Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/371

 12 s. ix. OCT. is, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 301 LONDON, OCTOBER 15. 1921. CONTENTS. No. 183. NOTES : Nelson's Signal and the Man who hoisted it at Trafalgar, 301 Passing Stress. 303 Abraham Cowley and Lord Falkland, 305 Principal London Coffee-houses of the Eighteenth Century, 306 George Daniel's First Folio Shakespeare Mulberries Performance of ' King Lear,' 1772 Predecessors of ' N. & Q.,' 308 ' The Beggar's Opera ' in Dickens, 309. QUERIES : ' Album Amicorum ' of Wandering Scholars- Russian Backgammon " Habakkukest capable de tout" Sir John Tobin of Liverpool : Dalzel Bad Season : Tragic Occurrence, 309 Hatchments Baths or Salting Tanks John Crawford Sundial : Chronogram Motto Wilson : Pratt : Symes : Le Hunte Sir Richard Brown. Bart. Cows : A Hertfordshire Belief A Hertfordshire Town : Name wanted Oliver Cromwell on Hungary " Artemus Ward " (Charles F. Brown), 310 Hicks Family at Kilmacanogue, Co. Wexford Early History of Cricket Rudge Family Anne Boleyn's Execution Author wanted ' Mimnermos in Church,' 311. REPLIES : Heraldry. 311 Brothers of the same Chris- tian Name" Lay " and " Lie," 312 R. Henry Newell " Shall " and " Will " in A.V. " Floreat Etona ! " Countess Hanska's Letters to Balzac Petty France Mustard Family Skelder and Skeldergate, 313 Three- coin Trick Church of St. Mary, Little Oakley. Essex- Bernard Capes : Inscription at Winchester Gentlemen- Pensioners The Land of Gore, 314 De Concourt on Collecting Dante's Beard Burial-places of Eminent Scientists, 315 Trial for Heresy : A Barrister's " Bon Mot," 316 Walter Blandford, "postea Oxoniensis," Army Lists : ' A Succession of Colonels 'George Wate- son. Rector of Millbrook Philobiblon Society Omar Khayyam, 317 ' If I should die to-night "Naming cf Public Rooms in Inns The Sea-serpent, 318 NOTES ON BOOKS : ' A History of the Cambridge Uni- versity Press 'Journal of the Folk-Song Society Notices to Correspondents. JJote*. NELSON'S SIGNAL AND THE MAN WHO HOISTED IT AT TRAFALGAR. (See Colonial Office Papers 183/2, Dec. 20, 1850.) As the following anecdote, relative to Nelson and Hardy, appears not to be generally known, it will be read with interest :- Before the fleet went into action off Trafalgar, Nelson wrote the following words on a slip of paper, " Nelson expects every man to do his duty," and handed it to Captain Hardy, who, pn reading it, said, " Will your Lordship permit me to suggest a slight alteration ? " " Do, Hardy do," said Nelson. Captain Hardy drew his pencil through the name of the Admiral uvl substituted "England." Nelson on 1"( .king lit it said, " You are right, Hardy you are always right." And thus amended, the never-to-be-forgotten signal went up. In O'Byme's ' Naval Biographical Dic- tionary ' this alteration in the signal is claimed to have been made at the suggestion of the Flag-Lieutenant of the Victory John Pascoe. That officer having remarked to Lord Nelson that, as it would take some time to spell the word " Nelson," it might be better to say " England," which was in the vocabulary, his Lordship replied, " Right, right ; make it England ! " THE MAN WHO HOISTED IT. John Roome entered the Victory on May 7, 1803, as a landsman, aged 21, by the name of John Rome. He was born at Battersea, Surrey, and was discharged on Jan. 14, 1806, at Chatham, that ship having been paid off there on the 6th of the afore- said month and year. Subjoined is an extract from ' Chambers' s Journal,' May 20, 1850 (see C.O. 284/43, Dec. 20, 1850), which begins by saying that " for the following little historical fact, which will be admitted to possess some interest, we are indebted to a medical officer of respectability now in India." But before proceeding to give the narra- tive it would be as well to state first, that it has been ascertained that the aforesaid " medical officer," was the son of Forbes Macbean Chevers, Esq., a retired surgeon in the Royal Navy, who died in Upper Stam- ford Street in April, 1847, aged 73. He was assistant surgeon of the Phaeton in the battle of June 1, 1794, surgeon of the Tonnant at Trafalgar, and of the Le Catere hospital ship at Plymouth 1811-1814. (See Gentleman's Magazine.) While residing in Upper Stampford-street Blackfriars, London, in 1846-7, the attention of my father, who had served as surgeon of the Tonnant at Trafalgar was directed to an old and broken- down man who made a scanty livelihood by crying water-cresses and red herrings through the street. It was this man's practice to resort .to Covent Garden Market every morning in the season at or before sun-rise, to purchase his stock of cresses, and then for four weary hours his cracked voice never ceased to sound through the foggy air, except when a suffocating fit of coughing obliged him to pause and cling to the area railings for support. He appeared to be a quick, sharp-witted old man, and had a great reputation for sagacity among the lower class of neighbours. In the winter of 1846 his cough was so severe that we feared his occupation was gone. I en- deavoured to persuade him to take refuge at