Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/431

 2nd s. N 21., MAY 24. '56.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

423

presents the cords with which they bound up their forage ; and the red cord on the front of the cross-belt is the substitute of the string that held the powder-flask for priming. Some of your military readers could add some curious informa- tion with respect to the origin of regimental names, the " Half Hundred," the "Black Watch," the " Die Hards," the " Shoulders to Shoulder," and the "Pompadours" (from their purple facings), &c. What regiment, wears the plate be- fore and behind the cap ? Why did the Lancers adopt the death's head and cross bones ?

The sash worn by officers was intended to serve in carrying the wounded from the field of battle. MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A.

bibliographical Queries (2 niJ S. i. 289.)

5. " An Answer to a Book intituled ' The State of the Protestants in Ireland' " [by Charles Leslie].

7. " History of the Dependency of Ireland " [by Wil- liam AtwoodJ.

12. " A Letter to Deane Swift, Esq., on the Essay upon the Life, &c., of Dr. Jonathan Swift" [by Patrick De- lany, D.D.]

For authority see Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica.

'AAieuj. Dublin.

v Old Deeds (1 st S. xii. 408. ; 2 nd S. i. 116.) Will the following be of any service to KARL, who inquires as to the mode of cleaning and restoring old pamphlets used in the Public Record Offices, i take it from amongst some recipe?, dated 1749 :

" A liquor to wash old deeds, writings, &c., whereby they are rendered as legible as when first wrote; com- municated and used with success by the late Mr. Holmes, Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London :

" Take five or six galls; bruise them, and put them into almost a pint of the very best white wine. Let it stand in the sun two days. After this time of infusion, dip a brush into the liquor, and wash the part wanted to be cleared up ; and you will soon see upon trial whether the tincture be too strong or too small."

R. W. HACKWOOD.

Kentish Fire (2 nd S. i. 182.) The reply of Y. S. M., dating the invention of this term in 1834, and assigning Dublin as the place of its origin, is scarcely satisfactory. At least my im- pression is strong (though I made no note at the time) that it dates several years farther back, viz. at the time when the question of Roman Catholic Emancipation was still unsettled ; that question having been settled, if I remember right, in 1829. The locality of the invention seeirs also to savour of a bull, Kentish Fire having its origin in Ire- land! The fact is, the Protestant cause was very strong in the county of Kent, as proved by the well-known monster meeting on Penenden Heath, when the late Mr. Sheil, M.P. made his grand speech, so celebrated for having been reported verbatim in The Times, when not a word of it

could be heard by the reporters, owing to the in- tense row amongst the Protestant mob. Further information on this term is desirable. M. H. R.

Greek Fire (2 nd S. i. 316.) Consult on this subject Libri's Histoire des Sciences Mathema- tiques en Italic, 8vo., 1838, torn. ii. p. 128. p.

'I The Country Booh Club " (2 nd S. i. 353.) This poetical piece, with a caricature etching on the title, by Rowlandson, representing the club and its members, is by Charles Shillito. Sea Literary Memoirs of Living Authors, 1 798 ; copied into Biographia Dramatica, 1812. Mr. Shillito is connected with our Scottish poetry by virtue of A Sonnet supposed to have been ivritten by Mary Queen of Scots to the Earl of Bothwell, Sfc., pub- lished by him, anonymously, at London in 1790, and I should like to hear something about him. His Sea Fight, 1780, ivritten at sea, suggests his being a naval man ; while his farce of the Man of Enterprize, 1789, coming from the Colchester press, and the bulk of his subscribers to the Book Club from the same place, leads to the inference that our author belonged to that locality. J. O.

Registers of Births in Scotland (2 nd S. i. 335.) Your correspondent R. T. is recommended to pro- cure a copy of Turnbull's Memoranda of the State of the Parochial Registers of Scotland, published at Edinburgh in 1849, price 6s. 6d., 8vo., boards, where, upon examination, he will find full in- formation as to the " Registers," with their dates, of every parish and county throughout Scotland. The " sessions clerk " of each parish was, and in most cases still is, the proper party to apply to when extracts are wanted from their important records. T. G. S.

Edinburgh.

NOTKS ON BOOKS, ETC. *

It was the penalty paid by Sir Robert Peel for his im- mense political inflnefTce, that he was twice compelled to advocate and carry the very measures of which he had previously been looked upon as the great opponent. Hia own vindication of his conduct, so far as relates to Catholic Emancipation, is now before us. It is entitled Memoirs of the Right lion. Sir Robert Peel, Bart., M.P., published by the Trustees of his Papers, Lord Million (noio Karl Stanhope}, and the Riyht Hon. Edward Cardwell, M.P. Part I. The Roman Catholic Question, 1828-9. As a chapter of our political history, it will be read with the deepest interest. But with politics, we do not interfere. As the vindication of the character of a distinguished statesman, placed in a position of almost unparalleled difficulty, eventually compelled to sacrifice deep-rooted feelings, long-cherished opinions and private friendship, to a sense of public duty and stern necessity, it must be received with great satisfaction by all the personal and political friends of the writer; and we expect to liuu