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NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. ix. FEB. u, 1914.

filled with thick plate-glass, and provided with crimson silk blinds. It was a luxurious affair ; and the writer of the article inquires why such carriages should not also be pro- vided for ladies and non-smokers. He speaks scornfully of the " ' coops ' endorsed with gilt letters ' For Ladies only.' ' The carriage had a general resemblance to the " saloon carriage " of later days. Can any reader supply an earlier instance of a railway smoking-carriage ? R. B. P.

" LIFE 's UNCERTAIN," &c. (See ante, p. 45.) Is anything known as to the origin of the lines of which a poor variant is given at the above reference ?

On a stone in West Haddon churchyard, Northamptonshire, dated 1735, they appear as follows :

Life is uncertaine Death is sure Sin is the wound And Christ ye cure. On a stone in Long Itchington church- yard, dated 1734, they finish a longer effu- sion of mere doggerel as follows : : Life's uncertain Death as sure Sin's my wound & Christ my Cure.

JOHN T. PAGE.

Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

BRIGADIER WALTER STAPLETON. (See US. vii. 309.) Can any one give informa- tion regarding Brigadier Walter Stapleton, who commanded the Irish Brigade in the service of France on the side of Prince Charles, 1745 ?

It is stated by J. C. O'Callaghan in his ' History of the Irish Brigade in the Service of France ' that he died at Inverness a fort- night after the Battle of Culloden, 1746, of wounds received there.

What authority is there for this assertion ? Was he buried at Inverness ? if so, where ? Is anything known of his parentage, and the date and place of his birth ? Was he married ? Did he leave any family ? if so, what became of them ? C. STEPHEN.

Wootton Cottage, Lincoln.

THE MURDER OF A PRIEST NEAR READING. Where can I find an account dealing with the following ? On the road from Tile- hurst to Pangbourne, somewhere about Purley, a Catholic priest was murdered by a farmer or miller in mistake for another person early in the nineteenth or late in the eighteenth century. The perpetrator was not discovered till his death, when he confessed. Probably no great pains were taken to discover him, as the death of a Popish priest at that time was not considered a very

serious event. Since I was a child I remember hearing that the name of the murderer was Bartholomew (an old name in Berk- shire), that the priest was a Frenchman and a tutor to the Perkins family of Ufton (perhaps the Hydes of Purley : both Catholic families), and that he was riding home from their house to Reading. The spot where the murder took place is, or was, a lonely one, and had the reputation of being haunted, either by the priest or his murderer. I shall be grateful for the facts.

A. STEPHENS DYER. 207, Kingston Road, Teddington.

WILLIAM HARBORD. Lord Suffield in his recently published * Memories ' makes the statement that William Harbord, old Samuel Pepys's " most persistent enemy," travelled a good deal abroad, and wrote in 1686 an account of the Battle of Buda (with the Turks). Is this account in exist- ence ? and if so, where can it be seen ?

L. L. K.

" THE THIN RED LINE " of British infantry occurring in W. H. Russell's description of the Battle of Balaklava. Was this phrase original or a quotation ? W. S RR.

[Sir W. H. Russell, in a letter printed at 8 S. vii. 191, says : "I believe that I may claim the author- ship or parentage I certainly did not intend

them" the words in question "for a quotation."!

LESCELINE DE VERDON. (US. viii. 371.)

MY attention has recently been called to a communication by MR. FRANCIS H. RELTON to * N. & Q:' at the above reference, in which some writings of mine are referred to as " sources of information " for a pedigree of the descendants of Walter de Ridelesford there given. With regard to one point in this pedigree, I think I have shown in my paper on ' The Earldom of Ulster ' (to which reference was made) the inconsistency with contemporary evidence of the time-honoured statement that Walter de Burgh succeeded to the lordship of Ulster through his marriage with a daughter of Hugh de Lacy ; and cer- tainly the specific statement that he married Matilda de Lacy, widow of David Fitz William, Baron of Naas, must be dismissed as apocryphal. When Hugh de Lacy died (1242), Ulster was treated as an escheat of the Crown, and was administered by seneschals