Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/436

 472 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. iv. DEC. 9, 99. the sufferers unfit for further military service than because of any humane feelings. But Grose was premature in stating that the picket had been discontinued some years before 1788. Dr. Hamilton, in his 'Duties of a Regimental Surgeon,' vol. ii. p. 73, second edition, 1794, writes of "piqueting" as being then in use. He himself had "few oppor- tunities" of seeing it during his military service some ten or twelve years before that date. Major James, in his ' Military Diction- ary,' third edition, 1810, gives the same de- finition as in Smith's ' Dictionary' of 1779, already quoted ; and the following testimony is given by Dr. Marshall:— " Punishment by the picket, or peg, was used for, perhaps, twenty years of the present century. In 1816 1 know it was much employed in a regiment of cavalry on the Bombay establishment. The instrument here employed consisted of a board and a peg; the board, or block of wood, was about twelve inches long, eight broad, and four thick. The peg, which tapered to a point about the size of a sixpence, was twelve inches in length, and inserted ! in the middle of the board the delinquent's right arm being fixed to a hook, and his left foot resting on the peg, while his left arm and right foot were tied together behind his back. Delinquents were ] sometimes kept on the peg for a period varying from ten to thirty minutes This punishment was ! inflicted by order of the commanding officer for what are called minor offences, such as being absent from parade, or from stables Sometimes as many > as six or eight men were placed on the pegs at one time."—' Military Miscellany,' p. 153. The picket may be said to have been in use in our army for a period of a hundred and ' thirty years, but a court-martial not having been necessary, and the punishment having been almost exclusively a cavalry one, there are few records of its infliction. One interest- ing instance, however, should be mentioned. It occurred in 1739, and the circumstances are narrated in paragraph 91 of Doddridge's ' Life of Gardiner' (p. 123 in the 1785 edition). Gardiner was then lieutenant - colonel in " Cadogan's Regiment" — 6th Inniskilling Dragoons—and was in command of a part of it which was encamped just outside Leicester. On visiting his sentries one night he dis- covered that a sentinel had left his post. The man, on being arrested, broke out into oaths and execrations. Gardiner awarded the picket, and had it prepared at his own quarters—"a private sort of penance"—and during the punishment he addressed words of religious ad monition to the culprit, remark- ing on the profane oaths as "aggravations of his fault. Now, this private picket was an unusually lenient administration of the punishment, for in those days it was almost invariable that an offender when suffering military punishment should be exposed to the ridicule, gibes, and offensive gestures of spectators. Moreover, it might justly be remarked that in those days the picket must have been considered a light punishment for so grave an offence as " quitting post on sentry." Yet in a work published at the beginning of this year, ' Sir John Cope and the Rebellion of 1745,' this case is adduced (p. 101) as a proof that Gardiner was a cruel fanatic unfit for a cavalry colonel's command. W. S. SOME RECORD BOOK-PRICES. IN setting myself the dutiful task on the jubilee day of 'N. & Q.' (3 November) of reverently fingering the first volume, my eye caught two notes which merit reproduction in that which will form the first link in the second jubilee chain. The first, at p. 13, runs thus : — "Aubrey Junior. The coincidence is certainly curious. When the 3rd of November was fixed for the first appearance of ' Notes and Queries," it was little thought that it was the anniversary of the birth of John Aubrey, the most noted Querist, if not the queerest Noter, of all English antiquaries." The second occurs at p. 62 :— " Bernard Quarritch's [sic] Catalogue of Foreign Books and Classics, Belling at 16, Castle Street, Leicester Square, well deserves the attention of philologists. It is with this latter excerpt that I am chiefly concerned here, for curiously enough the arrival of Mr. Quaritch's latest English Catalogue (No. 193, Oct., 1899) synchronized with my coquetting with the precious first volume of ' N. <fe Q.,' and led me to place on more durable record than even the prince of booksellers' elaborate catalogue some of the prices therein sought for books. The samples are given in their original order. The notes are Mr. Quaritch's :— 1. "34. John Belet (about 1160-70). Collectanea, sm. folio MS. on vellum, with coloured decorative initials; bound in old calf, about 1180-90. 120A This very valuable and important volume was formerly in the Abliey of Tongerloo, but probably drifted into the library of that house long after its compilation. It may have been transcribed and compiled for John Belet (an Englishman) at Amiem and retained by him so long as he lived." 2. "54. William of Langland (flour. 1360-1380). The Vision of Piers Plowman. Small folio (or 4to.), fine MS. on vellum, in a sixteenth-century stamped calf binding with clasps, in a case, from Lord Ashburnham's collections. About 1440-50. IftV. On the leaf pasted down inside the cover there are two MS. notes : ' Robert or Willm' Langland made Pers Ploughma,' and under it' Robertus Langlande natua in comitatu Salopiie de Villa Mortymers Clybery in the Clayland, within viii myles of Malvnrne Hylles. Scripsit Piers Ploughman ' This is said to bo in the handwriting of John Bale, about I'ttO, and to contain the earliest suggestion of the authorship."