Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/39

 ii s. iv. j ULY s, wit.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Benjamin Moseley, and the two Amazons, Christiana Davis and Hannah Snell, both of whom served in the British Army, and received pensions from Chelsea Hospital. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

APPARITION AT PIRTON, HERTS (11 S. iii. 466). The legend related by MR. GERISH says that the Cavalier officer took refuge among the Docwras of High Down. In the reports of the Committee for Compounding, as quoted in Kingston's ' East Anglia and the Great Civil War,' there is an entry relating to " Henry Docwra of Pirton, near Hitchin, Herts," under date April, 1649: "Com- pounds for his delinquency in being twelve hours in company with the forces raised against Parliament last summer fine 66."

This entry would seem to point to the skirmish being that of St. Neots, fought 10 July, 1648, where Col. Scroope in a brief sanguinary conflict routed the Royalists under the Earl of Holland, the Duke of Buckingham, and Col. Dalbier, who a few days before had been defeated at Kingston- on-Thames and driven from Surrey by Sir Michael Livesey.

At St. Neots Dalbier was cut to pieces by the Parliamentary troops, Buckingham fled, and Holland was taken prisoner at his inn. Who the officer of the legend was it is difficult to say. Col. Scroope in his report (' Welbeck MSS.,' p. 478) says :

" There were slain one colonel and some other officers, which I cannot get knowledge of their

names, with 40 soldiers or thereabouts I hear

also that Sir Kenelm Digby's son is slain."

Henry Rich, Earl of Holland, was sub- sequently beheaded for his share in this Royalist rising, and a legend similar in some respects is related concerning him in Ingram' s ' Haunted Houses and Family Traditions.' He was said to haunt a room at Holland House. Princess Lichtenstein writes in her history of the house :

" The gilt room is said to be tenanted by the solitary ghost of its first lord, who, according to tradition, issues forth at midnight from behind a secret door, and walks slowly through the scenes of former triumphs with his head in his hand. To add to this mystery, there is a tale of three spots of blood on one side of the recess whence he issues three spots which can ne\ r er be effaced."

A long avenue of trees called the " Green Lane" is also referred to as having been the scene of a " spiritual experience " of his daughter Lady Rich.

The underlying fact of the Pirton legend would seem to be that a Docwra was in the company of a Cavalier officer (possibly Holland) during a Royalist rising, and that

the Cavalier was subsequently captured and beheaded also that legends were after- wards related to the effect that he haunted certain places, carrying his head in his hand. Holland may perhaps have visited Doc- wra after his " flight " from Kingston, and before the fight at St. Neots, as Pirton would lie on the route. The Royalists certainly gave Livesey' s troops from Surrey the slip, and were beaten by Scroope' s forces, sent by Fairfax from Colchester.

G. H. W.

As the story is " well known and widely believed in the neighbourhood," some definite day is probably alleged to be " the anniversary of the fatal day." Can MB. GERISH tell us what it is, and also give the names of any persons now alive who profess to have seen the apparition ?

HARMATOPEGOS.

LORD MACAULAY'S ANCESTRY (11 S. iii. 448). The Rev. Aulay Macaulay, the historian's great-grandfather, was the grand- son of Donald Cam Macaulay of Lewis, that is, Donald the One-eyed, so called because he was blind of an eye. Donald had a son, known in Gaelic as " Fear Bhreinis," that is, "the Man " or Tacksman of Brenish, of whose remarkable strength many stories are rel at ed. This son of Donald the One-eyed was the father of Aulay Macaulay, the historian's great-grandfather.

SCOTUS.

'LIZZIE LINDSAY' (11 S. iii. 488). A vast amount of information regarding this ballad is given by Prof. Child in his monu- mental work, ' The English and Scottish Popular Ballads,' together with some ver- sions from oral and manuscript sources, as well as those contained in Jamieson's ' Ballads of the North of Scotland,' ii. 102, and Whitelaw's ' Book of Scottish Ballads,' p. 51, to say nothing of 3 S. i. 463, where a version will be found, taken down " from recitation, September, 1828." All these versions are easily accessible, and the variants are not great. The references in Prof. Child's work are, No. 226, iv. 255-66, 524 ; v. 264. W. F. PRIDEAUX.
 * Popular Ballads,' ii. 149 ; Buchan's

In Stenhouse's ' Lyric Poetry and Music of Scotland,' under ' Leezie Lindsay,' the following remarks are made :

" This beautiful old air was communicated by Burns. The stanza to which it is adapted, beginning ' Will ye go to the Highlands, Leezie Lindsay,' was written by Burns, who intended