472
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. XL JUNE is, 1003.
not think that Emily Pott was in any way
connected with the surgeon's family.
W. ROBERTS. Royal Societies Club, S.W.
_LONG MELFORD CHURCH, SUFFOLK (9 th S. xi. 367). A very full arid interesting account of this beautiful church is to be found in Sir William Parker's ' History of Long Melford.' This work was printed for the author by Wyman & Sons in 1873, pp. x-379.
S. J. ALDRICH.
New Southgate.
A full account of this church is given in ' The History of Long Melford, Suffolk,' by the lateSir William Hyde Parker, of Melford Hall. It was my privilege to officiate in the said church last summer, and I agree with CROM- WELL that it, with its restored Ladye Chapel, is most interesting. Its history is both in- teresting and instructive. The Abbots of Bury St. Edmunds were formerly lords of the manor of Melford, and Melford Hall was their country seat.
F. C. ARNOLD- JARVIS, LL.D.
The beautiful church of Long Melford the village is so called from having been nearly a mile in length dates from the fifteenth cen- tury, but the tower is a comparatively modern erection. At the upper end of the north aisle is a monument to William de Clopton, who died in 1446. The nave is in the very late Perpendicular style. See ' The Beauties of England and Wales,' 1813, vol. xiv. p. 165 ; 'The History of Suffolk,' by the Rev. J. J. Raven, 1895, p. 123; and 'The British Traveller,' by James Dugdale, LL.D., vol. iv.
J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.
ARMY DOCTORS (9 th S. xi. 387). The waters of Cheltenham and of Bath do not always succeed in dispelling the gouty humours of our veterans. One of classical attainments cannot pardon Homer for giving Machaon and Podalirios command over their own followers, much less the War Office for giving the sacred titles of army rank to the army sur- geons of our own time. He asks, " Why should these gentlemen be ashamed of their noble profession and desire to pose as military men ? " But in this query he begs the ques- tion. There is no evidence that army surgeons are ashamed of their profession, be it noble or only necessary ; and how can they pose as military men when they are military men ? The army surgeon is rather more military than the major-general who has climbed up the ladder of promotion while purveying beef and bread, bedding and kitchen utensils to H.M. forces, or than the RE. officer
who has for nearly the whole of his service
been virtually an architect or a surveyor. The
army medical officer is constantly in command
of men of the army medical corps, and also of
every inmate of his hospital. I do not see
how he can be expected to be above the army
taste for titles and gold lace ; and the War
Office has indulged this taste in order to get
good officers economically. Line subalterns
are to be got in any number and for small
pay ; but surgeons fit for the army are not
easy to get, and the price has to be paid
partly in the titles dear to human nature.
There was once a singer it may have been
Farinelli whom Frederick the Great wished
to enlist in his opera company, but the pay
asked by the singer took the agent aback.
u Why, the king does not pay one of his
generals so much!" " Ebbene, faccia can-
tare il suo generale."
EDWARD NICHOLSON. Liverpool.
Your correspondent is unjust to the medical officers of the army. The work of an army surgeon is very different in the present day from what it was fifty years ago. Improved hospitals and superior means of attending the wounded on the field have rendered necessary a separate medical corps of various kinds of helpers. All these necessary assistants are soldiers enlisted under the Articles of War ; the medical officers command them. This being so, it is necessary that they should have real military rank. Very few of the army- surgeons have been or are doctors. Until they attained the rank of surgeon-major in the old days, the only title they could lay claim to was the ordinary Mr., which in the army is the right of a warrant officer. It was probably for this reason that they received almost universally the brevet rank of doctor in military circles. Under these circumstances it was not only an act of justice, as between officers of one department and another, but it was an act of the highest expediency to give rank to officers who had none. F. P.
Is not the desire " to pose as copper captains " caused by the fact that so many so-called "doctors" are not doctors at all, but merely Bachelors of Medicine or licentiates of the different colleges 1 Many medical men who call themselves, and are called doctors, do not hold a doctor's degree, but are merely so called by the vulgar, in common with " horse doctors " or " cow doctors." A " copper captain" is certainly of higher rank than a doctor who is not a doctor. The
