Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/177

 S. N 9., MAR. 1. '56.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

169

structing forts, &c., to control the disaffected Highlanders.

I will only give a few extracts from this corre- spondence. The following is a letter from the Duke of Newcastle to the Duke of Montague, Master- General of Ordnance. It is dated at Whitehall, May 6, 1746 :

My Lord,

" H. K. H. the Duke of Cumberland, having repre- sented to His Majesty that it is necessary that new forts should be erected at Inverness, and where Fort Augustus stood, I am commanded to signify to your Grace H. M. pleasure that you should immediately give directions for a proper person to repair to Scotland to receive H. {. H. directions for erecting such forts accordingly.

" I am, my Lord, your Grace's most obedient humble Servant,

" HOLLIS NEWCASTLE."

The next letter is from Charles Bush, Esq., Secretary to the Ordnance, addressed to William Skinner, Esq. :

" Office of Ordnance, Nov. 1, 1746. Sir,

" H. R. H. the Duke of Cumberland, intending to be at Woolwich on Tuesday next, to see the Saxon's new in- vented guns, his Grace, the Master-General, desires you will attend the Board there by 9 o'clock in the morning. " I am, Sir, yours, &c.,

" CHARLES BUSH."

In consequence of this interview William Skinner received, on 31st December following, his appointment to proceed to Scotland, to carry into effect the wishes of the Duke of Cumberland ; and having arrived at Edinburgh, he immediately writes to the Secretary, Mr. Bush. His letter is dated there Jan. 16, 1746-7, and gives an account of his journey ; and after describing the vile roads in Scotland, he adds :

" I find it ( Edinburgh) as dear as London, and if pos- sible, more disagreeable than Old Gibraltar, occasioned by the intolerable nastiness, our hogs there being kept more clean. I wish myself at my journey's end, where, when arrived, I shall acquaint the Board."

In another letter, addressed to the Board "of Ordnance, and dated at Inverness, February 7, 1746-7, he announces his arrival, and after giving an account of the state of the roads, and also of the bad weather he had experienced, he adds : " That it has tried the constitution of one who has been twenty years in the warm climate of Spain."

From some circumstances I presume the above Lt.-Gen. Skinner was descended from the ancient family of the Skinners of the co. Hereford. He had been in the service as an engineer for sixty- one years, of which period he had been chief en- gineer twenty-three years. He built Fort George and many other works. In the early part of his service he had been stationed for twenty years at Gibraltar. He was appointed "chief engineer " of Great Britain in 17o7. During the latter part of his life he resided at Grooms Hill in Greenwich, where he died on December 24, 1780, in the

eighty-first year of his age. He left no issue sur- viving him. CHAETHAM.

The Seven Prelates. Mr. Macaulay, in his History of England, speaking of the seven prelates committed to the Tower by James II., says :

" On the evening of Black Friday, as it was called on which they were committed, they reached their prison just at the hour of divine service. They instantly hast- ened to the chapel. It chanced that in the second lesson are these words : ' In all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments.' All zealous churchmen were delighted with this coincidence, and re- membered how much comfort a similar coincidence had given near forty years before to Charles I. at the time of his death." Vol". ii. p. 363.

What was the other " coincidence " here alluded to?*

This suggests what an interesting and valuable body of notes might be made on the Scriptures and Prayer-book to passages which have thus had a fortuitous historical influence, or which have had a critical influence on the minds of great men. If another class of literature our best books were to have similar references applied, a glorious book would be the result. I may append an in- stance of both : <f God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes" (Rev. vii. 17.), was Burns's fa- vourite text. Dr. Arnold could never read the blessing of Abdiel in Paradise Lost (book vi. lines 29. to 54.), without being deeply moved. Would not .contributions to these heads be suitable for " N. & Q." ? J. P.

THE GRAVE OF NELSON.

In Mr. Cunningham's introduction to the crypt of St. Paul's, appears this antiquarian notice of the grave of Nelson :

" The sarcophagus which contains Nelson's coffin, was made at the expense of Cardinal Wolsey, for the burial of Henry VIII. in the tomb -house at Windsor." Handbook of Modern London.

The coffin was constructed from the mainmast of the "Orient;" part of which was picked up after the battle of the Nile by the " Swiftsure," and expressly prepared by her captain (Hallowell)

[* The "coincidence" alluded to is that of the exe- cution of Charles I. " For by a signal providence," says Whcatly, " the bloody rebels chose that day for murder- ing their king, on which the history of Our Saviour's sufferings (Matt, xxvii.) was appointed to be read as a Lesson. The blessed martyr had forgot that it came in the ordinary course; and therefore when Bishop Juxon (who read the morning office immediately before his mar- tyrdom) named this chapter, the good Prince asked him if he had singled it out as fit for the occasion ; and when he was informed it was the Lesson for the day, could not without a sensible complacency and joy admire how suitably it concurred with his circumstances."]