Minor Notes.
Lord Nelson's Dress and Sword at Trafalgar.
—Perhaps you may think it worth while to preserve a note written by the late Rev. Dr. Scott on the 498th page of the second volume of Harrison's Life of Lord Nelson, in contradiction of a bombastic description therein given of the admiral's dress and appearance at the battle of Trafalgar.
"This is wrong, he wore the same coat he did the day before; nor was there the smallest alteration in his dress whatsoever from other days. In this action he had not his sword with him on deck, which in other actions he had always carried.—A. J. Scott."
Dr. Scott was the chaplain and friend in whose arms Lord Nelson died.
When the late Sir N. Harris Nicolas was engaged in a controversy in The Times, respecting the sale of Lord Nelson's sword, I sent him a copy of the above note, and told him I had heard Dr. Scott say that "the sword was left hanging in the admiral's cabin." It was not found necessary to make use of this testimony, as the dispute had subsided.
ALFRED GATTY.
Crucifix of Mary Queen of Scots.
—The crucifix that belonged to this unfortunate queen, and which she is said to have held in her hands on the scaffold, is still preserved with great care by its present owners (a titled family in the neighbourhood of Winchester), and at whose seat I have frequently seen it. If I mistake not, the figure of our Saviour is of ivory, and the cross of ebony.
THE WHITE ROSE.
Jonah and the Whale.
—In No. 76., p. 275., MR. GALLATLY calls attention to the popular error in misquoting the expression from Genesis: "In the sweat of thy face," &c. There is another popular error which may not be known to some of your correspondents: it is generally supposed that Jonah is recorded in the book bearing his name as having been swallowed by a whale,—this is quite an error. The expressions is "a great fish," and no such word as whale occurs in the entire "Book of Jonah."
E. J. K.
Anachronisms of Painters.
—I send you a further addition to the "Anachronisms of Painters," mentioned in Vol. iii., p. 369., and, like them, not in D'Israeli's list.
My father (R. Robinson, of the Heath House, Wombourne) has in his collection a picture by Steenwyk, of the "Woman taken in Adultery," in which our Lord is made to write in Dutch! The scene also takes place in a church of the architecture of the thirteenth century!
G. T. R.
Wombourne, near Wolverhampton.