Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 7.djvu/73

 11 S. VII. Jan. 25, 1913. j NOTES AND QUERIES. 65 crowned by a bronze statue of the Duke of Wellington by Marochetti. The pedestal contains the following inscriptions :-— (East side:) Wellington (West side :) Erected by Arthur Richard, Duke of Welling- ton, and by the tenants, servants, and labourers on the estate of his father, as a token of their .affection and respect, 1803. (North side :) lie was beloved at home, for he had great power and ever used it well. He was firm in friendship, and his hand was ever open to the poor. (South side :) He was honoured abroad, for in all mighty conquests he was just, considerate and humane, Wellington's favourite charger is buried in Strathfieldsaye Park. Over his grave is a stene bearing the following inscription :— Here lies Copenhagen the charger ridden by the Duke of Wellington the entire day at the battle of Waterloo Born 1808 Died 1836. I shall be glad to receive information respecting the Wellington statues at Leeds, Glasgow, Norwich, Ayr, and other places. Liverpool.—Here is a characteristic statue of Major-General Earle, designed in bronze by the late Chas. Bell Birch, A.R.A. The brave soldier is represented leading his men to the attack of the building held by the Soudanese, in which he received his death-wound. At his feet lies a shield modelled from one picked up near where he fell, and the sword held erect in his hand is a replica of the one he took into action. The pedestal is thus inscribed :— Major-General William Earle, C.B., C.S.I. Born in Liverpool, 1833 ; killed in command of her Majesty's troops at the battle of Kirbekan in the Soudan, 1885. Erected by public sub- scription. Castle Howard. Yorkshire.—At the inter- section of the two principal avenues in the lordly demesne of the Earl of Carlisle stands a quadrangular obelisk 100 ft. high. On the east side of the pedestal, facing the avenue leading to the house, is the following inscription in honour of the great Duke of Marlborough :— Virluti et Fortunse Johannis, Marlburiae Ducis. Patriae Europseque Defensoris, Hoc Saxum Admirationi ac faina* sacrum t'arolus, Comes Carliol, posuit Anno Domini it MDCCXIV. The opposite side is thus inscribed :— If to perfection these plantations rise, If they agreeably my heirs surprise, This faithful pillar will their age declare, As long as time these characters shall spare. Here then with kind remembrance read his mime, Who for posterity performed the same. Charles, the third Earl of Carlisle, of the family of the Howards, erected a Castle where the old castle of Hinderskelf stood, and called it Castle Howard. He likewise made the plantations in this park, and all the outworks, monuments, and other plantations belonging to this seat. He began these works in the year MDCCKli., and set up this inscription Anno Dom. mdccxxxi. John T. Page. Long Itchington, Warwickshire. (To he continued.) " Burgee.'"—In 1885 information was sought in regard to this word, but without success (see 6 S. xii. 109, 172). Apparently no lexicographer has had the temerity to suggest a derivation. It is not my intention to rush in where experts fear to tread, but some evidence in regard to the history of the word will doubtless be acceptable. The earliest example quoted in the ' N.E.D.' is under date of 1848. The following ex- tract carries the word back a century. It is taken from The Boston Post Boy of 18 June, 1750, p. 2/1:— " New-York, June 11. "Thursday last as Col. William Rickets of Elizabeth-Town [in New Jersey], with his Wife and Family, were going home from this City in his own Boat, accomimnied by some of his Friends, they unfortunately left their Burgee flying at their Mast-Head; and on their coming abreast of his Majesty's Ship Greyhound, then lying in the North River, a Gun was fired from on board her; but they not apprehending it to be at them, took no Notioe of it, on which » second directly followedI; and the Shot passing thro' the Boats Mains»il, struck a young Woman, Nurse to one of Col. Rickefs Children, in the Head, and kill'd her on the Spot." The next extract carries the word back still another century. In a letter to the Duke of Ormonde, not dated, but doubtless written on or about 1 June, 1653 (inasmuch as it was received 8-18 June, 1653), from Flushing, Bishop John Bramhall said :— " By ill-luck or ill messengers or both we have not had one single prize yet come into these parts since I came here. And our Dutch owners begin to be startled because Burgee's caution is required of their captains."—' Cal. of the Manuscripts of the Marquess of Ormonde,' New Series, 1902, i. 294.