Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/346

 284 NOTES AND QUERIES. &» B. vi. OCT. is, 1900. it in good houre, for feare least going with us hee serve rather to make uppe the number then to give us ayde or succour, let him retire hence to his owne home presentlie." Scanderbeg's forces were not so numerous as the Turkish soldiers ; King Henry's army was less than the French army ; and Scan- derbeg and King Henry were both willing to grant free departure to those who were afraid to fight against superior numbers, or, as Scanderbeg puts it, " who think that those who surmount in number will surmount also in virtue "; and King Henry and Scanderbeg, in signifying their willingness to get rid of the man who has no stomach for the fight, use the same words, " Let him depart." W. L. RUSHTON. (To be continued.) A SWIM FOE LIFE.—Recently in 'N. & Q.' much attention has been drawn to feats of swimming (ante, pp. 21, 42, 137, 193), and the papers have noticed particularly the recent attempt to swim across the Channel by Madame Walruga von Isacescu, the Austrian champion swimmer. The following instance of a swim for life, from a paragraph by my pen in the Norfolk Chronicle of 8 September, may interest your readers:— "BROCK THE SWIMMER. — Much has been said recently about swimming across the Channel—the Straits of Dover at its minimum breadth being eigh- teen miles across. This induces me to mention a marvellous escape from drowning which a beach- man, as they are called at Yarmouth, named Brock, had in the year 1835. The yawl Increase was launched at Yarmouth on 6 October, 1835, in order to succour a Spanish brig, ' leaky and with both pumps at work.' Several of the beachmen were landed on the brig, and the rest got on board the yawl, in order to return to Yarmouth. A squall came on, the ballast shifted from windward to leeward, and the yawl was overset. Eight of the men were drowned almost immediately, but Brock saved himself after swimming fourteen miles in seven hours on an October night. He succeeded in reaching the brig Betsy, at anchor in Corton roads, fourteen miles from the spot where the yawl had capsized. It would be a pity to spoil Brock's own narrative, which was recorded first in the Sporting Magazine of 1839, and then in Chambers'^ Edinburgh journal of July, 1845, and again was chronicled in the Hereford Times many years after- wards (circa November, 1872), whence it was clipped by me, and preserved in a volume of cuttings in my collection. No doubt such a wonderful narrative has been preserved in many newspapers and periodicals, and mejudice is worthy of being retold and reprinted even after the lapse of sixty-five years. Brock must long ago have passed away, but no doubt the record of his marvellous swim must yet linger among the traditions of Yarmouth. If an extra mile in a swim must make an immense difference after the first two or three, what must it make upon the ninth or tenth ? Brock, no doubt, would not havo lived had there been another mile after his fourteenth to swim. Is the knife still in existence which was the means of saving Brock's life, and upon which the date, 7 October, 1835, and the names of the eight men who were drowned were engraved ? Truth is said to be stranger than fiction." The recent attempt to swim the Channel is one of the most splendid feats ever accom- plished by a woman ; but it pales compared with the swim of Brock. The lady was accompanied by a steam-tug ready to supply refreshments, and in case of danger to take her on board, whilst the only anchorage Brock obtained during his swim was resting on a buoy for a few moments. Madame Isacescu was clad in a bathing dress, and before starting had her body well covered with grease,* in order to throw off the water. This idea might have been borrowed from the Romans, who had servants called aliptae to prepare them for the bath; and Horace observes:— Ter uncti Transnanto Tiberim. 1 Serm.,' lib. ii. 1. The exploits of Lord Byron in swimming across the Hellespont in an hour and ten minutes, and Egerton Smith, of Liverpool, in swimming across the Mersey, are small com- pared with these and that of Capt. Webb. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge. POLITICAL COLOURS.— " Here it is to be noted that few or none of this hi.ill army wanted ana blue ribbon hung about his craig (viz., neck) under his left arm, whilk they called ' the Covenanter's ribbon," because the Lord Gordon and some other of the Marquis's bairns had ane ribbon, when he was dwelling in the toun, of ane red flesh colour, which they wore in their hats, and called it ' the royal ribbon' as a sign of their love and loyalty to the King. In dispite or derision whereof this blue ribbon was worn and called ' the Covenanter's ribbon ' by the haill Soldiers of this army."—Spalding's 'Memorials of the Troubles in Scotland and in England [1624-45].' See Hill Burton's 'Book-Hunter,' p. 334. W. E. WILSON. ELY PLACE, HOLBOEN, TECHNICALLY A PART OF CAMBRIDGESHIRE.—The following para- graph appeared in the Leeds Mercury some time last year :— " Technically, by virtue of an ancient covenant, the site of this roadway [Ely Place] in the heart of the metropolis is part of Cambridgeshire. The ground once formed a little island when London was intersected by small streams, now closed over. It belonged to the Lords of Ely, who insisted that times blackleaded, in order to throw off the water. The word aliptex occurs in Juvenal, iii. 76.
 * The keels of racing-boats and yachts are some-