Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/421

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io» s. iv. OCT. 28.1985.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 347 Hume, who was directly cognizant of the jpisode, and died early in the seventeenth Century. Hume was parish minister of Logie, »ear Stirling, and holds a place among minor poets with his lyric 'The Day Estivall; or, 1 hanks for a Summer Day.' Oil the Armada ie evolved, in heroic couplets, an expansive ind resonant hymn of praise, somewhat in

he devout spirit of Deborah and Moses, and

entitled it 'The Triumph of the Lord after the Manner of Men; Alluding to the Defait >f the Spanish Navie, 1588.' One of Southey's Jarly lyrics, written in an unrimed stanza, liter a fashion with which the poet was •oud of dallying, is on ' The Spanish Armada.' Dated from Westbury in 1798, the ballad is 'light and not very effective; but it is not yithout vivid flashes, and the fact that it is x)uthey's entitles it to recognition. THOMAS BAYNE. WATERLOO VETERAN.—As there seems to be

n idea that the last of the veterans of

Vaterloo has been dead now some years, it uay be of interest to note that this is not really the case. The following cutting from The Inverness Courier of 18 August witnesses to a yet living memory of the famous fight :— "A Veteran of Waterloo—John Vaughan, who is stated to have served as a bugler boy under Wellington at Waterloo, has arrived at Birkenhead in an exhausted condition. His age is stated to be lOt years, and, on account of his pension having lapsed, his case has been brought to the notice of the King, who ordered the War Office to make investigations. Before these could be carried out Vaughan disappeared from Wrexham and took to the road, being picked up by the police in a pitiable plight. Colonel Davidson and the War Office have been notified of Vaughan's whereabouts." B. W. Fort Augustus. MORGAN AND POLTON, BISHOPS OF WOR- CESTER.—At the coronation of Henry VI. on 6 November, 1429, " the Byschoppe of Wor- sethyr radde the gospelle at the auter" (Gregory's 'Chronicle,' Camd. Soc.,N.S.,xvii. 167)._ The index, which rightly says that Philip Morgan was Bishop of Worcester 1419-25, wrongly identifies him with this gospeller. Morgan was translated to Ely in 1425. Thomas Pol ton was Bishop of Wor- cester from 1426 to 1435. W. C. B. TERRY'S 'VOYAGE TO EAST INDIA,' 1655.— I do not think I have seen it noticed that the portrait by " Ro. Vaughan," which forms the frontispiece of this book, is found in two states. In the first state the inscription round the oval portrait reads upwards on the left, " Patriam Inquire : Nondum Attigi," and also upwards on the right, " Peregrinus in Terra: Cursum Prosequor." In the second state the left-hand inscription reads upwards as in the first state, but the right-hand one reads downwards, and the arrangement of the fleurons that divide the sentences is quite different. There is also a good deal of cross- hatching, &c., in the bottom part of the print which does not exist in the first state. W. F. PRIDEAUX. BALL-GAMES PLAYED ON FESTIVALS.—As readers of ' N. & Q.' may perhaps remember, the ancient hood-game of Haxey, in Lincoln- shire, is a sport akin to football, though the object contended for is a roll of leather. From time immemorial it has been played on Old Christmas-Day, unless that festival happens to fall on a Sunday. In George Kennan's ' Tent Life in Siberia," 1870, p. 292, the author relates that during his residence at Anadyrsk, in North-Eastern Siberia, just south of the Arctic circle, "crowds of men played football on the snow " on 6 January, N.S., the Russian Christmas, "and the whole settlement presented an animated, lively appearance." On p. 291 the local carol singers are described, and on p. 298 it is noted that "throughout the holidays the whole population did nothing but pay visits, give tea-parties, and amuse themselves with dancing, sleigh-riding, and playing ball. Every evening between Christmas and New Year, bands of masquers dressed in fantastic costumes went around with music to all the houses in the village and treated the inmates to songs and dances." To read of anything so familiar as Christmas mummeries indulged in several degrees north of Kamchatka revolutionizes one's ideas of life in the further North-East. But it is more strange still to find that festive games which are supposed to be con- nected with sun-worship are still kept up with spirit in that remote corner of the earth, though they are growing obsolete in Western Europe. B. L. R. C. " SPONGEITIS."—The following is extracted from The Daily Telegraph of 12 September : "At a crowded meeting, held at Canning Town Public Hall last night, in connexion with the un- employed agitation, the suggestion recently made at Forest Gate that West Ham is suffering from 'spongeitis' was strongly repudiated, and a reso- lution passed requesting the borough council to immediately arrange for an official house-to-house census in order to provide reliable data in view of the question raised as to the amount of distress prevailing." This new development from the old slang word sponge is so hideous and unnecessary that it seems scarcely likely to have any popular vogue. A. F. R.