Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/303

 ii s. iv. OCT. 7, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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at an out-station where a couple of com- missioned officers formed the maximum number, and no sergeants' mess existed.

The information quoted from The Musical Times is not quite correct. Lieut. G. J. Miller, M.V.O., was made Second Lieutenant on 15 November, 1899, and honorary lieu- tenant 28 December, 1899. The first is combatant rank, i.e., the same as the ordinary officer's, whilst the other is the honorary commission given to Riding-M asters, Quarter- masters, Inspectors of Army Schools, Com- missaries and Deputy Commissaries of Ordnance, and such like. The present bandmasters of the 2nd Life Guards, the Grenadier Guards, and the Coldstream Guards have combatant commissions as Second Lieutenants. The Royal Marines being under the Admiralty, Mr. Miller can scarcely be considered as "in the Army," although the dates of his Army rank given above would make him senior to any Army bandmaster (including those in the Household Brigade, their commissions being of later date) in the event of his band being combined with another, or brigaded, a very unlikely occurrence. Regimental bandmasters appear in the officers' mess in many corps once a week on the mess night, as it is customary for the bandmaster to be called in when the National Anthem has been played, a glass of wine being handed to him.^

CHARLES S. BURDON.

Up till a few years ago most bandmasters, if not all, were civilians, and some, when they joined according to the new regulation, were rapidly promoted to the rank of warrant officer, others received a commission afterwards. Chevalier Zavertal, who was bandmaster of the Royal Artillery at Wool- wich, was allowed to wear a beard the only man in the service, except pioneers, who had that permission. A. RHODES.

According to Mr. Kipling, the regimental bandmaster is " asked in to 'ave a glass o' sherry- wine o' Mess-nights " :

" Then I'll be a bloomin' orf'eer. Then I '11 ask you to 'ave a glass o' sherry-wine. Mister Lew, and you'll bloomin' well 'ave to stay in the hantyroom while the Mess-Sergeant brings it to your dirty 'ands." 'The Drums of the Fore and Aft.'

PERCEVAL LUCAS.

TREES GROWING FROM GRAVES (11 S. iv. 250). A young German countess who lived about one hundred years ago was a noted sceptic, specially opposed to the doctrine of the Resurrection. At the age of thirty

she died, but before her death gave direc- tions that her grave should be covered with a solid slab of granite, that around it should be placed a square block of stone, and that the corners should be fastened to each other and to the granite slab by heavy iron clamps. On the covering was carved this inscrip- tion : " This burial-place, purchased to all eternity, must never be opened." But a little seed sprouted, and the tiny shoot found its way between the side stone and the upper slab and grew there. Slowly, yet steadily, it forced its way until the iron clamps were rent and the granite slab was lifted, and is now resting on the trunk of a tree, which is large and flourishing. No wonder the people of Hanover look on that stone with a feeling of superstitious awe.

W. CLARK THOMLINSON. Low Fell, Gateshead.

In 1887 I saw in the Gartenkirchhof, Marienstrasse, Hanover, an often photo- graphed tomb, out of which a birch was growing. A little local guide points out that there is behind the chapel " eine Grabstatte, deren Sandsteinquader von einer herauswachsenden Birke gehoben und auseinander gesprengt sind. Unten am Sockelsteine steht eingemeisselt : ' Dieses auf ewig erkauf te Begrab- niss darf nie geoffnet werden ' (Siehe die Novelle, O. Warbeck, 'Das geoffnete Grab'),"

which work, I regret to say, I have not read. The story respecting the grave told at Hanover is that the owner of the grave defied the Resurrection, but I think the inscription merely means that he had pur- chased the space in perpetuity.

The handbook reminds me that Werther's Charlotte, Ramberg the painter, and Caroline Herschel were buried in the Gartenkirchhof.

ST. SWITHIN.

I remember a former Swiss pastor in Lon- don relating at a French Bible class that a young man whom he knew had an agnostic acquaintance who gave instructions that a stone should be placed on his grave, observ- ing that God would never remove it. Some years afterwards the young man passed near the grave, and felt curious as to whether anything had happened. A large tree was growing from among the fragments of the stone. FRANCIS P. MARCHANT.

Streatham Common.

STOCKINGS, BLACK AND COLOURED (11 S. iv. 166, 214, 257). Black stockings for women were fashionable in England long before the vogue at the variety theatres of Mile. Yvette Guilbert, whose special dress effect, indeed, was secured not by these