Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/191

 n s. v. FEB. 24, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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many Fortnum & Mason's hampers, so much ice and champagne. // / toere on the Turf and had a horse to enter for the Derby, I toould call that horse Fortnum & Mason, convinced that, with that name, he would beat the field."

I must not trespass on your space by quoting the whole article ; hut Dickens evidently had the famous Piccadilly pur- veyors very much impressed upon his observation that day, for the article con- cludes as follows :

" A deeper hum and a louder roar ; every- body standing on Fortnum & Mason. Now they 're off! No, now they're off! Xo, now they 're off ! no, note they are. Yes. There they go ! Here they come ! Where ? Keep vour eye on Tattenham Corner and you '11 see em coming round in half a minute. . . .Here they are ! Who is ? The horses ! Where ? Here they come ! Green first ! No, red first ! No, blue first ! No, the favourite first ! Who says so ? Look ! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! all over ! Glorious race ! favourite wins ! Two hundred thousand pounds lost and won ! You don't say so ? Pass the pie ! "

It is a vivid pen-picture of the carnival on the Hill at Epsom on a Derby Day.

WlLLOUGHBY MAYCOCK.

ROYAL ARTILLERY, NINTH BATTALION, 1809-14 (11 S. v. 70). Until about the year 1822 companies of a battalion of Royal Artillery were not known by dis- tinctive numbers, but by the name of the captain who commanded them, and were

styled " Capt. 's Company of the th

Battalion."

In order, however, to avoid confusion, to make identification more easy, and avoid the change of designation which would occur whenever a new captain was posted, writers on artillery regimental history, when men- tioning companies, have made use of the numbers by which they were subsequently known when numbering was introduced.

The 9th Battalion R.A., consisting of ten companies, was formed in 1806. In February, 1819, two of these ten companies were reduced, leaving eight only in the battalion, and the company which eventually became Xo. 8 is 45th Battery, Royal Field Artillery, of to-day. It was never known as Xo. 10 Company, although it probably was. until 1819, the 10th in consecutive order in that battalion.

It served in the Walcheren expedition of 1809 a somewhat disastrous performance under the command of Capt. J. Chamber - layne, and served in the Peninsular War under the command of Capt. Robert Douglas. Embarking at Plymouth on 4 March, 1812, it disembarked at Lisbon on the 15th, and was present at the battles

of Salamanca (1812), Vitoria, the Pyrenees, and the Nivelle, and at the second operation of the siege of San Sebastian (1813), which terminated in its capture.

In January, 1814, Douglas left the com- pany, and was succeeded by Capt. George Turner, who commanded it until the con- clusion of the war, and under whose com- mand it was present at the battles of Orthes and Toulouse (1814). For the greater part of its service in the Peninsula it was attached to the third division of the army Picton's. It remained in France until June, 1814, when it proceeded to Canada.

Much information about the company will be found in the Dickson MSS., now being published by the Royal Artillery Institution, Woolwich. Details as to names of officers, stations, &c., from date of its formation can also be obtained from the original company muster rolls and pay lists at the Public Record Office, Chancery Lane.

J. H. LESLIE, Major.

LATTER LAMMAS (11 S. iv. 469; v. 18, 75). I am sorry to find that I have incurred the contempt of PROF. SKEAT by offering a derivation of the term Lammas which he does not approve of, and which is not the usual one. It certainly commends itself to my mind, but I am not responsible for it. I did not devise it ; it is certainly older than 1912, or even 1911 ; and the good authority which I referred to is not my own.

In his ' Historical Sketch of the Dis- tribution of Land in England,' part i. chap, v., Mr. Birkbeck, Q.C., and late Master of Downing College, Cambridge, writes, referring to some question with regard to Lammas lands :

" If any confirmation of the fact be wanting, it may be found in the circumstance that the only probable derivation of Lammas is Late-Math, ' late mowing.' Hence ' Latter Lammas,' a later math than Lammas, became proverbial, as an equivalent to the Greek Calends."

Not having the book before me, I in- advertently wrote " last math," instead of late math. I do not think, however, that this is of any consequence.

I think we may suppose that Mr. Birkbeck would not so positively assert what was a mere guess of his own. I do not, however, wish to divert PROF. SKEAT'S castigation from myself. I frankly avow that, for the pre- sent, I prefer Mr. Birkbeck's derivation. I should like very much to learn something about the history and ceremonies of " hlaf- msesse daeg." Can any one kindly refer me to any source of information about them ?

F, NEWMAN.