Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/478

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NOTES AND QUERIES. tn s. ix. JUNE is, 191*.

the front, progressed at so tardy a rate that the spring was far advanced before the whole of the troops were hutted."

In a foot-note Connolly adds that " a party of French sappers arrived at Southamp- ton early in December, 1854, to superintend the embarkation of huts for the Imperial army in the Crimea. From the moment of their landing they were shown every respect by the British sappers in that city [? town], and, moreover, provided by them with a generous entertainment at the Float- ing House tavern."

They shipped 110 fewer than 1,850 huts. Connolly's ' Sappers and Miners,' 1857, vol. ii. pp. 247-8.

I would refer L. L. K. to p. 453 of the same volume, and also to vol. i. p. 15, where there is a description of a " gallery." The general order book of the sappers and miners would, no doubt, contain full details (with specifications) of all kinds of huts.

Has L. L. K. seen Godfrey Rhodes' s the practice of Encamping an Army in Ancient and Modern Times ' (London, Smith & Elder, 1858). The last part of his book occupies pp. 201-63, and has many illustra- tions. The author describes himself as " now of Ship Street Barracks in the City of Dublin, Captain in Her Majesty's 94th Regiment of Foot."
 * Tents and Tent Life .... to which is added

Dr. Rice Holmes, in ' Caesar's Conquest of Gaul,' second edition, 1911, pp. 608-11, defines the vinea as a stout movable wooden hut, 16 ft. long, 8 ft. high, and 7 ft. wide.

The musculus was a sapper's hut, 60 ft. long, 4 ft. wide, and 5 ft. high, made of timbers so strong that no heavy weights could break through.

The testudo was used for protecting soldiers when they were filling up ditches. It was 25 ft. square, and mounted on rollers. It had a sloping roof, or shutter, almost reach- ing to the ground.

The pluteus was used to protect soldiers when they were constructing siege works. It had an arched roof covered with hides, and it ran on three rollers.

A. L. HUMPHREYS.

187, Piccadilly, W.

SILVIO PELLICO'S ' DUTIES OF MAN '(US ix. 408). Three English translations of the above work have been published, viz. : one, by T. Roscoe, in 1834 ; another, with a com- mentary by C. Hindley, in 1837 ; and another by R. A. Vain, in 1869. They are all out of print, but a copy may possibly be ob- tained from a secondhand bookseller, or by advertising in a trade paper.

ARCHIBALD SPARKE, F.R.S.L.

POE : A CLASSICAL REFERENCE (11 S. ix. 426). It seems hard to suppose that by " Nicean barks " Poe means the one yacht of Catullus, and, if he does, the allusion is so obscure as to bewilder even readers familiar with Catullus.

I would point out that Stephanus of Byzantium specifies eight places of the name " Nicaea," and that of these the third in order is described by him as being " in Illyria." Now, Mela (2, 3, 12) incorporates a tradition which places the Phaeacians on the Illyrian coast. This tradition, though in point of geography it departs but little from the more ordinary identification of Phaeacia with Corcyra, would nevertheless, unlike that identification, make it possible for Poe, if he knew of it, to use " Nicean " as a mere picturesque equivalent of " Phae- acian." If so, the allusion would be highly appropriate, but also, I confess, highly obscure.

Yet another exegesis may be suggested. On the Hydaspes in the Panjab Alexander the Great founded a city which he named Nicaea. At or close to this Nicaea he built a fleet, in which he and his men sailed down the river and out into the Indian Ocean. This suits well Poe's words " o'er a perfumed sea." But he was not borne in it "to his own native shore," and, indeed, could not have been, unless he had cir- cumnavigated the Cape of Good Hope. Yet I cannot help thinking that it is this fleet to which Poe intended to refer. He may not have been strong in geography or the minute details of history. The allusion would not be excessively recondite (see Strabo).

R. J. WALKER.

Little Holland House, Kensington, W.

JOHN EDWARD BRIGHT (US. ix. 370). " 1 s. John of Birmingham, doctor. Demy Magdalen Coll., Oxon, 1830, res. same year. Christ Church, matric. 18 March, 1830, aged 19 ; B.A. 19 Feb., 1835 ; M.A. 3 Feb., 1837 ; bar.- at-law, Inner Temple, 7 June, 1839." Foster's ' Men at the Bar.'

" A.D. 1830. Dec. Sub hoc tempus Joannes Edvardus Bright, motus, ut prae se ferebat. nescio qua de natali comitatu, iitrum is rerera Varvicensis essct, concepta dubitatione (quam quidem, facili negotio expedieudam, tollere aut fastidiosus supersedit, aut se suosque^supersedisse minus etiam ingenue Simula vit): hac caussatus Semicommunarii apud nos loco, quo, Varvicensis habitus, honorifice admodum ob egregium^in literis profectum ornatus nuper fuerat, ultro rt- nunciavit : eo nernpe consilii, ut in Collegium potius 2Edis Christi, cui jam prius fuisset adscrip- tus, remigraret." ' V. P. Reg. Magd. Coll.,' Bloxam, vii. 326.

A. R. BAYLEY.