Oldalképek
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

Thanks to the extracts contributed by MR. VERE IRVING, we have now got some very interesting information from the records. From these, and another source to be cited presently, I infer that the John Hamilton employed to murder Coligni, and called by Mr. Froude "the brother or near relative of Chatelherault," was in all probability the "Prepositus de Bothvil," who in the forfeiture of Oct. 26, 1579, is styled the "brother" of Bothwellhaugh. He thus turns out to have been "Provost " of the collegiate church of Bothwell, and a priest of the ancient faith, possibly outed from his living by the Reformation, and a marked man. The following notices from Bannatyne's Journal (edit. 1806) doubtless apply to him, p. 35:

"In this meane tyme (August, 1570,) there come from Flanderis a little pincke, and in it tuo gentlemen with Mr. John Hamyltoun called the Skyrmisher fra Duck d'Alva. The heidis of thair commissione are not yet notified but the brute (rumour) is that the lord Seatoun and some utheris suld pass to Flanderis, that Duck d'Alva suld assist them in rebellione against the King." [The chronicler piously adds] "Lord confound thair malitioues myndis."

Again, on pp. 349 et seq., containing the truce (for two months from August 1, 1572), procured by the exertions of the French ambassador "Lacrock" (Le Croc), and "Maister Drurier (Drury) for the Queene of England," between the Regent Mar and the lords of Queen Mary's party then holding the castle and town of Edinburgh, we find the following persons expressly excepted from the truce, viz:

"James, sometymes erle Bothwell, James Ormistoun, sometyme of that Ilk; Patrick Hepburne, sometymes of Beinstoun; Patrick Wilsoun, sumtyme servand to the said erle; James Hamiltoun, sometyme of Bothwelhauch; Jhone Hamiltoun, sumtymes provest of Bothwell his brother,

with the whole theives and brocken men, inhabitants of the bordoris and heilandis," &c.

The remarkable confession of " Arthure Hamilton in Myrritoun" at once explains the territorial connection of Bothwellhaugh with Ayrshire. The lands of Monktoun, with which the commendator of Aberbrothok bribed the assassin, are in that county, and seem, in 1590 and subsequently, to have been the property of a "David Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh," within the paroch of Monktoun, who appears in the Commissary Records of Glasgow as the creditor of a "Thomas Knicht in Prestwick " (in same parish) for rent of lands there. The editors of Wishaw, unaware of the case, supposed they saw an error, and altered conjecturally Monktoun into Monkland, a parish in Lanarkshire; thus rather misleading inquirers like myself till MR. IRVING came to the rescue. Who this David was is not stated. He may have

been another brother of the notorious James. Two sons (one Arthur) appear in David's "Testament" (Com. Rec. Glasg.) in 1613, when he died, though his tombstone in Crosby kirk is dated 1619, as stated in the notes to Wishaw. If so, he could not be the avus of Alisona Hamilton, served heir to a David Hamilton in 1602. It is curious that the local tradition of the ancient burgh of Prestwick assigns the murderer his last resting-place in its seabeaten churchyard, though I presume he died in exile.

As for the "card" story, I gave it quantum valeat. It was told me on the spot many years ago by the late Professor Fleming of the Univer sity of Glasgow-a gentleman who was tolerably versant with the family history of his native county. ANGLO-SCOTUS.

In the account of the Muirheads of Lauchope, in the Appendix to Nisbet's Heraldry, it is there stated that James Muirhead, "linked in friendship, blood, and affinity with the Hamiltons," was married to Janet, daughter of James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, who was a brother of the house of Orbiston.

After the murder, Bothwellhaugh took refuge for a night with his brother-in-law at Lauchope, afterwards burnt to the ground by the Regent's party. His connection with the Orbiston family does not interfere with his relationship to the archbishop, as Calderwood says he was sonne to the bastard Bishop of Sanct Andrewes." W. R. C. Glasgow.

THE CHEVALIER D'ASSAS. (3rd S. xi. 34.)

"sister

In giving an answer to SEBASTIAN'S query, I cannot refrain from going into the whole question about the controversy which has been raised and the doubts which have been expressed as to the possibility or rather probability of the Chevalier d'Assas's heroic act, and his now historical exclamation. First of all, who was the Chevalier d'Assas? His family belonged to what the French call la petite noblesse, but dated from the twelfth century, as this is clearly proved by the genealogist Chérin, who searched the original documents. Louis (and not Nicholas, as some of his biographers have baptized him) was born at Le Vigan, in the Cevennes, in the year 1733. Thus he was only twenty-seven years of age when he died, for the engagement near Klostercamp (not Kampen) took place in 1760, and not in 1762 as SEBASTIAN asserts it. He entered the service very early, and was already captain of the Chasseurs du régiment d'Auvergne at the moment of his death. This fatal event happened, as is very well known, during the Hanoverian war, at Klostercamp, near Wesel, where his division was cut

to pieces by the enemy under command of the Duke of Brunswick. On the evening of October 15th d'Assas went quite alone, they say, to a place near his camp, where there was a kind of grove, in order to watch the hostile enemy. All at once he found himself surrounded by German soldiers, who put their bayonets on his breast, threatening to kill him on the spot as soon as he would shout or warn his friends by any sign whatever. Preferring, however, the safety of his regiment to his own preservation, he ejaculated with force the famous "A moi, Auvergne, ce sont les ennemis!" (and fell at the same moment pierced with bayonet wounds.

*

This is the plain popular story. I must confess that I find a great many improbabilities in it. First of all, one single man never goes out to reconnoitre the enemy; at least it is a very unusual thing. But even admitting this improbable hypothesis as a fact, who is there to prove that d'Assas really used the words above-mentioned? Who is to demonstrate that he had an interior struggle between the natural instinct of preservation and the duty to warn his friends? Was there time left to him for such an internal contest? Did the Germans not assassinate him as soon as they had seized him? These questions are very natural; they are produced by spontaneous induction. But now the truth-the real absolute truth where is it? I do not think that it will ever be obtained; but what I think highly probable is this. A man being seldom or never pathetic at the very last moment of his existence, I believe that d'Assas, seeing the enemy, used perhaps "Holà !" or "Qui va là?" or any similar short exclamation sufficient to warn his companions of the impending danger they were in. (I do not mean to say at all that I accept this version of the occurrence as the only true one. I simply try to explain the popular hypothesis in the most rational manner possible; nothing else.) It is curious that at the time nobody spoke about the heroic act of the Chevalier d'Assas. The Gazette de France does not mention it; it only inserts (number of October 25, 1760) the name of the hero in the list of the fallen. He was even so obscure a man then that his name is misspelled in the Gazette. We read d'Assar instead of d'Assas. Voltaire was the first to call the attention of the public to the noble deed of the chevalier in the second edition of his Précis du règne de Louis XV, published in the year 1769. In 1768 he had already brought it to the notice of the Duke de Choiseul in a letter, which has been published since; but the French government had too much to do then to think or to discuss about such an insignificant subject as the unusual death of a

[ocr errors][merged small]

young officer. It was only during the beginning of the reign of Louis XVI. that people began to talk again about the occurrence near Klostercamp.

In 1777, Marie-Antoinette heard of the heroism of the Chevalier d'Assas. She expressed her sincere admiration, but also her intense amazement that such an act as his should have remained for so long a time completely unknown, and ordered some one to write about it to the Baron d'Assas, brother of the deceased, with the request that he should gather more details together about Louis and his noble sacrifice, in order to publish them in a kind of memoir. The baron readily responded to the demand, but at the same time availed himself of the favourable opportunity to ask an advancement for his two sons, and the authorisation of adding to his own name that of Klostercamp. These particulars will be found in a letter which he wrote to the famous patriot Palloy, in answer to certain questions which the latter had put to him concerning the family relations and the dramatic end of the Chevalier d'Assas. Palloy had also requested the baron to tell him whether there were any portraits of the hero in existence, because it was his intention to have one painted on a stone of the Bastille. The letters form part of the rich and interesting collection of inedited documents in possession of M. Feuillet de Conches, the wellknown amateur of autographs. He has recently commenced to publish them. (Louis XVI, MarieAntoinette, et Madame Elisabeth, 1864-1866, i.-iii. Paris, H. Plon.) The king wrote to M. Montbarey, Minister of the War Department, about the pending question, and finally, after a deliberation in council, a perpetual pension was granted to the family of d'Assas, represented by the eldest son of each new generation. They were also admitted at court, and received with much distinction.

*

Besides all this, the baron obtained the privilege (one which was very much envied at the time) of hunting with the king, and his eldest son was appointed "capitaine de l'artillerie." The letters patent creating this pension were forwarded on October 8, 1777, and registered on March 21 of the following year. This curious and highly interesting document now belongs to a private collection. It was sold by Livardet at a public auction of autographs held in Paris, on February 19, 1857. The following is worth quoting, because it contains, so to say, the official version of the affair near Klostercamp:

of the French Revolution, but Napoleon I. re-established *This pension was forgotten during the stormy days it in 1810, and it has always been acquitted since. Let me add here that a column was placed during the same year on the very spot where d'Assas fell, and his famous exclamation is to be found on it as an inscription. Le Vigan has erected a monument to eternize the name of its hero, and a street in Paris has been baptised "Rue d'Assas."

"Louis par la grâce de Dieu, Roi de France, etc.-De toutes les grandes actions que l'histoire a immortalisées, aucune n'est au-dessus de l'héroïsme avec lequel le sieur Louis, Chevalier d'Assas, capitaine de chasseurs au régiment d'Auvergne, s'est dévoué à la mort. La nuit du 15 au 16 octobre 1760, le prince héréditaire de Brunswick voulut surprendre à Klostercamp, près de Wesel, un corps de l'armée française commandé par le marquis de Castries. Le chevalier d'Assas, en marchant à la découverte pendant l'obscurité, tombe dans une embuscade ennemie. Environné de baïonnettes prêtes à le percer, il peut acheter sa vie par son silence; mais l'armée va périr si elle ignore le danger qui la menace. Il crie à haute voix. A moi Auvergne, voilà les ennemis !' et dans l'instant il expire percé de coups. Si cette mort glorieuse l'a dérobé à notre reconnaissance, nous pouvons du moins en faire éprouver les effets à son frère," etc.

Where did they derive their information from? Probably from the Baron d'Assas' notes and Voltaire's above-mentioned letter. But then how did the latter manage to get his? This he will tell us himself. In a letter to Count Schomberg, dated October 31, 1769, we read :—

"Je n'ai fait que copier ce que le frère de M. d'Assas et le major du régiment m'ont mandé."

Regarding the peculiar construction of the phrase, one might be induced to think that already at the time that Arouet wrote the above, doubts were entertained as to the probability of the Chevalier d'Assas' heroic act, and also as to the manner in which it was executed. Was it really so? Is it even decided at present whether the story is fact or fiction ? and if it is a fact, has it been definitively established now in what way it took place? I shall try to answer these questions in a following article. H. TIEDEMAN.

Amsterdam.

THE BELLS OF ST. ANDREWS (3rd S. xi. 437.) I was about to send you my view of these legends, but my reply has been most satisfactorily anticipated by your valuable and able correspondent F. C. H., and I would only beg to endorse it by the weight of my opinion, whatever it may be worth, and say that it fully agrees with my own. As for the letters E. O. R. they usually stand for eorum, which may here be the founder's false concord for ejus, sumptibus being understood.

And as for "Kate Kennedy," that is evidently a word compounded of the bishop's name and the name of the bell, and with no other reason than thinking it a good joke, as the two names occurred on the bell, to join them together; and perhaps as an excuse for a holiday, they were slanderously joined together for the sake of more revelry and such like.

be

H. T. ELLACOMBE.

WALSH OF CASTLE HOEL (3rd S. xi. 495.) The hypothesis of SP. may very ingenious, but I would rather assign the origin of his Welshman's arms to an ancestor-Kadwalader ap Gronwy, Lord of Mochnant, co. Denbigh-to whom the

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

"I doe certifye that ye Hoye Wm and John of Colchester, William Hutchhin (sic) Master, was by my order comanded out of Harwich for ye reliefe of the Shipp Lyberty when shee first came aground on Balsey Landes, and that I was an eye-witnesse of y Dammage wch the sayd Hoy received therein; the charge for repayeing whereof will amount to 921 10 at least, as I am certifyed by two of ye best Master Shipwrights of Ipswich, who by my desire made survey of her. Given under my hand the 23d day of Octobr, 1650.-RI. DEANE. "To all whome it may concerne."

Three memoranda are endorsed in several

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

MICHAEL ANGELO'S "LAST JUDGMENT" (3rd S. xi. 439.)—I have the same engraving, but signed with an 8- -Wirings. John Wirings, or Wierix, or Wierx, was born at Amsterdam in 1550. He was the author of many engravings, the best of which the Redemption; several portraits, those of Philip II., King of Spain; Henry III., King of France; Catherine of Medicis, &c.; a dead Christ, after Otto-Venius; some after A. Durer.

are

[blocks in formation]

I

NAMES WANTED (3rd S. xi. 313, 430, 487.). I am much obliged to D. P. for his answers. took the bugle coat and Sandys of Ombersley from a book-plate, with the name carefully rubbed out, as D. P.'s. I obtained it, with many more, from Dr. Wellesley's collection. Looking over Segoing's Armorial Universel, among the "Armes des plus nobles Maisons d'Angleterre," I came across an odd way for spelling Derby (evidently from the way it is pronounced) « Stanley Comte d'Arbie." JOHN DAVIDSON.

FARREN OR FURREN FAMILY (3rd S. xi. 489.) I do not find any of this name in my collections relating to French refugees. I have names of similar sound, which I now add:-Ferand, Jeremie, Canterbury, 1687; Ferrand, Margt, Canterbury, 1690; Fairant, Anne, London, 1727; Ferrand, Josué, London, 1723; Fairon, Louis, London, 1706; Feron, Jean, Bristol, 1702; Feron, Abm, London, 1735, 1738; Ferand, Capt Nicholas, in Molinier's regiment in Ireland under William III. JOHN S. BURN.

ARMS IN ST. WINNOW CHURCH (3rd S. xi. 499.) I cannot tell H. the name of the bearer of the coat which he blazons. But I can add my evidence to the fact that he has blazoned it as it is seen. I made notes of all the arms which I could find in St. Winnow several years ago. This coat, quarterly per cross embattled argent and sable, then stood in glass in the east window of the south aisle. It occupied quarters 2 and 3 in a shield which showed, in 1 and 4, argent three chevronels sable. I have long wished to be certain whose shield it is. The coat is repeated, as probably H. knows very well, singly in the same

window, and once, deeply carved, on a bench end. I mean the coat, argent, three chevronels sable; no colours appearing on the wood.

Whose is it? Lansladron, who had one sumbore it. So did Ercedekne, also a baron, summons to parliament as baron in Edward I.'s reign, moned for the last time 16 Edward III. Trerice took the coat of Lansladron; and Trecarrel of Trecarrel bore it also. But as Trecarrel of Trecarrel had been Esse, a family which bore two chevronels only, and took the third on coming to Trecarrel and changing the name, some doubt may be raised as to the name Trecarrel and the coat with three chevronels. 1079, in the pedigree of Kelley, among the quarterings of Kelley, the name Trecarrel als Esse with the coat, argent, two chevronels sable.

I find in Harl. MS.

I am inclined to give the coat to Ercedekne, because in the top of the centre light of the same window at St. Winnow I saw a shield of Courtenay. Sir Hugh Courtenay (temp. Hen. VI. and Edw. IV.) married Philippa, daughter and coheir of Sir Warin Ercedekne or Archdeacon, and with her got Antony in Cornwall and Haccombe in Devonshire. Their only child, Joan, married twice; first, Carew; secondly, Vere. I do not know any presumption for the other names which has so much probability as what I have suggested for Ercedekne. D. P.

Stuarts Lodge, Malvern Wells.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

'Parvenke de pris e sauntz pier, Sount femmes sur tote autre rien.' Wright's Lyric Poetry, p. 7. 'The primerole he passeth, the parvenke of pris.' Ibid. p. 26." S. L.

SO-CALLED GRANTS OF ARMS (3rd S. vi. 461, 539; xi. 327, 508.)-I cannot agree with P. P. If a man takes a confirmation of arms, by so doing he admits that he can show no proof of his right to the coat confirmed. Therefore a confirmation is in effect a grant de novo, for if the arms confirmed were really his by right, he would be a madman who would pay fees to heralds for a grant of what was

his without it.

G. W. M.

THE BATTLE OF BEAUGÉ (3rd S. xi. 120.)-It may be interesting to your correspondent J. L. K. to know that the Duke of Clarence was unhorsed at the battle of Beaugé by Sir John Swinton of that ilk :

"And Swinton laid the lance in rest
That tamed of yore the sparkling crest
Of Clarence's Plantagenet."

Sir W. Scott, Lay of the Last Minstrel,
canto v. stanza iv.

Also Lingard, History of England, vol. iii. chap. vi. p. 260 (Edward VI., Charles Dolman, 1854):

[blocks in formation]

PASSAGE IN LORD BACON (3rd S. xi. 496.)"Again, the meanness of my estate doth somewhat move me; for tho' I cannot accuse myself that I am either prodigal or slothful, yet my health is not to spend, nor my course to get."

benefit to myself in that course." He confesses
he has as vast contemplative ends as he has
moderate civil ends; and he says that if Burgh-
ley will not help him, he will purchase out of the
sale of his inheritance "some lease of quick
revenue, or some office of gain." That he will
give the legal career, and turn "sorry book-
up
maker," or maybe become a true pioneer in "the
mine of truth." Would that he had yielded to
this severe and simple instinct! Office and honours
soon rained thick upon him, and in their slushy
train dishonour followed.
C. A. W.

May Fair.

OBSOLETE PHRASES: CHAMPHIRE POSSET (3rd
S. xi. 377.)-May I say that I am as much
amused as surprised at the endeavours to explain
this phrase, which means neither more nor less
than camphire or camphor posset-the virtues of
which may be ascertained by a reference to Bur-
ton's Anatomy (part III. sec. 2, mem. 5, subs. 1),
or any medical work of the period. The other
explanations offered would take away all the
A. F. B.
point of the speech.

ARCHBISHOP WHATELY'S PUZZLE (3rd S. xi.
difficult.
458.)-I do not think this puzzle very
The man must have kept his fortune in a strong
box, and taken out money as he required it;
being probably (like the fisherman mentioned in
Crabbe's Borough, Letter 5) ignorant of the in-
vention of interest. Supposing him at twenty-
one to have been possessed of 3000l., and to have
lived to the age of eighty-one, spending only 501.
a-year, your correspondent will see there was
nothing remarkable in his being buried by the
parish.
DENKMAL.

[ocr errors]

HYMN: "WHEN GATHERING CLOUDS" (3rd S.

[ocr errors]

D. will excuse me for remarking that those xi. 356.)-On p. 356 there is a question respecting who ask a question respecting a difficult passage the authorship of this beautiful hymn, at which ought to give a full reference. This letter of I was surprised. I had not supposed that any Bacon's occurs in the Letters from the Cabala, and in Basil Montagu's edition of Bacon is found one doubted that it was written by Robert Grant. at vol. xii. p. 5. Bacon's epistolary style is It appeared first in the Christian Observer, Febgenerally very cramped, and this sentence is so ab-ruary, 1806. The contributor signed himself breviated that it is next to impossible to be sure "E-Y. D. R." In the same publication, Febof the meaning. He says that the narrowness of ruary, 1812, the hymn was again inserted, introhis means troubles him, that he cannot tax himduced by this note: self with profuseness nor idleness, and adds, "yet my health is not to spend, nor my course to get." One difficulty lies in the connectives implying an antithesis where I can see none to exist. It seems to be equivalent to saying-My well-being or health does not consist in expenditure; I am not of expensive habits at all; nor is my course [i. e. pursuit of law], as I am directing my researches in it, calculated to enrich me much. There is another letter of Bacon's to Burghley, given by Montagu, in the same volume (p. 476), in which he says, speaking of the ordinary practice of law: "So as I make reckoning, I shall reap no great

one) of a hymn which you once honoured with insertion
I send you an improved edition (at least I hope it is
in the Christian Observer. If you are of the same opinion,
you will probably insert it when you have a spare
column.-E-Y. D. R."

In the early volumes of the Observer first ap-
peared in print many of Heber's hymns, e. g.:

"Brightest and best of the sons of the morning.".
"O Saviour, when this holy morn."
"Oh weep not o'er thy children's tomb."
"In the sun and moon and stars."

The first hymn was introduced (October, 1811) by a letter from the writer, signing himself "D.R."

C

J

« ElőzőTovább »