Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/372

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. v. APRIL 20, 1912.

.next spring to inaugurate the monument." JBut he never left England again.

San Sebastian is^now a fashionable seaside

resort, and the new town, with its wide,

straight streets on the " American plan,"

covers what was in Wellington's time the

open country. But the old city (rebuilt

i in 1814), remains, wedged between the

. Alameda and the sea ; and the English

tourist may still read at the corner of the

Calle S, Geronimo :

xxxi. de Agosto de MDCCCXIII. Los aliados toman por asalto esta Ciudad

pcupada por el ejercito invasor la incendian la saquean y degiiellan

gran numero de sus moradores.

Five other lines tell how the city was recon- structed after the "hecatomb of August 31st,"

Passing by the Calle Mayor (High Street) and the church steps, and continuing by picturesque paths overlooking obsolete batteries and quaint houses of fisher-folk along the side of the rocky cliff where the Biscay waves break against the last seaward spur of the Pyrenees, one reaches the citadel. At its foot lies the British graveyard. Sadly neglected is this historic spot, a striking contrast to the coquettish " English ceme- teries " of the French Basque country. A notice in Spanish and English begs the visitor " to shut the gate and not to touch the plants " ; but the gate is distinguished by its lack of hinges, and wild thyme is the only plant visible. A slab let into one of the huge boulders with which the slope is covered bears the inscription :

Lt. Col. Sir Richard Fletcher, Bart.

Capt. Rhodes

Capt. Coulter

Lieut. Marshall

who fell at the siege of San Sebastian 31 Aug. 1813.

' The first named was, of course, the dis- tinguished Engineer officer who took an important part in this memorable siege. Seven other tombs of British soldiers and seamen hard by date from the Carlist Wars of 1836-8, and need not be detailed here.

At Pasajes (the natural seaport of San Sebastian for large vessels) a wild, unculti- vated patch of land above one of the churches is known as the " English cemetery " ; but the only traceable tombstone dates from the same epoch (1838).

The immutability of everything Spanish, and the fact that the battle-field lies some distance outside of the town, make Vitoria an interesting place to study. Loopholed walls of churches and half-ruined sheds still mark where the fight was hottest at

Gamarra Mayor, Abucheco, Arinez, &c. ; but churchyards or wayside gravestones of any kind seem rare in Spain, and it would be interesting to learn if (with such excep- tions as Sir John Moore's tomb and the memorial above described) any of the last resting-places of our officers and men are still traceable in Spain or in Portugal.

F. A. W.

BOSWELL AT UTRECHT.

IN his ' Life of Johnson,' Boswell relates how, on Friday, 5 Aug., 1763, he set out early in the morning in the Harwich stage- coach in the company of Dr. Johnson. Boswell was to cross over to Hellevoetssluis in Holland, and proceed thence to Utrecht to follow a course of studies at the University of that city. It has always interested me to know something more about Boswell's stay at Utrecht, and so I determined to avail myself of a short holiday passed in that town to try and find out a few par- ticulars concerning the great biographer's life and work there.

I did not flatter myself with high hope. Had not that splendid scholar Prof. Godet written in that excellent book, ' Madame de Charriere et ses Amis ' : " Nous ignorons ce que Boswell faisait a Utrecht et combien de temps il y sejourna" ? We do, however, know that Boswell came in the autumn of 1763, and was in Berlin in 1764. The attempt was worth making, even if results should be meagre.

I made investigations at the University Library and ' in the Archives at Utrecht ; but, though both Mr. van Somere i, the librarian, and Mr. Muller, the archivist, afforded me every facility, I could find no trace of Boswell. His name was not entered in the ' Album Studiosorum,' either for 1763 or 1764, so that he seems not to have been one of the ordinary students.

In a letter written to Johnson, and given in an extract in the ' Life,' Boswell speaks about the inquiries he made for Johnson with respect to the " Frisic Language," and in this connexion he mentions Prof. Trotz as having supplied him with information. Trotz was born at Colberg, was professor at Franeker for some time, and in 1755 became " Professor Juris civilia et publici Belgici " at Utrecht, where he was an orna- ment of the University till his death in 1773.

Johnson directs a letter to Boswell

a la Cour de 1'Empereur, Utrecht." In the Register of the receipts of the duties