Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/357

 9* s. ix. MAY, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

349

Wester-ham. If so, was there a graveyard attached, as was usually the case in former times? In an antique-looking house near is said to have lived one Gibbard, a shoeing smith, the last of the Westerham Quakers. There is apparently no mention of him in the Quaker registers ; but he may have died before 1785, at a period when these records were very incomplete. Information would be welcomed. GIBSON THOMPSON.

Edenholm, Thames Ditton.

GOLF. " Golf," in the ancient 'Icelandic Dictionary' of Runolphus Jonas, is the equivalent of the Latin pavimentum, which I suppose we may call "floor," if not "ground," in English. Is this word the originating cause of the name of the " ancient and royal game," or is there some other meaning to that name and origin of it?

B.

[In 'H.E.D.' identified rather doubtfully with Dutch kolf, a club, but the origin of the word is said to be obscure.]

SPELLING REFORM. I have given a good deal of time to this matter, which I believe of importance in education. I ask the opinion of readers on this primary question. Should any change be international i.e., should the new method be applicable to the spelling of foreign words? Most, I think, will at first be inclined to answer, Yes. But suppose we agree to adopt the Italian values of the vowel letters, and the convention that doubling a vowel indicates its lengthening, and 9 as the symbol for the unvoiced sibilant heard in ice, pence, &c. Then we should write instead of grace, face, &c., greec, feec, &c. Would not so great a change make the learn- ing of English more difficult to a foreigner who knows any Romance language, and the reading of old books in English a little more difficult to our children ? T. WILSON.

Harpenden.

THE CROSS PROSTRATE. Reference to paintings, engravings, and other works of art in which the cross is represented as having been laid on the ground or otherwise removed from the erect position before the body of Christ was taken from it will oblige.

W. S. WATSON.

Ellis Island, N.Y.

BRIGHTWALTON. Can any reader afforr me information as to the whereabouts of a volume, printed or MS., entitled 'Curious Particulars of Brightwalton,' by Dr. R. Eyre of Brightwalton, Berks, 1770?

GEORGE C. PEACHEY.

Brightwalton, Wantage.

MINAS AND EMPECINADOS.

(9 th S. ix. 188.)

FRANCISCO was the greater of the Minas. Xaviero, his nephew, after a brief and stormy areer, was shot in Mexico (1817) at the age f twenty-eight. The mere history of Fran- isco is a thirty years' romance. He made war much as the Boer generals do in our day. With comparatively small forces, by extreme mobility he not only evaded capture, but was able to strike many telling blows at the Drench. When beaten his men dispersed on all sides, a meeting-place being previously arranged by Mina. He speedily eclipsed the many guerilla leaders of his time El Empe- cinado, El Medico, El Marquesito, El Frayle, 31 Pastor, &c. and his success was such that le was placed in command of a larger force, [n these operations, however, he failed to sustain his reputation, probably because in lis first exploits he had been at great pains to exclude all regular officers of the Spanish army. He was repeatedly beaten notably by Pannetier, and again by Reille and Caffarelli 1812) ; and it speaks well for his system that ic was still able, in some form, to take the ield. After the war Mina found that all his efforts had been in vain ; and his opinions (very freely spoken) were so obnoxious to the vile gang of priests and parasites who, now that the fighting was over, formed the en- tourage of the wretched Ferdinand VII., that lie had to flee for his life. A futile attempt in the north followed. In the Hundred Days Mina, then in the C6te d'Or, was offered a command by Napoleon, but declined. At the restoration he found that his old enemies were his best friends, Louis XVIII. repeatedly refusing to give him up to Ferdinand. He was back again in Spain in 1820. The con- stitution was once more in being, and the royal power was represented by the infamous " Army of the Faith "a collection of blood- thirsty miscreants led by a monk, Marafipn ("The Trappist"). Mina drove this rabble before him. In the subsequent defence of Catalonia against Marshal Moncey he proved a worthy antagonist. He was compelled to flv on the return of Ferdinand, whose lying "clemency" he appreciated at its true value. In 1830 he again appeared in Navarre this time unsuccessfully. A price was on his head, and he lay hidden among the rocks, hunted, like a beast, by dogs. He managed to cross the frontier, and thence to England. The year 1834 saw him once more in Spain, ngnting the Carlists. But he was worn out, and