Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/271

 n s. in. APRIL s, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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The editor is the Rev. H. Elvet Lewis whose book on the ' Sweet Singers of Wales has done something to make known to the English people the riches of Welsh hymnology.

The Cymdeithias Lien Cymru should be welcomed by all who are interested in Welsh literature or bibliography ; and an immense impetus must be given to this interest by the great Welsh National Library which is now being built up at Aberystwyth.

MANCEINION.

THE BLACK HOLE OF CALCUTTA: HENRY LUSHINGTON.

A MONUMENTAL tablet, surmounted by a marble bust, to the memory of Henry Lushington, one of the survivors from the Black Hole at Calcutta (for other survivors see US. ii. 528 ; iii. 74, 111, 192), may still be seen in the Old Church at Eastbourne of which parish his father was Vicar from 1734 till 1779. The inscription is interesting, and runs as follows :

" Sacred to the Memory of HENRY LUSH- INGTON | Eldest Son of HENRY LUSHING- TON, D.D. Vicar of this Parish And MARY his Wife | whose singular Merits & as singular Suffer- ings Cannot fail of endearing Him to y* latest Posterity.

" At Y c Age of Sixteen in y year 1754 He embarqued for Bengal in y 9 Service of y e India Company, & by | attaining a perfect Knowledge of the Persian Language made Himself essentially useful It is difficult to | determine whether He excelled more in a civil or a military Capacity, His Activity in Both | recommended Him to the Notice & Esteem of Lord CLIVE : Whom with equal Credit to | Himself & Satisfaction to his Patron He served in the different Characters of | Secretary, Interpreter & Commissary. In y* year 1756, by a melancholy Revolution, He was with Others | to y 8 amount of 146 forced into a Dungeon at CALCUTTA so small that 23 only escaped Suffocation. He was | one of y e Survivors, but reserved for greater Misery, for by a Subsequent Revolution in the Year 1763 He was j with 2 00 more taken Prisoners at PATNA, & after a tedious Confinement being singled out with JOHN ELLIS & | WILLIAM HAY Esq" was by the Order of the Nabob COSSIM ALLY KAWN & under y e Direction of One SOMEROO I an Apostate European, deliberately & inhumanly murdered : But while y* Seapoys were perform- ing their savage Office | on y e first mentioned Gentleman, fired with a generous Indignation at the Distress of his Friend, | He rushed upon his Assassins unarmed, & seizing One of their Scimitars Lilled Three of them & wounded Two Others, | till at length oppressed with Numbers He greatly leal.

" His private Character was perfectly consistent with his publick One. The amiable | Sweetness of his Disposition attached Men of y' worthiest

Note to Him the Integrity of his Heart fixed them ever | firm to his Interests. As a Son, He was One of the most kind & dutiful, as a Brother y e most affectionate. | His Generosity towards his Family was such as hardly to be equal'd his Circumstances and his Age | consid'd, scarce to be exceeded. In short He lived & died an Honour ta his Name, his Friends & his Country.

" His Race was short (being only 26 Years of Age when He died) but truly Glorious. | The rising Generation must admire, May They imitate,, so Bright an Example 1

" His Parents have erected this Monument as a lasting Testimony of their Affliction & of his Virtues."

ALAN STEWART,

" LONG HOME." The expression " long- home," meaning " grave," is duly given in the ' N.E.D.,' with a quotation from Robert of Brunne in 1303. But it is far older, as it is found in Anglo-Saxon. In ' An Old English Vision of Leofric,' printed by Prof. Napier in the Phil Soc. Trans., 1908, pp. 180-88, we find, just at the end:' "A fortnight before his death he foretold the day on which he should come to Coventry to his long home," where the original text has " to his langan hame."

I observe no very late quotation for this* phrase ; but it occurs in ' Martin Chuzzle- wit,' chap, xxv., and it is no less a person than Mrs. Gamp who uses it : " Ah, the sweet creeturs ! playing at berryins down- in the shop, and follerin' the order-book to its long home in the iron safe! "

WALTER W. SKEAT.

AN INDIAN AERIAL POST. The following,, which appeared in The Times of 13 March under the above heading, deserves a place in ' N. & Q.' :

"Among the letters which reached England by the Indian Mail from Bombay on Friday were several from Allahabad bearing a new postmark, which may become historic, The postmark re- presents an aeroplane flying over a range of moun- tains, and bears the inscription ' First Aerial Post. U. P. Exhibition, Allahabad, 1911.'

"The explanation of this postmark is that the Indian postal authorities recently granted permis- sion to Captain Windham to establish an aerial post in connexion with the United Provinces Exhibition at Allahabad, for the purpose of demon- strating the possibilities of an aerial service for the use of a beleaguered town. The arrangements were under the personal supervision of the Postmaster- General of the United Provinces, and only letters and postcards were allowed in this special delivery. The postal authorities would not agree to an increase in the actual cost of delivery, but the letters to be> Forwarded by aeroplane were sent under special cover to Allahabad, with an extra fee of six annas, which was devoted to the funds for the new build- ngs of the Oxford and Cambridge Hostel at Allaha- bad. The mail was duly carried by aeroplane froim