Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/23

 9ts.x.ju L Y5,i902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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wives seem to be the illegitimate persons, and their arms, not the coat of the husbands, would bear the mark, not of cadency, but of illegitimacy, whether borne impaled with, or in pretence upon, the husband's shield, and, if in pretence, would be quartered by their descendants. GEORGE ANGUS.

St. Andrews, N.B.

OLD SCHOOL RULES (9 th S. ix. 226). The endowed schools in this village were founded and bequeathed by John Heygate, Esq., in the year 1825. I have in my possession an old card of rules which was issued to the parents of the children soon after the schools were established. Although not so old as those which have already appeared, these rules are interesting as displaying an example of the methods adopted in the early days of the nineteenth century by those who studied the art of elementary education :

Rules and Regulations to be observed in the Charity School, West Haddon.

1. That no Child be admitted having any in" fectious Disorder, nor under the Age of Five Years-

2. That all Children are expected to attend punctually, washed, combed, and cleaned.

3. That every Child bring one Penny to the Master every fourth Monday, to provide, in Part, for themselves reading Books, Slates, &c.; and that no occasional Absence exempt them from this rule.

4. That no child be detained at home, or taken occasionally from the School, without a sufficient reason being assigned by their Parents or Friends to the Master.

5. That the Hours of Attendance in School are from Nine to Twelve in the Morning, and from Two to Five in the Afternoon in the Summer, and from One to Four in the Winter.

6. That all Complaints from the Parents or Friends of the Children be made to the Trustees of the School, and to them only, on the first Sunday in every Month, at the School, by Ten o'Clock in the Morning.

7. That any Child breaking a Window or Slate, destroying any Book, or wilfully damaging anything belonging to the School, shall pay the Master for the same.

8. That such as do not strictly observe the above Rules be expelled.

9. That Application for Tickets of Admission be made to the Trustees of the School.

N.B. It is desired that every Person holding this Card will take proper Care of it, both for their Guidance with Respect to the Children attending the School, and that they may be able to produce it when required.

JOHN T. PAGE. West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

Allow me to refer your correspondents who are interested in this subject to 'Endowed Grammar Schools,' 2 vols. pp. 858-953, large 8vo, by Nicholas Carlisle, published in 1818, where much curious information may be found, and numerous engravings of the seals

of arms of schools. The amount of trouble taken by the compiler must have been immense, and in the preface is a copy of the series of questions sent to the masters of the different schools in England, to which it is added, "N.B. Upwards of One Thousand Four Hundred Letters have been sent and received." In the brief notice of the author given in Allibone's (edition 1872) 'Dictionary' this work is not even mentioned.

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

NAPOLEON'S LAST YEARS (9 th S. viii. 422, 509; ix. 274, 373). Mr. J. H. Rose, in his recently published life of Napoleon, examines very carefully the statement that the em- peror's movements at Waterloo were seriously hampered by his ill health, and the upshot, he says, is that "whatever was Napoleon's condition before the campaign, he was in his usual health amidst the stern joys of war." This, Mr. Rose continues, was

" consonant with his previous experience : he throve on events which wore ordinary beings to the bone : the one thing that he could not endure was the worry of parliamentary opposition, which aroused a nervous irritation not to be controlled and con- cealed without infinite effort. During the campaign we find very few trustworthy proofs of his decline, and much that points to energy of resolve and great rallying power after eiwrtion. If he was suffering from three illnesses, they were assuredly of a highly intermittent nature.*'

As to the comparative merits, as generals, of Napoleon and Wellington, Napoleon's own words, quoted by Mr. Rose, are worth repeat- ing : " The Duke of Wellington is fully equal to myself in the management of an army, with the advantage of possessing more pru- dence." The italics are Mr. Rose's.

C. C. B.

With reference to the repeated assertions about Napoleon's ability to have swept Wellington and his men from the field of Waterloo, I beg to quote what the lamented Mr. George Hooper has written on the sub- ject in his 'Wellington' (Macmillan & Co., 1889) :

" Lord Wolseley also asserts that if Napoleon had been the man he was at Austerlitz he would have won the battle of Waterloo. It is pure hypothesis, and about as reasonable as one which might be framed thus If Soult or Clausel, instead of Arabi, had commanded the Egyptian army in 1882, Sir Garnet Wolseley would not have won the battle of Tel-el-Kebir. What is the value of criticism which alters all the conditions on one side and does not venture to alter them on the other ? Napoleon and Wellington and Blucher fought out their fight in the circumstances existing between the 14th and 19th of June. We can only judge them by the light of these circumstances. All else is pure phantasy ;