Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/26

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

xn. jut* 4,

ROBERT SCOT (9 th S. xi. 268, 334, 452). The following notes may be of service to MR. SOUTHAM, though they do not answer his question.

Swedish leather cannon during the Thirty Years' War :-

"The cannon were, singularly enough, com- posed of cylinders of iron, cast thin for lightness, then wound round tightly with rope, from breech to muzzle, and covered at last with boiled leather.' J. K. Hosmer, * Short History of German Litera- ture,' 1879, p. 218.

who was taken in the Parliament service at Cropredy Bridge, * had a good sum of money given him for the invention of making those leathern cannon.' "- Sir Richard Bulstrode's 'Memoirs,' 100, as quoted in Southey's ' Commonplace Book,' iii. 57.
 * Weeme, a Scott, and master gunner of England,

" Gustavus Adolphus, who was always seeking to supplement his cavalry divisions by troops who, by their fire, could throw the enemy into confusion, and thus prepare the way for the charge of his own horse, hit upon the expedient of making guns of light metal tubes strengthened with leathern jackets. These were very mobile, could keep up with the cavalry divisions, and were, in fact, the origin of the modern horse artillery." Lieut. -Col. T. S. Baldock, 'Cromwell as a Soldier,' p. 30.

AsTARTE.

MRS. SAMUEL PEPYS (9 th S. xi. 486). The complaint of MR. PAGE as to the absence of any notice of Samuel Pepys, and only a slender one of his wife, in the account of St. Olave's Church, Hart Street, in Godwin and Britton's 'Churches of London,' simply reiterates one made by the Rev. W. J. Loftie in an article entitled * Pepys and St. Olave's ' that appeared in Long Ago, vol. ii. (1874) 42-3. In the 'Annals*' of that church, by the Rev. A. Povah, published in 1894, will be found an excellent illustration of a " monu- ment of white marble on a background of Kilkenny marble," containing "a bust of Elizabeth Pepys, looking in the direction of the Navy Commissioners' pew in the south aisle." It bears a Latin inscription, written by her husband, which "briefly records her history, and perpetuates the memory of her virtues and beauty." A copy of this is given in full, together with the following extract from the burial register :

"1669, Nov. 13. Elizabeth wife of Samuell Pepys Esq r one of his Ma tie " Comishon" of y e Navy obit novemb. & buryed in y e Chaunsell xiii Instant" (pp. 88-9).

Samuel Pepys died on 26 May, 1703, nearly thirty-five years later than his wife, and was interred in the same church by her side ('D.N.B.') on 4 June, thus recorded in the register: "1703, June 4. Samuel Peyps [sic] ksq. buried in a Vault by y e comunion table " (pp. 101, 193). In 1874 Mr. Loftie (in the article above

cited) called attention to the circumstance that this entry in the register was " all the memorial which a grateful country has raised " to perpetuate his memory ; " a handsome encaustic pavement" indicating the site of the grave, " but not so much as a ' piece of brass ' points the pilgrim to the spot " (p. 43). This was rectified in 1883 by a mural monu- ment of alabaster (designed by Sir A. Blom- field, and containing in its centre a bust of the great diarist) being " erected by public subscription." It " is placed at a most fitting spot, close to where the Navy pew door formerly was, by which, 200 years ago, Pepys used to enter the church from the Seething Lane side." A good illustration of this monument, with an accompanying descrip- tion, and an account of the ceremony when it was unveiled, are included in Mr. Povah's work (100-108). T. N. BRUSHFIELD, M.D.

BYRONIANA (9 th S. xi. 444, 492). There were no quotations to verify, only dates to check. This I have done, and I am absolutely certain that they are correct. Count Szechenyi states in his diary in the evening of 26 July, 1818 : *' I am going to see Tasso's prison and Ariostp's chains to-morrow " ; and on the following morning we find the entry: "I

have seen Tasso's prison But I must now

go to have my breakfast." The two sentences quoted here are separated by a long dis- quisition on the author of 'Gerusalemme Liberata,' the favourite poet of the count. We must not forget that we are dealing with a diary, and not random recollections written down many years after the visit. I must therefore respectfully suggest that it is now your correspondent's turn to prove to the hilt that Byron had not been in Ferrara before the beginning of June, 1819. L. L. K.

R, T. CLARIDGE, ESQ. (9 th S. xi. 30). Richard Tappin Claridge took out a patent for asphalte pavement on 25 November, 1837 (No. 7489), in which he is described as of "Salisbury Street, gentleman." This patent was of considerable importance, and an in- fluential company was formed for the purpose of bringing it into use. In 1839 the offices of the company were at Stangate, Westminster, as appears from an advertisement in the A thenceum of 4 May, 1839, p. 342. Trials were made of the pavement in 1838 on the foot- way in Whitehall, and subsequently on the space at the bottom of the steps leading from Waterloo Place to St. James's Park. There was some litigation in respect to this patent, for an account of which see the Meek. Mag., vol. xxxii. pp. 394 and 399. Claridge was also interested in another patent dated