Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/288

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vi. MAY 22, 19-20:

and they formed the outer sheet of a folded letter. The five Jesuits suffered June 20, 1679, and Richard Langhorn on the 14th of the following month, so that the letter, of which the above was the address, was written some time previous to the former date. ETHELBERT HOBNE.

Downside Abbey, Bath.

"THE DERBY BLUES": "THE OXFORD BLUES" (12 S. v. 97, 138; vi. 212). W. B. H. has been led astray by the name " Oxford " : the Oxford Blues are the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards, commonly known as "The Blues." Cannon in his ' Historical Record of the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards or Oxford Blues ' (Clowes, 1834) p. 54, n. (J) gives the origin of the title as follows :

"A regiment of Hor^e Guards under the com- mand of the Earl of Portlind had accompanied Kins? William from Holland, and embarking from Highlake for Ireland, at the same time with Lord Oxtord's regiment the two regiments arrived in the camp at Loughbrickland. within a few days of each other, when, by way of distinction from its Dutch rival, whose uniform was also blue, the name of ' Oxford Blues ' was given to the Royal Regi- ment of Horse Guards, and the regiment has as yet hardly lost the appellation thus given to it. The Earl of Portland's Horse Guards shortly after- wards returned to Holland."

Sir George Arthur in 'the Story of the Household Cavalry ' (Constable 1909) gives the same origin of the name as Cannon, and enables one to fix within a few days the date when the name originated. He gives the date of the embarcation of the Royal Horse Guards, also at Highlake, as the June 19 and 20, 1690 ; as the Battle of the Boyne was fought on July 11, the name must have originated in the last week of June, 1690. J. H. WHITMORE.

41 Thurlce Square, S. Kensington, iS.W.7.

This designation is very easily accounted for. It was a title once owned by the present Royal Horse Guards (Blues), and has no connection with the Infantry Regiment now known as the Oxfordshire and Buckingham- shire Light Infantry. In fact, a past historian of the R.H. Guards, a Captain Edmund Pack gave the title of his brief history, published by Authority in 1847, 'The Historical Record of the Royal Regi- ment of Horse Guards or Oxford Blues, 1661-1846.' Any further necessary infor- mation concerning this regiment will be found in a two volume work entitled ' The Story of the Household Cavalry,' by Sir George Arthur, Bart,, M.V.O. (late 2nd Life Guards), and published in 1909 by Messrs. A. Constable & Co., Ltd. * J. p.

BATTLE BRIDGE CINDERS AND Moscow (12 S. vi. 135, 192). In Pink's 'History of Clerkenwell,' 1881, it is stated at p. 501 :

" Early in the present century the spot of ground on which stand Argyle Street, Liverpool Street, Manchester Street, and the corner of Gray's Inn Road was covered with a mountain of filth and cinders. . . . The Russians bought the whole of the ash heap, and shipped it to- Moscow, for the purpose of rebuilding that city after it had been burned by the French.

At. p. 504 it continues :

" The hill was the largest heap of cinder dust' in the neighbourhood of London. It was formed. 1 by the annual accumulations of some thousands- of cart-loads, since exported to Russia for making- bricks to rebuild Moscow, after the conflagration* of that capital on the entrance of Napoleon."

Finally, at. p. 710; Pink quotes a com- munication made to him by a Mr. T. C- ISToble who wrote :

" The estate of Battle- Bridge comprised from. 17 to 20 acres. Of this my grandfather took 16 small dilapidated houses,- and the dust and cinder heap, which it was said had been existing on the- spot since the grea* fire of London. He gave about 500 for the lot. although the parties wanted 800. Bricks were then very scarce, so he very soon realised a good sum for the old buildings, while Russia, hearing' in some way of this enormous dhist heap, purchased it for purposes in rebuilding- Moscow."

I feel the force of MR. WATKIN'S criticism, and it may be (unless the whole be a myth) that the cinders travelled to the Russian sea-board onh T, where their pent-up energy^ was dissipated in firing brick-kflns (for~ which purpose they would be suitable),, and that it was the resulting bricks that travelled the additional 400 miles.

J. PAUL DE CASOCRO.-

The allusion to Battle Bridge covers a much larger site than that of the present King's Cross station. I offer the following excerpts as preferable to the usual familiar works in which the Moscow tradition is put forward as a matter of fact :

" With the capital he had left, he actually turned his attention to building. The scene of" operation was in a district noted for it despera- does Battle Bridge, King's Cross. Purchasing ] 6 small dilapidated houses and the u-orld-renoirned dust heap on the west side of Gray's Inn Lane, for- 500 (although 800 had been demanded at first) which Dust Heap stood where the present Derby Street King's Cross now stands," kc.

From 'A Brief Memorial of the Life and Labours of William Forester Bray, 1785- 1872,' contributed to The Brighton Herald, Oct. 30 and Dec. 4, 1880, by his grandson* T. C. Noble.

The whole district extending from this, neighbourhood (Derby Street) to far up*