Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/550

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[11 S. V. JUNK 8, 1912.

shield might be occupied by a single charge typifying Australia as a whole, or the St. George's Cross, as ME. BROMBY suggests, though probably the red cross would be too exclusively English to please Scotch and Irish Australians. G. H. WHITE.

St. Cross, Harleston, Norfolk.

BRANDING OF HOUNDS (11 S. v. 370). Ten years ago I saw at either Biarritz or Pau a pack of imported English foxhounds branded on the ribs with a large capital B or P. The pack was originally introduced by the English colony, but I believe it has long been under French mastership.

H. G. ARCHER.

INCIDENTS AT DETTINGEN (11 S. v. 350). See ' Curiosities of AVar,' by Thomas Carter, Adjutant - General's Office, 1860, p. 109 :

" At the battle of Dettingen, on the 27th of June, 1743, Private Thomas Brown, a. native of Kirkleatham, in Yorkshire, preserved one of the standards of his regiment, the 3rd Light Dragoons, in the following surprising manner :

" Upon the cornet's receiving a wound in the wrist, and dropping the standard, Brown en- deavoured to dismount to pick it up, but, whilst so doing, lost two fingers of his bridle-hand by a sabre cut, his horse at the same time running away with him to the rear of the French lines. Whilst endeavouring to regain his regiment, he saw the standard, which had been captured by overwhelming numbers, being conveyed by a gendarme to the rear. He immediately attacked and killed this man, caught the standard as- it fell, and, fixing it between his leg and the saddle, cut his way back, receiving seven wounds in the head, face, and body ; three balls passing through his hat. In about six weeks he recovered from his wounds, and was promoted to the post of a private gentleman in the Life Guards as a reward for his gallant deed ; these appointments were, at that period, generally obtained by purchase."

On the next page there is another defence of the colours at the same battle by Cornet Richardson of Ligonier's Horse, now the 7th Dragoon Guards.

See also 10 S. iii. 68.

B. J. FYNMORE.

Sandgate.

[F. K. P. also thanked for reply.]

MAZZINI AND VOLTAIRE (11 S. v. 328). I think that Mazzini was summarizing Voltaire's opinions, not quoting his words. Voltaire having, during his residence in England, discovered Shakespeare, brought him to the notice of the French in the dedication to Lord Bolingbroke of ' Brutus ' (1731) and in the ' Lettres Philosophiques ' (1734). In these the beauties are pointed out and the defects almost ignored. When,

however, an article appeared placing Shake- speare above Racine, Voltaire wrote an ' Appel a toutes les Nations de 1'Europe '* (1761); and when Pierre Le Tourneur pro-' posed to publish a translation of the plays under the patronage of the King, Voltaire wrote his ' Lettre a 1'Academie Francaise ' (1776). In this and in his private corre-, spondence he violently attacked Shake- speare, magnifying his defects and treating his beauties merely as pearls in a dunghill.

For a full account see Prof. Lounsbury'si ' Shakespeare and Voltaire,' and for a briefer account M. Jusserand's ' Shake-" speare in France.' DAVID SALMON.

Swansea;

Voltaire, speaking of the extravagances of the play of ' Hamlet,' says : " On croirait que cet ouvrage est le fruit de Pimagination d'un sauvage ivre," ' Dissertation sur la Tragedie,' troisieme partie, in ' (Euvres de Voltaire,' vol. iii. p. 344 (1784).

PETROLLO.

"SPLENDID ISOLATION" (11 S. v. 348). Sir W. Laurier, in a speech in the Canadian House of Assembly, 5 Feb., 1896, said :

" Whether splendidly isolated or dangerously isolated, I will not now debate ; but for my part, I think splendidly isolated, because this isolation of England comes from her superiority."

Mr. Goschen, in a speech at Lewes, 26 Feb., 1896, said :

" We have stood alone in that which is called isolation our splendid isolation, as one of our colonial friends was good enough to call it."

I have copied the above from that splendid work the N.E.D.,' title ' Isolation.'

HARRY B. POLAND, Inner Temple.

[MR. TOM JONES also thanked for reply }

THE FITZWILLIAM FAMILY (11 S. v. 164, 312). Some will contest MR. WHITE'S asser- tion that Turstin Fitz Rou's parentage is contradictory and lacks proof. Turstin Fitz Rou was the son of Roger Mortimer, who assumed that surname after the battle of Mortemer, in which he incurred the anger of Duke William by liberating the French commander. Turstin was the " Standard - Bearer " at the battle of Hastings, and was duly rewarded with vast lands for this service. He afterwards became, associated with William Fitz Osberne in the reduction of the West of England, in conjunction with Alured de Merleberge. He became known as Turstin de Wigmore, from the lands given

Theatre Anglais,' by Jerome Carre.
 * This appears in his collected works as '