Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/368

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [u s. vn. MAY 10, 1013.

and the meadow to which it gave special access. The d would therefore seem to have accreted itself, after the manner of the same letter in the term hind (hlne), a servant (O.E. Hlna).

But a more obscure point of interest arises if we turn to the Perambulatio Forestae de Dene of A.D. 1281. In this minute and valuable description of the bounds of the various Bailiwicks of that Forest there is no mention whatever of a Meend ; but several times there occurs the term La Munede, which is precisely the term used by the land scribes of Shropshire to describe the Long Minde (La Munede). " Apud la holyene munede" is mentioned in this perambulation as a spot where an area for wood-cutting (trenchea} begins, i.e., " At the Holly munede." But as this cannot refer to a mountain or ridge in the Bailiwick of Berse, may it not refer to the local meend, otherwise Berse Common (to-day) ? " Et sic ultra le muneden usque ad album lapidem " (i.e., a Horestone, or Meerstone), occurs among the boundaries of Lea Bailly ; " et una trenchea vocata de Pirihale.... cluret usque la Munedwey" i.e., the path or road to the Meend, or common-land (cf. Myende-lone above).

If my conjecture (for I will not venture to call it more) should prove to be correct, it would tend to show that the error (if such there be) in the term munede as applied to meend was due to the spelling of an Anglo- Norman scribe, who had been made familiar with its employment as a land term in other districts, but had forgotten its precise appli- cation.* ST. CLAIB BADDELEY

THE HESSIAN CONTINGENT : AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. The following, of which I give a translation, appeared in the Feuille d 'Avis de Lausanne, 18 March. I have added a note re Battle of Trenton :

"THE LANDGRAVK AND HIS MERCENARIES.

"This week's number of the Munich review, Light and Shadow, publishes a document of which the historical and moral interest need not be ispecially emphasized.

"At the time of the War of Independence of the United States several German princes sold numbers of their subjects as mercenaries to England.

"Thus the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel sold 16,992 of his subjects, the Duke of Brunswick 5,723, the Prince of Hanau 2,422, the Margrave of

in a note to his transcription of the above Peram- bulatio, quotes Halli well, and also Bailey's 'Eng. Diet.,' as deriving La, Munede from (L.) munitus, fortified or fenced.
 * I am, of course, aware that Sir John McLean,

Ansbach 1,644, the Prince of Waldeck 1,225, and the Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst only 1,160.

"Of this total of 29,168 men there perishe I 11,853.

"As for each case of death or disability the sovereigns received a special indemnity, it was of pecuniary interest to them that as many as possible of their nation should perish. The price for eac'i man varied from 375 to 575 francs. On February 8th, 1777, the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel wrote to Baron de Hohenberg, commandant of the Hessian contingent in America, a letter in which he mani- fests his great joy that in the Battle of Trenton, against George Washington, 1,650 Hessians out of 1,950 had fallen ; and added that he was displeased that in the list of the losses which he had receive 1 from the English ministry only 1,455 victims were counted, a fact which meant a loss to the Prince's treasury.

" He ended his letter in this manner :

"'I remind you that of the 300 Spartans wh) defended the Pass of Thermopylae not one returrie.l. I should be glad to be able to say the same of mv Hessians. Tell Commander Mindorf that I am not at all pleased at his behaviour in saving the 300 men who were fleeing before Trenton. During the campaign, of all his troops he has not lost ten men.

"The commander of the Hessian contingent could not be mistaken as to the meaning of this self-interested advice."

It was on Christmas night, 1776, that Washington suddenly re-crossed the Dela- ware River, from the State of Pennsylvania, in the darkness made worse by a heavy snows'torm and attacked the troops of Cornwallis, who had been unable to follow him for want of boats. The English army at Trenton were completely surprised, an -\ about a thousand captured, together with numerous guns and ammunition.

The employment of foreign troops, wh > were forwarded to America like slaves, had done much to incense the Americans arvl hurry forward the Declaration of Independ- ence. HERBERT SOUTHAM.

Lausanne.

JOHN BEARBLOCK.

" Bearblock or Bereblock, John (fl. 1566 \ draughtsman, was born near Rochester about 1532, and was educated at Oxford. He is said to have become a fellow of St. John's College ia 1558, and of Exeter College on 30 June 1566. Kc graduated B.A. 29 March 1561, and M.A. 13 Feb. 1564-5. Before the close of 1566 he was dean of his college, and was elected senior proctor of the university on 20 April 1569, his colleague being Thomas (afterwards Sir Thomas) Bodley. In 1570 he was granted four years' leave of absence, probably for study abroad, and in 157:? received the degree of B.C.L. from a continental university. Nothing further is ascertainable about his personal history."

So far Sir Sidney Lee in the ' D.N.B.'

In 'Cal. S.P. Milan (1385-1618),' at p. 595, is calendared a letter dated 28 June,