Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/525

 9*s.x.DEc.27,i902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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as wigwom. I am much obliged to MR. PLATT for his reference. WALTER W. SKEAT.

THE IRON DUKE AND THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON (9 th S. ix. 466; x. 11, 73, 156, 172, 295). As personal recollections con- nected with the great Duke may be of in- creasing interest to your readers, may I record a few ? Passing Apsley House with my father about the year 1850 (when a school- boy), I asked him why the shutters on one of the faades were closed. He explained to me the well-known circumstances connected with the windows being broken by a mob, and that the Duke would never have them mended. The shutters were not of iron, but, so far as I remember, were ordinary outside folding Venetian shutters, such as were often used in London at that time.

In the summer of 1851 (the "Great Ex- hibition" year), when walking along the Strand with my aunt, I suddenly noticed every man near mejwith his hat in his hand. In reply to my inquiry my aunt said, " Why, don't you see, there 's the Duke ! " And to this day I have a most vivid recollection of him on his white charger, with stooping shoulders, his silvery white hair displayed as he returned our salute. At that time (not so very remote from the battle of Waterloo) there was only one duke in England.

May I mention another incident connected with the Great Exhibition ? When the Queen was in difficulty, her usual request was said to be, " Send for the Duke."

Towards the end of April several sparrows had settled on the trees which had been enclosed within the great glass building in Hyde Park, and it was found impossible to catch them. It would not do to shoot them, The Duke's response to the Queen's message was, "Turn in a sparrow-hawk." Needless to say the sparrows speedily disappeared. He was at that time often called " The Iron Duke " from the austerity of his habits, from his strength of character, and force of will. Stories illustrating these traits in his cha- racter were then often told at many English firesides. HENRY TAYLOR.

Braeside, Tunbridge Wells.

ST. SWITHIN'S remark anent his having read that the great Duke's sobriquet came of guarding his windows with iron shutters, in consequence of the outrage on Apsley House by a yelling mob during the time of the Reform Bill riots in 1831, is, I*beg permission to say, my inducement to direct attention to the following quotation in that admirable work 'Life of Field-Marshal his Grace the Duke of Wellington, K.G.,' &c., by W. H.

Maxwell (London, A. H. Baily & Co., 1841). It may, I venture to think, indicate the source of the appellation in question : " The lower portion of the [Duke's] face contradicting, in a singular manner, the stern and almost iron expression of all above the mouth." (Vide vol. iii. p. 523.)

The name of the person who entertained this opinion is omitted by Maxwell ; but may it be surmised that it was published by that brilliant soldier and historian Sir William Francis Patrick Napier, K.C.B., in his 'History of the War in the Peninsula, 1807 to 1814' (1828-1840)? The italics are mine. HENRY GERALD HOPE.

119, Elms Road, Clapham, S.W.

"COMPASS WINDOW": "COMPASS CEIL- ING" (9 th S. x. 329). The first-named is defined in Gwilt's 'Encyclopaedia of Archi- tecture,' new ed., 1891, as "an old English term for a projecting window of a circular plan." The 'Encyclopaedic Dictionary' describes it as "a circular, bay, or oriel window."

If I mistake not, there is a beautiful ex- ample of this kind of window in Henry VIII. 's Great Watching Chamber, Hampton Court. CUTHBERT E. A. CLAYTON.

Richmond, Surrey.

Compass, round, arched in a circular manner. Shakespear, in ' Troilus and Cres- sida' (1609), makes Pandarus say to Cressida : " Nay, I am sure she does ; she came to him the other day into a compass'd window" (I. ii.).

Sandys, in his 'Travels' (1519-83), refers to the " compast roofe." Again, " The other

part doth containe, within a concaue

about three yards square, the roofe hewne compasse." EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

A SEXTON'S TOMBSTONE (9 th S. x. 306, 373, 434). In the version of the ringer's epitaph given at the last reference the whole point of the last two lines is missed. I have seen it something like this, but cannot find or recall the exact words :

Through with ease he could range,

Till Death called his bob, and brought round the

last change.

Change-ringers will understand. Perhaps some one can fill up the blank. J. T. F.

Durham.

SHAKESPEARE'S SEVENTY - SIXTH SONNET (9 th S. x. 125, 274, 412, 495). A contributor to 'N. & Q.' should be scrupulously careful in citation of authorities. MR. STRONACH (ante, p. 274) goes a little too far when he refers