Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/463

 ii s. in. JUNE 10, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

457

JAMES BALLANTYNE'S KELSO PBESS (11 S. iii. 347, 396). In reply to the request of W. S. S. I may say that ' The History o' the Families o' the Farmers and the Light- bodies ' is a short tale of 36 pages, giving the history of a deserving, thrifty family called Farmer, and of an ambitious, worldly family named Lightbody. It ends with a prophecy against the people for the abuse of strong drink : " Sae far gangs the prophecy ; some o' it has already happened ; God grant that the rest may never come to pass." The booklet is dated from the Lammermuir Hills, 4 January, 1802 ; the reference in the pro- phecy evidently is to the destructive Napoleonic wars. JOHN GRANT.


 * ' PERTHROAT " (11 S. iii. 409). I do not

see my way to guessing at the sense, because every hint that might give help is suppressed. May we not be told the authority, the con- text, and (at any rate) the {late ?

WALTER W. SKEAT.

HANOVERIAN REGIMENT (11 S. iii. 327, 378, 415). The history of the King's German Legion, formed from the Hano- verian army, was written by North Ludlow Beamish, and published by Boone, 1832. In 1806 the Legion had two dragoon and three Hussar regiments, two light and seven line battalions, two horse and four foot batteries of artillery, and some engineers.

R. W. P.

The presentation of colours to one of the regiments of the German Legion took place on 22 August, 1855, but The Folkestone Chronicle of 25 August stated that

" it had been expected that H.R.H. Princess Mary of Cambridge would have attended to give away the colours, but this she was prevented from doing by a previous engagement. That duty then de- volved upon H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge."

It may be true that when the Legion was disbanded some of the men settled in Canada, but in an article in The Fortnightly, August, 1900, by H. A. Bryden, it is stated that numbers of men of the Anglo-German Legion were successfully settled, by State aid, in British Kaffraria. R. J. FYNMORE.

Sandgate.

A few facts may be added to those at the last reference. The brigade did not get any further than Scutari ; part, on return, were encamped at Shorncliffe, and formed the nucleus of the new 109th (British) Regiment. A large number, including Col. Wooldridge, migrated to Cape Colony and settled there.

H. P. L.

SIEGE OF DERRY : REV. JAMES GORDON (11 S. iii. 369). No corroboration, I believe, of Wodrow's story about Gordon and the relief of Derry is anywhere to be found. It is rejected by all trustworthy writers. Wodrow, it must be remembered, was a somewhat credulous biographer, so far as Presbyterian ministers were concerned. Most of his geese were apt to be swans. Accord- ing to Reid's ' Presbyterian \ Church in Ire- land,' Gordon held a charge for a few years in Ulster, before being settled at Cardross, where his ministry lasted only some four years. In Cardross his reputation did not long survive. Dumbartonshire local his- torians, by their silence, seem to attach no importance to the story of Gordon's achieve- ments.

In what sense did he " relieve " Derry ? Was it by persuading Kirke, the leader of the relieving force, as Macaulay intimates ? Or was it by breaking the boom, as MR. BULLOCH states ? Of neither theory is there any corroboration. Kirke was about the last man in the world to be influenced by clerical persuasion or objurgation. Besides, the dispatch from Schomberg, ordering an attack, may still be seen in the Bodleian Library. The boom was broken by the Mount joy, Micaiah Browning master, who was killed by a shot from the enemy. The Mountjoy having got aground, her consort the Phoenix, Andrew Douglas master, was the first to pass the obstruction, and the Mountjoy followed. Where does Gordon come in ? It is to be feared that the tale of his achievements at Deny is due either to a florid imagination or to a hallucination similar to that which possessed the British sovereign (George III. was it ?) who per- suaded himself of his presence in command of an English regiment at the battle of Waterloo. SCOTUS.

BONAR & Co. (11 S. iii. 369). Thomson Bonar who died in July, 1814, is described by Anderson (' Scottish Nation,' Supplement) and Kay ( ' Portraits ' ) as a merchant in Edinburgh ; he was, in fact, a wine merchant, and by his marriage to a daughter of Andrew Bell, the engraver, became interested in ' The Encyclopaedia Britannica,' as agent for its sale in succession to Hunter, and as printer (see ninth edition, vol. viii., and eleventh edition, vol. ix.). He was the fourth ( ? fifth) son of the Rev. John Bonar of Perth, and he had three sons by his first wife, Andrew Bell's daughter (John, Andrew, and Thomson), and three daughters by hia second wife, Mary Lawrie.