Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/245

 12 s. iv. SEPT., 1918.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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when they occupied " Bramcote," at the corner of York Road and Oatlands Drive : attracted doubtless by its proximity to Oatlands Park, which 'had figured in the original scenario of his successful play William Winter, the famous critic.
 * Beau Brummell,' prepared by the late

Mr. Winter in his Life of Mansfield (New York, Moffat, Yard & Co., 1910), referring to this play, relates that " the scene was to be laid partly at Oatlands, near Wey- bridge, in beautiful Surrey." That idea was, however, ultimately abandoned. At p. 264 Mr. Winter writes : " The purpose of establishing a permanent home for himself in England had long been in his mind, but it was never fulfilled. At the close of this tour [1901-2], which ended at Montreal on July 4, he sailed from that port, and he passed several weeks at Weybridge, one of the loveliest retreats in the lovely county of Surrey a land that lures the tired mortal to stay in it forever."

Mansfield here studied the Shakespearean role of Brutus for the coming season in America ; but business affairs called him back within six weeks of his setting out.

HUGH HARTING.

CLEAVELAND ON THE EARLY HISTORY OF ARTILLERY. Writers on early ordnance in England and on other early artillery matters frequently refer to the so-called ' Notes on the Early History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery ' collected by Col. Samuel Cleave - land. It is only right to give a warning to persons who may consult them.

These ' Notes ' are published by the Royal Artillery Institution, Woolwich, and cover a period of 530 years 1267 to 1797. The title is misleading, because the Royal Regi- ment of Artillery did not come into existence until 1716. It should be ' Notes on Matteri concerning the History of Artillery.'

Having examined several of the origina manuscripts referred to in these ' Notes,' ] find errors in almost every line, and do nol hesitate to say that every " Cleaveland ' item should be verified before acceptance They are useful in guiding one to origina sources of information, but there is nothing original in the ' Notes ' themselves.

Three examples are given, of the kind of mistake which pervades the ' Notes.'

(a) P. 3. Item of 1344. From Add. MS. No. 5758. " Provisioners " should read

Pavilioners ; Warriners ; Artilliars. (6) P. 19.

" Wargnores " " Artilleriens "

should should

read read

Antiquities,' vol. i. p. 198. There are two editions of Grose's book 1786 and 1801. In he 1786 edition the passage ^quoted appears n p. 233, and in the edition of 1801 on p. 200, wt p. 198.

Grose quotes Harl. MS. No. 4685, in both ditions, anno 1518. Both are wrong. The orrect Harl. number is 847, folio 49 b, and he date is 1578.

The word " windon " in the last line of the paragraph on p. 19 of " Cleaveland " is vindose in the MS., and is thus transcribed Grose. Cleaveland, or his transcriber, or the printer, changed it to " windon," and the writer of the foot-note consequently launches out into a fantastic explanation of a word which does not even exist.

(c) P. 209. Item of 1 Nov., 1727. ' Colonel Borgarde appointed colonel com- mandant, the first- officer holding that position." This is invention, pure and simple. The warrant of appointment is to be found at the Public Record Office in Entry Book of Warrants (War Office Records, Ordnance, Class 55, No. 510, p. .21). It runs: "Do by these present constitute and appoint you to be Colonel of our Royal Regiment of Artillery now 1 under your command." This appointment was the renewal, at the accession of George II., of an earlier warrant* of April 1, 1722 (War Office Records, Ordnance, Class 55, No. 483, p. 59), appointing Borgard to be " Colonel ' of His Majesty's Royal Regiment of Artillery." I do not think that he was ever appointed " Colonel Commandant." No warrant of such appointment is known to exist. The rank of Colonel is quite distinct from that of Colonel Commandant.

J. H. LESLIE.

SOMERSET HOUSE : THE CHAPEL TAPES- TRIES, 1784. Joseph Moser provided in his ' Vestiges ' (European Magazine, August, 1802) a valuable description of the old palace immediately prior to its demolition. Among the tapestries he refers to _ some landscape pieces that adorned the library of the Royal Academy. Messrs. Needham and Webster in citing (' Somerset House Past and Present,' p. 187) this and other references add in a foot-note:

" When the Crown relinquished the palace* only the finest tapestries were preserved, the remainder being sold to private individuals and dealers. Many yeara after this snle strips of tapestry from Somerset House^were still pro- curable at a shop in Long Acre."

Item of 1578. This purports


 * Published in the Journal of the Royal

to be an extract from Grose's ' Military I Artillery, vol. xliii. p. 1 (April, 1916).