Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/135

 12 8. IV. MAY, 1918.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

129

SHRAPNEL: ITS INVENTOR'S EPITAPH. The present war has taught even those who did not know it before that shrapnel was named after its inventor, who, as mentioned in the account of him in the ' Diet. Nat. Biog.,' was buried at Bradford-on-Avon. Just in front of the altar-rails of the parish church is a small brass plate with the following inscription :

" To | the Memory of | Lieut. General Henry Shrapnel | Colonel Commandant | 6th Battalion of Artillery | obiit | 13th March 1842 | setat., 80 years."

Bradford-on-Avon is, of course, chiefly noteworthy for its Saxon church and for its town hall, which has been advertised for sale for some time.

DE V. PAYEN-PAYNE.

" DECEASE," VERB TRANSITIVE. In the church of St. Swithun, Bathford, Somerset, one sees the following inscription :

" Here lyeth the | body of Thomas | Hendy the Sonne of | Thomas and Mary | Hendy of this | Parrish who | deceased this Life j the 23rd of Ivne | 1676."

It is interesting because the Oxford Dic- tionary illustrates " decease," as a verb transitive, by not more than one quotation, and that from the year 1515, calling it rare and obsolete. EDWARD S. DODGSON.

Albert House, Bath.

MR. F. J. BAIGENT : DR. WM. GREEN- WELL. As nephew of the late Mr. F. J. Baigent, I beg to thank H. C. for his kindly notice (ante, p. 120). Notwithstanding my uncle's defective eyesight, he kept up a limited correspondence until the last. He was a friend of Dr. Wm. Greenwell of Durham, of whom a good obituary appeared in The Times of Jan. 28, and a more detailed one in The Newcastle Daily Chronicle of the same date. In a letter which my uncle wrote to me on Feb. 7, he expressed his regret at Canon Greenwell's death, and added :

" The dear old gentleman was certainly one of the most remarkable men of his generation ; he was kind and generous in giving the most precious portion of his vast collection to the British Museum. I had the opportunity of seeing all those remarkable objects, especially those found in a cave which contained the complete equipment of a horse of the early bronze age. The cave had been suddenly flooded when all the men were gone out, probably to hunt. Everything was found in sittt. I remember among the things was a wooden bucket, of which all the metal rings had fallen one within the other as the wood decayed."

R. C. BAIGENT.

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

FREDRIKA BREMER. May I ask through your columns for the use of any material your readers may have in the way of un- published or already published letters of Fredrika Bremer ? It is as editor of Fredrika Bremer' s letters that I am in search of her English correspondents. As the fourth and last volume is to appear as soon as possible I should be infinitely obliged for early information. The work is published by P. A. Norstedt & Sons, Stock- holm. ELLEN KLEMAN.

59 Valhallavagen, Stockholm.

NELSON, LADY HAMILTON, AND COLLEN- BACH. Can any of your readers tell me if the following extract concerning Lady Hamilton and Lord Nelson has ever been published ? It is taken from a letter in my possession, written by Collenbach at Vienna, Oct. 3, 1800, to a niece of his. The MS., though beautifully written, is careless as regards accents and other details :

" Je vous dirai premierement que nos petites mattresses du grand monde s'affublent depuis quelques terns de perruques brunes, blondes, cendrees, et puis de diamans, de perles, de dentelles, de chalnes d'or. On les prendrait, en verit6 toutes, pour des Vierges miraculeuses parees de toutes les plus belles offrendes de nos Pelerins pecheurs. Madame Hamilton nous a aussi portees des nouvelles modes de sa facon, et puis d'autres ernpmntees des differentes nations qu'elle vient de visiter. C'est a elle, dit-on, qu on est redevable de ces draperies legeres et trans- parentes, et qui ne laissent plus rien a desirer m a deviner aux amateurs du beau Sexe. Cette Dnme apres six semaines de sejour a Vie"nne nous vient de quitter, amenant avec elle Nelson, 1'amant le plus benlt de 1'amoureux Empire. Je me sxiis souvent trouve' dans la Societe de ce couple exotique, et toutes les fois la Hamilton ne cessois de parler, de chanter, de rire, de gesticuler et de minauder, pendant que 1'Enfant cheri de Neptune avait 1'air de sortir de ses poches, ne 1; quittant pas plus que son ombre, et cher chant de ses petits yeux de rencontrer les grands yeux de sa Belle ; avec cela immobile et taciturne comme un monument ; embarasse de sa triste figure, et de tous les crachats, cordons, et croix dont elk est tapisee, en un mot, ce Baron du Nil me para it aussi nul et gauche sur terre qu'il est adroit et marquant sur mer.... COLLENBACH.

GILBERT HUDSON.

Kia Orn, Mar-h Road, Pinner.