Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/181

 12 S. VI. APRIL 24, 1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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INSCRIPTIONS AT ST. OMER.

THE following inscriptions on buildings in St. Omer were copied by me during oc- casional visits to that town in the years 1918-19 :

1. Military Hospital. Over the entrance to the Military Hospital (formerly the College of the English Jesuits) in the Rue St. Bertin is this inscription :

Fonde par les Jesuites Anglais en 1592

College Royal en 1760

Hdpital Militaire apres la bataille d'Hondscoote en 1793

Brute en 1684 Reconstruit en 1685 Brute en

1726

Reconstruit immediatement) Brute partiellemenfc en 1826 Restaure en 1845

2. General Hospital. Over the entrance to the Hopital General, 16 rue du St. Sepulchre, is the inscription :

MM. de Valbelle, Fondateurs

Primus fundat opus, bene ditat prodigus alter

Tertius sedificat tres habet una domus

1702

This building was begun in 1702, but the part facing the street on which the inscription occurs was not finished till 1767. The founders were three Bishops of St. Omer, Louis Alphonse de Valbelle (1684-1708), Francois de Valbelle (1708-27), and Joseph Alphonse de Valbelle (1727-54). Francois was cousin to Louis Alphonse, and Joseph Alphonse was nephew of Francois.

3. Simon Ogier's Birthplace. This house, now 99 rue de Dunkerque, was known as the Blanc Ram. It preserves its early sixteenth- century faade, only slightly altered. A tablet was placed between the middle windows of the first floor on the tercentenary of the poet's birth. It reads :

SIMON OGIER POETE LATIN

naquit dans cette Maison du Blanc Ram

le 3 mai 1549

3 mai 1849

4. Communal Library. At the top of the staircase of the Bibliotheque Communale is a tablet with this inscription :

Bibliotheque Communale

Instaltee dans les batiments des classes

du coltege des Jesuites Wallons Decrets des 8 Pluvi6se et 14 fructidor an II. Rendue Publique Janvier 1805

Reconstruite 1893-1894 MM. Francois Ringot, Senateur, Maire. Louis Vasseur ).-. Charles Hermant /Adjomts. e.., Ernest Decroix, Architecte.

5. Obelisk. On the Plateau d'Helfaut, about 5 kilometres to the south of St. Omer, is an obelisk erected in 1842 to the memory of the Duke of Orleans, eldest son of Louis Philippe. It was restored in 1907 by the " Souvenir Frangais," as recorded by a white- marble tablet. During the war, however, the monument, which is constructed in a soft,, white stone, has been sadly defaced with th* names of innumerable soldiers (chiefly British) carved or scratched all over its surface. It is now almost impossible to- decipher the original inscriptions. On the- front of the pedestal I could read :

A la m^moire de son General en chef

S.A.R. Monseigneur

LE DUG D'ORL^ANS

la Deuxieme Division

d'Infanterie du Corps d' Operations

.... sur la Marne

There are inscriptions on the other three sides of the pedestal, but I was unable to make them out owing to the recent deface- ments. F. H. CHEETHAM.

PAMELA (LADY EDWARD FITZGERALD). Since the publication (1904) of Mr. Gerald' Campbell's volume on Lord Edward Fitz- gerald, the mystery of his wife's identity has attracted little notice. Mr. Campbell seems to admit, though with much reservation, the story that Pamela was the child of the Due d'Orleans (Egalite) and Mme. de Genlis.

In ' Le Journal d'une Femme de Cinquante Ans,' published in 1906, the writer, who was on intimate terms with Mme. de Genlis, puts a very different version of the mystery. Mme. de Genlis maintained that Pamela had' been brought to France from England. This is borne out by a statement made by the- writer's aunt, Lady Jerningham. According to this lady on one occasion she was talking to the clergyman of a parish in Shropshire on the Jerningham estate, who told her that he had received a letter from Mme. de Genlis, with whom he was acquainted, saying :

"Que pour des raisons particulieres et extreme- ment importantes, elle desirait se charger de 1'educa- tion d'une enfant de cinq ou six ans, dout elle lui faisait le signalement le plus detaille. Une grosse sommeetait destinee aux parents de 1'enfant, condition du secret le plus absolu." &c.

The clergyman succeeded in finding a child, who satisfied the conditions, and she was sent to an address in London. The writer saw her first when she was about 1& at the convent Belle Chasse, where Mme.-