Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 94, August 16, 1851 / A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.

When found, make a note of. —CAPTAIN CUTTLE.
VOL. IV.—No. 94.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 16. 1851.
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On two or three occasions in the NOTES AND QUERIES instances have been given of Traditions from remote periods through few hands, of which it would not be difficult to adduce numerous additional examples; but my present purpose is to mention some within my personal experience, or derived from authentic communication.
In 1781, and my eleventh year, a schoolfellow took me to see his great-grandmother, a Mrs. Arthur, in Limerick, then aged one hundred and eight years, whose recollection of that city's siege in 1691, when she was eighteen, was perfectly fresh and unimpaired, as, indeed, she was fond of showing by frequent and even unsolicited recurrence to its dread scenes, in which the women, history tells us, fearlessly participated. We are here then presented with an interval of one hundred and sixty years between a memorable event and my recollection of its narrative by a person actively engaged in it. The old lady's family had furnished a greater number of chief magistrates to Limerick than any other recorded in its annals.
Again in 1784, on a visit to my grandfather in the county of Limerick, during a school vacation, I heard him, then in his eighty-sixth year, say, that in 1714, on the accession to the British throne of the present royal dynasty, he heard in Cork, where he was at school, a conversation between several gentlemen on this change of the reigning family, when one of them, a Mr. Martin, said that he was born the same day as Charles II., on the 29th of May, 1631, and was present at the execution of Charles I., the 29th of January, 1649. His family then resided in London, where he joined Cromwell's Ironsides, and thence accompanied them to Ireland. The transfer to him of some forfeited property naturally induced him to settle there. Thus, between me and the eye-witness of the regicidal catastrophe, only one person intervenes.