Teviot the guns of Edinburgh Castle, and cannonading in the Firth of Forth, although there are at least three ridges of higher ground to obstruct the sound - waves. On one of these occasions it was noted that the peals were heard much louder on Rubers Law, a hill three miles farther off, than in the valley below ; and it was recorded in local papers that the firing was heard by shepherds on Carter Fell, on the border of Northumberland, and on Peel Fell, in Cumberland.

As to Waterloo, I may contribute a fact. My mother was born in the beginning of the nineteenth century, and lived till 1887, and her girlhood was pervaded with incidents of the Napoleonic War, which in my boyhood she always spoke of simply as " the War " or " the Last War." In those days the town of Hawick, of which she was a native, was dependent for its earliest news from London upon the mail coach from Carlisle, forty-five miles off, and on occasions of great interest or anxiety many persons used to walk out several miles on the Carlisle road to meet the coach and get early news. On the occasion of a British victory the coach came gaily draped with flags, while a defeat was announced by insignia of woe ; so that even at a distance it could be told whether it brought news of victory or defeat. On the occasion of the Battle of Waterloo excitement was very great, and between sixty and a hundred men and boys went out to get the news. A detachment of these was left at the head of the Loan on the western outskirt of the town, another at Langbaulk, a third at Branxholm Bridge, a fourth at Branxholm,