Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/177

 12 S. 1. FKB. 26, 1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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the convicts from Princeton Prison on the moor (the scene of the " Dartmoor Shep- herd " of later history !) ; but when the crowd saw that we seized all the available vehicles in our haste to reach the best hotels, they changed their minds and acclaimed us as the " Scots Greys " !

Another event occurred which might have had a more serious ending, which I mention here because I consider that ' N. & Q. 1 had something to do with it. During one of the occasions when we were held up by a dense mist we were warned not to stray far from where we weie ; so to amuse ourselves for the several hours we were so entombed we engaged in various camp sports. One of these was " tournament fighting," which consisted of couples from various corps engaging each other as knights and horses, the lighter men being the riders, who would seek to unhorse each other. I happened to be a "horse," and having overthrown the couple opposed to us, I was so elated by our victory that I began " bucking," with the result that my unfortunate rider was thrown violently over my head and lay motionless on the ground. As I sprang forward to render assistance I heard loud whisperings from more than one spectator, " His neck is broken ! " It happened that shortly before we left London the famous " Soapy Sam " late Bishop of Oxford, and then of Winchester whilst out riding on the Hampshire Downs, had been thrown over his horse's head, through the animal's foot having caught in a rabbit-hole, and had broken his neck. Following this incident, a corre- spondent in 'N. & Q.' had suggested that a dislocated neck under such circumstances might often be put right if the body were at once turned over on its face and a person were to place his knee firmly between the shoulder-blades, at the same time sharply lifting or bending up the head. So, stricken with remorse, and horrified at what might be the result of what I had done, I knelt down by the side of my fallen friend, and was in the act of turning him over in order to effect this hoped-for cure, when I was inexpressibly relieved by hearing him groan and mutter : " Oh ! leave me alone." Presently he sufficiently recovered to be able to be raised up, he being terribly shaken and having had all his " wind " knocked out of him. Needless to say neither he nor I felt inclined to take any further part in the tournament. But the irony of it remains to be told. Subsequently, when I returned to London and got my next number of ' N. & Q.' (I was a subscriber and contributor

then as I am now), I found that another correspondent had written and demonstrated the absolute impossibility or uselessness of any such suggested remedy ! (See 4 S. xii. 106, 157, 216.)

However, these were only " manoeuvres." But we understood that the object of these manoeuvres was to afford our officers and men and particularly the higher command the opportunity of learning something of the tactics of actual warfare. The whole thing seemed to us to be conducted in a way so as to avoid necessary, as well as unnecessary, expense. And it soon became obvious to the merest tyro amongst us though apparently not to the country generally, or to the powers that be that manoeuvres conducted in such a manner as these were must be devoid of the slightest military value.

This was forty-three years ago. " Eheu, fugaces !. . . .Tempora mutantur, nos et mu- tamur in illis." Yes, the times indeed are changed ; but are we changed so much in them ? I think I can mention one nation, at least, that has changed much more during that time ! Anyhow, I only wish that I were capable of undergoing such an ordeal again ! J. S. UDAL, F.S.A.

If my memory is not at fault, there was a suggestion some years ago in the Transvaal that cannon should be fired with the inten- tion of bringing on rain, and that the Boers objected, on the ground that it would be an unrighteous interference with Providence.

ROBERT PlERPOINT.

' DE IMITATIONE CHRISTI ' : AUTOGRAPH MS. (12 S. i. 127). The latter, and perhaps less important, part of DR. KREBS'S query can be easily answered. The facsimile of the MS. of the ' De Imitatione ' in the hand of Thomas a Kempis, published by Elliot Stock in 1879, is preceded by an Introduction by Charles Ruelens, Keeper of the Department of Manuscripts in the Royal Library at Brussels. The codex written by Thomas a Kempis, and containing, besides other treatises, the four books of the ' De Imita- tione Christi,' is there said to be in the Royal Library, Brussels, numbered 5855- 5861. The MS. was finished in 1441. The oldest extant MS. of the ' Imitation,' also n the Royal Library, is of the year 1425.

DR. KREBS gives 1424 as the date of the autograph, but I have assumed that the 3odex to which he refers is that which is ntroduced by M. Ruelens.

EDWARD BENSLY.