10 s. vii. FEB. 16, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
129
dated from 1814, and it was its alleged viola
tion in 1830 which precipitated the Revolu
tion of July. But, apart from any recollec
tion of Magna Carta or the Great Charter
as a symbol of liberty, the word must have
been familiar in a special sense to the older
Radicals of that day. A full report was
published by William Hone in 1820 of the
proceedings at the inquest upon John Lees
one of the victims of the Peterloo Massacre
at Manchester on 16 August, 1819 ; and, ii
the course of the cross-examination of one
Robert Hall by Mr. Harmer, a solicitor
engaged by the Radicals, there was this
passage dealing with the witness's statement
that he had seen carried in the procession a
black flag with the word " Death " upon it :
" Q. Why do you say that there was only 'Death'? Was it not 'Death or Liberty'? A . I don't know whether it was ' Liberty or Death,' or 'Death or Liberty.'
' ' Q. But was it one or the other ? A . Yes ; it was something of the kind.
" Q. Have you not heard that celebrated national
song, ' Or give us Death or Liberty,' which has been
siing over and over again not only in the presence
of our own Royal Family, but in the presence of
nearly all the crowned heads of Europe ?
Whilst happy in my native land,
I boast my country's charter :
these are the first two lines of the song. A. I never heard it, to my recollection.
" Mr. Harmer. Every one knows that it is sung in the first companies among men of every political principle, with the greatest admiration." I should be much interested to know more of this political song. POLITICIAN.
PICTURE or LADY IN RED. I shall be greatly obliged if you or one of your corre- spondents can give me some information relating to a certain picture which I believe is well known. It is a study of a woman with red hair and red draperies ; the whole tone of the picture is red, and it is entitled
- Fiametta,' ' La Donna della Fiamma,' or
a similar name. I think the painter is either Rossetti or Burne-Jones. What I want to know is the actual title, by whom the picture is painted, and in what collection it is to be found. I. R.
[MB. F. G. STEPHENS kindly supplies the following comment :
The work I. R. refers to is manifestly ' The Vision of Fiammetta,' which, painted in oil by Dante G. Rossetti in 1879, was No. 304 in the Royal Academy's Winter Exhibition of 1883, which com- prehended a very large proportion of the artist's output. It seems to have been begun in or before 1877, but the later year witnessed its completion. Mrs. Stillman (born Spartali) sat for the head, and continued to do so till late in 1879. The completed example was exhibited, first at Manchester in 1882, and as No. 67 at the New Gallery in 1897. It is a
three-quarters-length, life - size figure, dressed in
deep rose red, standing facing the spectator, with a
mystical flame about her head, and surrounded by
a long branch of an apple-tree in full bloom, which,
approaching us, she pushes aside. With her right
hand she holds above her head a portion of the
branch on which is perched a bird passionately
singing and with its wings outspread. The subject
is from a sonnet of Boccaccio s, a translation of
which by Rossetti is inscribed on the frame of the
picture. The artist dated his work 1878, but his
correspondence published by his brother shows that
Mrs. Stillman was still sitting to him in October,
1879. ' The Vision of Fiammetta ' was, almost
before it was finished, sold to the late Mr. William
A. Turner, of Manchester, for 84W. Mr. Turner lent
it to the Academy, and at the sale of his pictures in
1888 it was bought for 1,207/. by the present owner,
Mr. Charles Butler, who possesses other pictures
by Rossetti. There is a photogravure of 'The
Vision ' in Mr. Marillier's exhaustive ' Dante G.
Rossetti,' 1899, p. 194. It is not to be confounded with
another 'Fiammetta,' a head which was cut out,
says Mr. W. M. Rossetti, from his brother's un-
finished 'Kate the Queen' of 1850. J
WOLSTON. Four boys of this name were at Westminster School in the first decade of the last century.: Alexander, Augustus, R. W., and T. Wolstan. Information con- cerning their parentage and career is desired.
G. F. R. B.
SIB GEORGE HOWARD, FIELD-MARSHAL. According to the ' D.N.B.' (xxviii. 17), this worthy was born about or in 1720, and obtained a commission in the 3rd Buffs in 1725, rising to the lieutenant-colonelcy of that regiment 2 April, 1744. According to Foster's * Alumni Oxonienses,' Howard matriculated at Oxford from Ch. Ch. 23 June, 1735, aged seventeen. I should be glad to obtain the place and exact date of his birth, as well as the dates of his early steps in the army. G. F. R. B.
" LIFE-STAR " FOLK-LORE. The following incident has been related to me. In 1882 the head of a titled family in the Midland counties lay dangerously ill, and his recovery was considered hopeless. My informant, who lived then, as he still does, in the parish where the family seat is situate, was driving one evening, with his wife, in the direction of the mansion, when they each of them saw a fiery meteor, described as a " fireball," travel swiftly towards them from the far sky, and, on arriving immediately above the Hall, appear to break into fragments. So much impressed were they that they called at the lodge and made inquiry ; but no idings had reached the lodge-keeper. The first thing heard the following morning was
- hat the occupant of the mansion had died
at an hour precisely coinciding with the
