Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/231

 9* S. I. MAR. 19, '98.]

NOTES AND QUEEIES.

223

] }13, when it was strongest. Grand total,

ficers 249, N.C.O. and men 7,267, horses and

1 mles 5,750.

I find the programme of a race meeting ( 10 date, but after Waterloo) held by per- mission of M. le Baron de St. Mart, Com- mandant of St. Omer, &c. All the riders' and horses' names are English. Among the names occur Mr. Fergusson's Maid of Waterloo and Lord Frederick Somerset's Prince Bladud, and Thomas Hunter was clerk of the course.

There is a curious paper, dated Sandy Hook, Devonshire (perhaps the ship's name), 17 Nov., 1761, giving a list of articles to be placed on board a transport vessel by the master, for which %d. a day is allowed for each soldier on board. The list includes scales and weights to weigh 14 oz. to the ft> in the case of bread and flour. The scale of food per week for each officer and soldier was : 28 ft> bread or flour, 14ft beef, 8 ft) pork, l|ft> butter, 12 pints pease, 2ft> rice, 28 gallons water, 42 jills rum or cyder.

There is some mystery about the weights I cannot fathom, certain measures to be re- duced to one-eighth part less than the proper wine measure. There were various fittings to be supplied. The water was to be used with the greatest economy, and no fresh water allowed for washing linen, &c.

The following is a copy of a form of oath, printed on the back of the parchment grant of the freedom of Great Yarmouth, about 1800 or 1801, date not clear. It is a printed form :

"Thus hear, ye Mayor and all good men, that I,, shall bear faith and truth to the King's Majesty, his heirs and successors, with my body and goods. The counterfeiting his Majesty's seal I shall not see nor know, his coin I shall not counterfeit or impair. The franchises of Great Yarmouth, the good and laudable customs, usages and ordinances of the same borough, I shall to my power maintain, obey and keep. I shall be at the command of the Mayor of the said borough for the time being, when I shall be summoned to enquire upon any inquests, either for the king, or being parties or otherwise. I shall not conceal, colour or cloak any stranger's goods in prejudice of this franchise. If I know any traitor, spy, thief, or other notable malefactor, I shall give notice or warning thereof to the Mayor of this burgh for the time being or to his ministers. All which I shall truly hold and do for my part. So help me God."

The following are out of eight verses from an old election squib, purporting to be written by Mr. Herrick, of West Cotes. There is no date to it :

True Blue.

(To the tune 'Hearts of Oak.') Ye gentlemen voters of Leicester's fair town, Whose breasts are all firm to King George and his crown,

In hopes of support we address you like men. And we swear to stand by you again and again. Chorus. Stanch and true, we 're for Blue. So are you, and so are you. We 're all of a party, Hearty friends, hearty, Our colour shall ever be Only true blue.

I conclude these extracts with an official document which is noticeable for the endorse- ment ; apparently in those days such a small matter as a subaltern's leave of absence passed in review by the sovereign, though it seems to me incredible.

A stamped leave of a year to go to Great Britain, granted by Lieut. - General G. A. Eliott, Governor of Gibraltar, to Lieut. Charles Abbott, Royal Artillery, dated at Gibraltar, 30 Jan., 1778. The endorsement on the back is : " Lieut. Abbott's leave of absence from Gibraltar laid before his Majesty, and it is his pleasure he should return as soon as possible." Signed "P." (at least, I think this is the initial).

R. B. B.

Southampton.

MES. BRACEGIRDLE. I have not seen it suggested anywhere that Mrs. Bracegirdle and the most distinguished of her many admirers, William Congreye, might have been cousins. In the will of Richard Bracegirdle, of Wolverhampton, in the county of Stafford, Gent., dated 28 March, and proved 26 May, 1677, the testator desires that his wife Jane should have during her life the use of his household goods, among them being " the two Bedds with the appurtenances that were left my said wife after my mother Congreaves decease" (P.C.C. 45 Hale). His son and executor, Henry, was an Oxford graduate. As Mrs. Bracegirdle is said to have been the daughter of Justinian Bracegirdle, of co. Northampton, Esq., one of her ancestors may have been Justinian Bracegirdle (or Bras- girdle, as the name is indifferently spelled), fifty-four years rector of Great Billing in that county, who died extremely well-to-do 25 October, 1625. The curious rhymed in- scription upon his brass in Great Billing Church is printed in Bridges's 'Northamp- tonshire,' i. 407. As he never married he was enabled to leave liberal legacies to his kith and kin in the county, besides a large sum to the University of Oxford (will in P.C.C. 136 Clarke). GORDON GOODWIN.

LANT STREET IN THE BOROUGH. The sale and ultimate destruction of a large block of old buildings in Lant Street, Borough, warn us that one more of the streets immortalized in