Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/277

 2*S. N 14., APRILS. '56.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

269

Fire, speaks of " the immortal Higginbottom," as the predecessor of Mr. Braidwood, the Superin- tendant of the Fire Brigade. Who was he ? *

ROBT. EvAMS.

Ashton-under-Lyne.

BLUE AND BUFF,

Lord Stanhope, in the last chapter of his His- tory of England from 1713 to 1783 (vol. vii. p. 486.), cites from Wraxall's Memoirs of his Own Time, the following passage relative to Mr. Fox, about the year 1781 :

" He constantly, or at least usually, wore in the House of Commons a blue frock coat and a buff waistcoat, neither of which seemed, in general, new, and both some- times appeared to be threadbare. Nor ought it to be forgotten that these colours then constituted the distin- guishing badge or uniform of Washington and the Ame- rican insurgents."

Lord Stanhope subjoins this remark:

"I cannot but suspect," he says, "some misrepresent- ation of the motive. It is hard to believe, even of the most vehement days of party-spirit, that any Englishman could avowedly assume, in the House of Commons, the colours of those who, even though on the most righteous grounds, bore arms against England ; and I should be willing to take in preference any other explanation that can be plausibly alleged."

It seems very improbable that the English Whigs should have adopted the colours of the American patriots. It is more likely that the American patriots should have adopted the co- lours of the English Whigs. Is there any evi- dence that blue and buff colours were used as a badge by the first promoters of independence in America ? Perhaps some of your American cor- respondents may be able to throw light on this subject ?

In the satirical verses upon Bishop Burnet, printed in "N. & Q." (2 nd S. vol. i. p. 146.), the following couplet occurs. These verses must have been written soon after Burnet's death, which took place in 1715 ; they are in the form of a dialogue between the devil and the bishop.

" Devil But how does Dr. Hoadley ? Burnet. Oh, per- fectly well : A truer blue Whig you have not in hell."

[* The reference is to Higginbottom, one of the prin- cipal firemen, who perished at the burning of Drury Lane Theatre on Feb. 24, 1809, and who is thus commemorated in The Rejected Addresses :

" Still o'er his head, while Fate he brav'd, His whizzing water-pipe he waved ; ' Whitford and Mitford, ply your pumps ! ' You, Clutterbuck, come, stir your stumps, ' Why are you in such doleful dumps? ' A fireman, and afraid of bumps ! ' What are they fear'd on, fools ? 'od rot 'cm ! ' Were the last words of Higginbottom."]

The expression, a true blue Whig, was therefore in common use in the early part of the reign of George I.

The colours of the Orange lodges in Ireland have always been orange or blue (or purple). This is a fact about which no doubt can exist, as they must have been worn by hundreds of persons now living. The base of the statue of King William in College Green, Dublin, used, no long time ago, to be annually picked out in paint with these two colours. It is true that the Orange lodges, as organised bodies, only ascend to the end of the last century, 1795. (See Plowden's Historical Review of the Slate of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 536.). But the colours which were their dis- tinctive badge had doubtless been previously used by Irish Protestants.

If we suppose that orange and blue (which would easily pass into blue and buff) were King William's colours, this would explain their be- coming the badge both of the English Whigs and of the Irish Protestants. Orange would naturally be the colour of the House of Orange ; whether orange and blue were the colours of that House I know not : they are, however, at present the colours of the Duchy of Nassau, as any traveller on the Rhine may observe them painted in that state.

It is possible that some of your correspondents may have information as to the use of the colours orange and blue at elections in the last century, before the American war. Coloured ribbons were commonly used as party badges on such occasions.

Blue and buff were the recognised colours of the Whig party at the beginning of this century, and were for this reason assumed by the Edin- burgh Review. This distinctive mark is alluded to by Lord Byron :

" Ere the next review Soars on its wings of saffron and of blue."

English Sards and Scotch Reviewers.

L.

Minor

Military Poems, 1716. I have a volume in my library, the author of which I should be glad to know. It is entitled :

" Military and other Poems upon 'several Occasions, and to several Persons. By an Officer of the Army. London : Printed for the Author, and Sold by J. Browne at the Black Swan without Temple-bar. 171G. 8vo., pp. 271."

The volume contains many spirited poems, and some of historical interest. It concludes with a dramatic production, entitled " Socrates Tri- umphant ; or the Danger of being Wise in a Common- wealth of Fools."

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.