Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/161

 9*s. vm. AUG. i7,i9oi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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proofs to shake the local belief that the real " trysting tree " is still standing at Todwick.

There is also a considerable difference of opinion as to the position of the castle which Scott calls "Torquilstone," and many stoutly claim that the site of the old castle at Whit- well, in Derbyshire, best of all meets the description which Scott gives of "Torquil- stone." THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

BELL INSCRIPTION AT PUNCKNOWLE, DORSET (9 th S. vii. 365 ; viii. 22). This inscription has been a puzzle to bell-hunters for the last forty years. With regard to the solution propounded by MR. HESLOP, "lather "is not a Dorset equivalent for " ladder," nor (were that otherwise) does there seem much veri- similitude in this reading. Beneath the distich are the date 1629 and the initials " R. N ," which latter are probably those of Robert Napper. LOBUC.

PRISONERS OF WAR IN OUR LITERATURE (9 th S. vii. 469 ; viii. 46). The following ex- tract from the 'Annual Register' for 1812, though not exactly coming within the scope of the topic immediately to hand, may yet prove of interest, the rather that at the present moment the treatment (and be- haviour) of " prisoners of war " has assumed the aspect of a " burning question ":

" Jan. 2. Six French prisoners, who lately escaped from the castle of Edinburgh, have been retaken to their old place of confinement. On Friday last information was given to the Commandant of Linlithgow Local Militia, that a number of foreigners had been seen skulking among Lord Hopetoun's plantations: a party was immediately sent out, which descried them at some distance in the fields. On seeing the party they all separated, taking different directions ; six of them, however, were taken, after considerable fatigue, four of them hid among the whins, and two of them in the hollow of a stack in a barn yard. On their escape they

had made for the sea finding a boat they sailed

up the Firth, till opposite Hopetoun house, where

they landed They had subsisted for three days

on raw turnips. On being taken they were carried to Linlithgow jail, fed and clothed, and conducted to Edinburgh on Saturday last."

HERBERT B. CLAYTON. 39, Renfrew Road, Lower Kennington Lane.

Borrow's reference to them has already been quoted. At pp. 53-8, 88-94, vol. iii. of Household Words a most interesting article, commencing with a reference to them, and dealing with the expected landing of " Bony," is buried under the (for our purpose) un- meaning title of ' The Marsh Fog and the Sea Breeze.' It purports to be written by a quondam fisher-girl child, who, with her brother and mother, supplies the prisoners

with fish, and who marvels at their resource- fulness in cooking it, which she longs to imitate, but is prevented. Deliverance comes with the arrival of the military and the burning of the cottage.

THOMAS J. JEAKES.

If a rather little-known second (or third) rate novel is reckoned as literature, there will be found in 'Queen of the Moor,' by Frederick Adye (Macmillan & Co., 1897), very pleasantly written studies of a French general on parole, also of officer and soldier servant, prisoners in Princetown, Dartmoor, at the beginning of last century. F. J. O.

UNMARRIED LORD MAYORS (9 th S. vii. 428, 513 ; viii. 49). Both the late Sir William Lawrence and the late Sir James Clarke Lawrence, who filled the office of Lord Mayor in 1863-4 and 1868-9 respectively, were un- married ; and their only sister, Miss Jane Lawrence, acted as Lady Mayoress to each, this being probably the only instance of a maiden lady being twice Lady Mayoress and each time with a different Lord Mayor.

ALFRED F. ROBBINS.

UGO FOSCOLO IN LONDON (9 th S. vi. 326; vii. 150, 318, 476; viii. 92). Let me quote an instance which does not admit of doubt of the preservation of a human body after a long inhumation. It is that of Napoleon I., whose coffin was exhumed in 1840 after a nineteen years' burial at St. Helena, and was thence transferred to the Invalides at Paris. The body was found perfect, though the epaulettes were a little tarnished, and mould lay on the boots; upon them the heart in a leaden case had been deposited. It was ex- posed to view only for a few moments for necessary identification, and General Ber- trand, who had been with Napoleon in his exile up to his death in 1821, gazed on the features of his great commander. Unless my memory is at fault, there was an engraving of the scene in the Pictorial Times some years later, perhaps in 1843.

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

When Ugo Foscolo's remains were removed from Chiswick Churchyard by the Italian Government, and were transferred to the church of Santa Croce, the Westminster Abbey of Florence, where the illustrious poet reposes with Leonardo Bruni of Arezzo and other scholars who enjoyed the sunshine of favour in the palace of Cosmo de' Medici, the modest tomb placed over the grave of the poet by Hudson Turner, M.P., one of his admirers, was removed, and a pretentious