Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/362

 356

NOTES AND QUERIES. 1128.111. JULY, 1917.

I am inclined to think that this letter emanated from the Bank when at Grocers' Hall, but it is interesting to note that Sir Gilbert Heathcoto was connected with the East India Company. The consignment of gold may have been, therefore, the property of that company.

I should much appreciate any information which would help me to identify the docu- ment. R. C. STEVENSON.

SUBMARINES. In case any one thinks that submarines are a modern invention, let him read Bacon's ' Novum Organum,' p. 300 (Pickering, 1850): "We hear that some sort of boat or vessel has now been invented, capable of carrying men some distance under water." ' Novum Organum ' was first published in 1620 !

ALFRED S. E. ACKEBMANN.

A CHEI.SEA SUPERSTITION. New to me, and perhaps to some others, is the quaint idea of the folk about the seven winds and the middle span of Old Battersea Bridge. It is set down in ' William De Morgan : a Reminiscence,' contributed by Miss Julia Cartwright to The Cornhill Magazine of April, 1917 (p. 469) :

" There was, it appears, a popular superstition among Chelsea folk some fifty years ago that seven currents of air met in the middle span of the bridge. A carpenter who is still living vividly remembers being taken by his mother to stand on the bridge on a bitterly cold March day, with his six brothers and sisters, who were all suffering from whooping-cough. It must have t>een a case of kill or cure ; but in this instance the good woman's faith ' seems to have been justified, for all her seven children got over the whooping-cough and grew up hale and hearty."

ST. SWITHIN.

SIR JOHN BARNARD. In the Birmingham Free Library MSS. (257519) is a deed, dated Jan. 20, 1683/4, which connects Shakespeare's granddaughter's husband with the Haleses of Coventry and Snitter- field, a family which may have formed a local link between the Northamptonshire squire and the poet's family in Stratford. The deed recites an earlier document (dated Jan. 28, 1657/8) wherein Christopher Hales of the " Fryers " (Whitefriars), Coven- try, executes a trust " for the raising of portions and maintenance for his younger children." The trustees named are John Purefoy of Wadley, co. Bucks, Esq., John Barnard of Abington, co. Northampton, Esq., afterwards Sir John Barnard, Knt., and James Hales of Snitterfield, co. War- wick, gentleman. It is worth noting that

the name of Nat. Barnard, mercer, appears in the Trinity Church, Coventry, docti- ments (No. 167) in 1630-31.

M. DORMER HARRIS.

(@ items.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only pri vate interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

" BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER" r COMMODORE TATTNALL.

The Observer of May 20 last contained the following :

' ' The American destroyers rendering a dmirable- aid remind us that old Commodore Tatnall was more prophetic than he knew when he signa lied ' Blood is thicker than water,' and ran into action under the stars and stripes."

Who was Commodore Tatnall ? And what is the occasion referred to ? Lucis.

[The quotation from The Observer shows how difficult it is to be accurate in historical allusions. Between fifteen and sixteen years ago there appeared in ' N. & Q.' (9 S. viii. 238) a rather lomj article by GNOMON discussing the incident, which happened, he said, on Aug. 21, 1860, when British and French ships were attacking the Taku forts. He went on to summarize from, memory the report of the occurrence sent home, he stated, by the special correspondent of The Times with the British fleet, to the effect that when the American commodore paid a visit to the British admiral during the action, his coxswain went forward and lent a hand to the British bluejackets serving the guns, and, being reprimanded by the commodore for so doing, excused himself by saying that he couldn't help it, as, " after all, blood's thicker than water." Thus, according to GNOMON, the remark was made to the commodore, not by him-

It is dangerous, however, to trust one's memory in relation to events that occurred forty years earlier. The dispatch referred to by GNOMON was dated from the " Camp on the Peiho. Aug. 25, 1860," and occupies seven columns of The Times of Nov. 3, 1860. It is full of interesting detnils of the capture of the forts, but Commodore Tattnall is not mentioned. The writer, however, states that he saw in the river the remains of two or three of the gunboats which had been sunk by the. Chinese when the British and French unsuccess- fully attacked the same forts the previous year. Here we have a clue, for GNOMON had, after the lapse of forty years, confused the two attacks. The unsuccessful one occurred on June 25, 1859, and here Commodore Tattnall figured prominently. It may be advisable to recall the circumstances. The special envoys of the British and French Governments were on their way to Pekin to obtain ratification of the treaty which had been arranged to terminate the war between England and France, on the one side, and the Chinese Empire on the other. Mr. Ward, the United