Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/112

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NOTES AND QUERIES, us S.VL APRIL 3,192*

21. 2s. was sent to the firm, and some weeks later I received the account crediting me with 21. 2s. and debiting me with 21. Os. 5d. for carriage. This seemed to me to be possibly an error for 2s. 5d. ; but an inquiry from the firm brought the answer that there was no mistake, and that the charge was as entered ; they added that the carrier's bill seemed large, and they sent it for my information. Here it is :

BILL.

Freight

Transit

Postages

Warehousing rent, 4 weeks

Coll. & deb.

Customs

Insurance on 3 A.R. war stamps

. d. 1 3 6 046 026

030

2 11

205

N.B.- The book weighed about 10 Ibs. ; so the freight works out at about 264Z. per ton.

Warehousing for a long period seems comic, as I had no desire that the book should have such accommodation. The other charges are also noteworthy. The total charge of upwards of 21. for the carriage of a book, even of big dimensions from London to Switzerland is probably a " record." It was represented by me that my instructions were to halve the volume, and send it by book-post. The firm answered that their manager had left them, and they could not account for the mistake. They were a firm of eminence, with whom I had long dealt and the account was settled by our halving the freight-charge, it appear- ing to me that this record bill was well worth a guinea as a curiosity an example of the petty difficulties which existed during the war. J. H. RIVETT-CABNAC.

A MID -VICTORIAN MEMORY. The Evening Standard of Jan. 13, 1920, in a notice of the closing of Cannock Chase military training camps, had : " Many young soldiers walked the 3J miles to Rugeley to see the former house of Palmer the Poisoner."

Though over sixty years have passed since the famous trial which occupied twelve days at the Old Bailey, the above may be worth noting as an instance of how " the evil that men do lives after them."

W. B. H.

JOHN FELTON, ASSASSIN OF THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM, 1628. Nothing, to judge from the ' D.N.B.,' seems to be certainly known concerning Felton's father. It may therefore be worth while to point out that

Francis Osborne, in the second part of his '. Advice to a Son ' (F. O.'s ' Works,' 1673,,. p. 224), after speaking of the assassin, goes on to say : " His Father owed an imployment under mine in the Office of Remembrance for many years." Sir John Osborne, father of Francis, was Treasurer's Remembrancer r probably from 1592 to 1628.

G. C. MOORE SMITH. Sheffield.

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.

OLIVER CROMWELL AND BOGDAN CHMLEL- NITZKY. Bogdan Chmielnitzky was the Hetman of the Ukraine who fought against the Poles, 1648" -51, and enlisted the aid of Alexis Romanoff, the Tsar of Moscow, against Poland in 1652 at the price of admitting Russian overlordship in 1653. \

What is known of his correspondence with Oliver Cromwell ? I have seen it stated, in a book on the Ukraine, that Chmielnitzky consulted Cromwell as to the democratic constitution which should best secure civil liberty ; and I have also found a mention of Cromwell's having attempted to dissuade Chmielnitzky from entering into relations with the Muscovite Grand Duke or Tsar.

M. VISHNITZER.

THE " BIG FOUR " OF CHICAGO. In a footnote on p. 334 of his ' Fleet Street and Downing Street ' Mr. Kennedy Jones says :

" The ' Big Four ' was the term applied to the four great firms of Chicago meat packers who con- trolled the meat supply of the United States and formed themselves into a Meat Trust, now declared illegal."

Who are these " Big Four " ? And should not the term be " Big Five " ?

DE V. PAYEN-PAYNE.

' THE THREE WESTMINSTER BOYS.' In the life of the poet prefixed to George Gilfillan's edition of the ' Poetical Works ' of Cowper (1854), vol. i., p. ix, reference is made to Mrs. Johnstone's " exquisite story entitled ' The Three Westminster Boys.' " When was the story published and where can it be seen ? G. F. R. B.

PLACES IN ' SYBIL.' What are the towns described in detail by Lord Beaconsfield in ' Sybil,' under the names of Marney and Mowbray ? G.jjS. H.