Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/198

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. vm. AUG. 31, MOL

century later found favour at music-halls. It has rung in my ears since childhood.

A GOOD NAME.

Ere around the huge oak, that o'ershadows yon mill,

The fond ivy had dared to entwine ; Ere the church was a ruin that nods on the hill,

Or a rook built his nest on the pine ; Could I trace back the time, a far distant date,

Since my forefathers toiPd in this field, And the farm I now hold on your honour's estate

Is the same that my grandfather till'd. He, dying, bequeath'd to his son a good name,

Which unsullied descended to me ; For my child I've preserv'd it, unblemish'd with shame,

And it still from a spot shall be free.

The words alone are given in O'Keefe's versal Songster,' 1825, vol. i. p. 317 ; the Lyre, i. 108 ; and, with the music, in Tegg's 'Skylark,' p. 142; 'Edinburgh Musical Mis- cellany,' in 1792, vol. i.
 * Dramatic Works,' vol. iv. p. 274, and ' Uni-

J. WOODFALL EBSWORTH.

The Priory, Ashford, Kent.

CIVIL LIST PENSIONS (9 th S. viii. 1, 29, 57, 66, 133). I think there is an error in the note made by MR. FRANCIS (ante, p. 58) rela- tive to the pension awarded to Lady Green in 1892. Her husband, Sir William Kirby Green, was not "Consul-General in Tunis when the French went there," or at any other time, though he was in the consulate there for three years, 1869-71, and was Acting Agent and Consul-General from 19 May till 5 September, 1870. Lady Green's father, however, Col. Sir Thomas Reade, C.B., was British Agent and Consul-General at Tunis for twenty-five years, from 1824 to 1849, and her brother Thomas Fellowes Reade held the same position from 1879 until shortly before his death in 1885, and had the morti- fication of seeing Tunis pass into the hands of the French.

It is interesting to note, as bearing on the fact that Sir Hudson Lowe's daughter is still in receipt of her pension (ante, p. 36), that Lady Green's father was his chief of staff at St. Helena. It may also be worth recording here that Sir Thomas Reade, who from his position should have been of all men the best qualified to judge, does not seem to have snared the popular opinion of Sir Hudson Lowe that opinion reflected in a modified form in Lord Rosebery's ' Last Phase,' a book in which the author's assumed air of im- partiality scarcely conceals the depth of his prejudices, and in which that calm sanity of judgment which makes him a power among modern men seems to have rather forsaken him.

In a pamphlet privately printed by him at Gibraltar in 1876 Mr. Thomas Fellowes Reade, in reference to the unfavourable opinions expressed by Sir Walter Scott, Sir Archibald Alison, and Lord Campbell on Sir Hudson Lowe's character and conduct, says in a foot-note :

" In direct opposition to the dictum of the three eminent writers referred to, and confirming the more reliable conclusions of Mr. Forsyth, is the united and unvarying testimony of brother officers and others, whose relations with the late Sir Hudson Lowe were of a nature to render them in an especial degree qualified to form an estimate of his character."

He also gives a letter written to him in the same year by Admiral Rous, who had com- manded H.M.S. Podargus at St. Helena, 1817-19. The admiral says, with convincing directness :

" I state upon honour that I do not believe either Sir Hudson Lowe or Sir Thomas Reade was capable of performing any act derogatory to the character of a gentleman. To the best of my knowledge all reports of ill treatment to Napoleon were systematic falsehoods, fabricated with a view of keeping alive a sympathy in Europe to enable his friends to succeed in obtaining a more agreeable exile."

Miss Frances Reade, of Tangier, who, except Lady Green, is the only one of Sir Thomas's children now living, on my men- tioning Lord Rosebery's book to her, expressed surprise that people should still think ill of Sir Hudson Lowe, and her opinion evidently is that Sir Hudson was liked by his staff generally.

Sir Thomas Reade was a man of the highest character and conspicuous tact, and as such his opinions must carry some weight, espe- cially when we compare him with the various unscrupulous " diarists " who flourished at St. Helena. In a previously unpublished extract from the diary of Lieut. Clifford, R.N., in the Cornhill Magazine for November, 1899 (p. 665), the writer, who visited St. Helena in 1817, pays a very warm tribute to Sir Thomas's courtesy and personal charm, and quotes him to the effect that Napoleon was a sulky fellow, who was never grateful for any kindness that was shown to him.

ALEYN LYELL READE.

Park Corner, Blundellsands, Liverpool.

SIR FRANCIS JONES, LORD MAYOR OF LONDON, 1620-21 (9 th S. viii. 65). Infor- mation respecting this mayor whose ex- tremely common patronymic is variously written Johns, Johnes, Jhones, Joanes, and Jones is somewhat meagre and difficult to obtain, which would account for Mr. Cokayne not having dealt with him so fully as he could have wished, and would, I feel sure,