Replies.

GENERAL JAMES WOLFE.
(Vol. iv., p. 438.)

In answer to the Queries put to me by Ȝ. I have to state—

1st. That I am totally unable to give any information relative to the family of Mrs. Wolfe.

2d. Edward Wolfe was not, I believe, a native of Westerham, and only resided there when not on active duty. His wife lived there some years, but could only have been staying temporarily in the house where her son was born, as it always was the residence of the vicar; the room, named after him, is still pointed out where James Wolfe drew his first breath. Quebec House was only rented by Edward Wolfe: to this house James was very early removed, and, as I have always been informed, always resided in it till he entered on his military studies; if so, he must have been educated in the neighbourhood.

3rd. Sir Jeffrey Amherst is the same person as Ȝ. alludes to; I was wrong, perhaps, in using the term "patronise." Wolfe and he were, however, staunch friends through life; Amherst ever encouraged Wolfe, who was liable to fits of despondency, and always represented him at head quarters as one worthy of a high command in those trying times. Amherst was afterwards executor to Mrs. Wolfe's will.

I feel gratified that the letters mentioned corroborate my assertion as to his birth; not only is the date I gave on the tablet in Westerham church, but was informed of the various accounts by a former curate of Westerham, who assured me the date on the tablet was the correct one.

The circumstance of Barré's friendship with Wolfe is interesting, and I am now enabled to mention another friend, on whom Wolfe equally relied, viz. General Hugh Debbieg, who fought with him at Louisbourgh, and afterwards followed him to Quebec, where he directed part of the engineering operations.

The soldier who supported Wolfe after he received his death-wound, was named James; he was in the artillery; he likewise served at Louisbourgh and Quebec, and survived till 1812, when he died at Carlisle Castle, where he had been stationed for many years as a bombardier, aged ninety-two.

In no notice of him I have read, is he mentioned as having been at Carthagena. The Penny Cyclopædia mentions the chief engagements he was in, but makes no allusion to Carthagena whatever.

Southey and Gleig contemplated writing the life of Wolfe; but some unknown circumstance prevented the completion of so laudable a design.

In George's Westerham Journal is a curious account of Mrs. Wolfe adopting a young man named Jacob Wolfe, and of Lord Amherst obtaining, by her representations, a place of 700l. a-year for him. It is extracted from Trusler's Memoirs; but being too lengthy for insertion in "NOTES AND QUERIES," I will copy it out, if Ȝ. wishes to have it.

In Thackery's Life of the Earl of Chatham is mentioned the following anecdote, which I have often seen otherwise applied: George II. was once expressing his admiration of Wolfe, when some one observed that the General was mad. "Oh! mad is he?" said the King; "then I wish he would bite some of my other generals." Other information occurs in the same work.

I have learnt that a family named Wolfe was settled at Saffron Walden, Essex, in the last century, and the obituary of Sylvanus Urban for 1794, p. 770., records the death of the lady of Thomas Wolfe, Esq., of that place. Does this give a clue as to the county in which George Wolfe settled?

I had intended to have applied myself to "NOTES AND QUERIES" relative to our hero; and though I have been anticipated, I will still endeavour to follow up my enquiries, and all I can obtain shall be at the service of Ȝ., in the hope that something substantial may be done to rescue from the comparative oblivion the life of one of England's greatest sons.

H. G. D.

"FLEMISH ACCOUNT."
(Vol. i., p. 8.)

The following examples may serve as further illustrations towards determining the origin and use of the expression.

I. "Within this hall neither rich nor yett poore

Wold do for me ought although I shold dye.

Which seeing, I gat me out of the doore,

Where Flemynges began on me for to cry,

'Master, what will you copen or by?

Fyne felt hattes, or spectacles to reede?

Lay down your silver, and here you may speede'"

Minor Poems of Lydgate [1420]. London, Lackpenny. Ed. Per. Soc. 1840, p. 105.

This is curious, as indicating that the word "Fleming," in the fifteenth century, had become almost synonymous with "trader."

II. "Julia. I have heard enough of England: have you nothing to return upon the Netherlands?

"Beamont. Faith, very little to any purpose. He has been beforehand with us, as his countrymen are in their Trade, and taken up so many vices for the use of England, that he has left almost none for the Low Countries."

Dryden's Dutch at Amboyna, Act II. Sc. 8.

"Towerson. Tell 'em I seal that service with my blood;
And, dying, wish to all their factories,
And all the famous merchants of our isle,
That wealth their generous industry deserves,
But dare not hope it with Dutch partnership."

Ibid. Act V. Sc. last.

III. "Yet, Urswick,
We'll not abate one penny, what in Parliament
Hath freely been contributed; we must not:
Money gives soul to action. Our competitor
The Flemish counterfeit, with James of Scotland,
Will prove what courage need and want can nourish,
Without the food of fit supplies."

Ford [1634], Perkin Warbeck, Act III. Sc. 1.

"Cuddy. Yes, I was ten days together there the last Shrove-tide.

"2nd Clown. How could that be, when there are but seven days in the week?

"Cuddy. Prithee, peace! I reckon stila nova as a traveller; thou understandest as a freshwater farmer, that never saw'st a week beyond sea. Ask any soldier that ever received his pay but in the Low Countries, and he'll tell thee there are Eight days in the week there hard by. How dost thou think they rise in High Germany, Italy, and those remoter places?"

Rowley, Decker, and Ford. Witch of Edmonton, Act III. Sc. 1.

"This passage is explained by the following lines of Butler:

'The soldier does it every day,

Eight to the week, for sixpence pay.'"

Note by the Editor, Hartley Coleridge, in the Glossary. Ed. London: Moxon, 1839.

IV. De Thou gives the following anecdote, when speaking of a defeat, more disgraceful, however, than disastrous, which befel the French on the borders of Flanders, A.D. 1555, in which many nobles and gentry were captured by the Flemings:

"Cùm delectus illi ex CCCC peditibus et MCC equitibus conflati, quorum dux erat Jallius ex primariâ in Andibus nobilitatæ vir, in hosticum excurrissent, et magnas prædas abegissent, dum redirent solutis ordinibus homines ut plurimum militiæ ignari, inter Rigiacum Atrebatum et Bapalmam, ab Alsimontio loci illius præfecto secus viam et oppositam silvam ac subjectum rivum, insidiis excepti sunt, et ab exiguo numero cæsi, ac majorem partem, cum effugium non esset capti, non sine verborum ludibrio, nimirum, Nobiles Galliæ non appensos a Belgis capi! Quod dicebatur allusione factâ ad Monetæ aureæ Anglicanæ genus, quod vulgò nobilium nomine indigitatur."

Thuani Hist. lib. XVI. ad. a. 1555, tom. i. p. 494. ed. Genev. 1626.

"When these levies, made up of 400 foot soldiers and 1200 horsemen, whose leader was La Jaille, one of the principal nobility of Anjou, had made a foray on the enemy's border, and driven off an immense booty; upon their retreat, which, being men for the most part utterly ignorant of military service, they conducted with great disorder, between Arras and Bapaume, they were entrapped by Osmand, who commanded in those parts, into an ambuscade set for them close to their line of march, with a wood in their front and a river below them. A few of them were slain, but the greater part, inasmuch as there was no way of escape, were taken prisoners: which gave occasion to the following satirical play upon words: 'That Flemings had taken French Nobles without first weighing them!' The play on the words, of course, alluding to the English gold coins commonly known by the name of 'the noble.'"

The last instance shows the common opinion entertained of the Flemings, as being traders far too keen to take any coin except it were of full tale and weight. And although the expression "Flemish account" may have originated from their practice as merchants, yet, from the second instance quoted from Ford and Decker, it may not unreasonably be inferred that it received greater currency from their method of paying the soldiers who also served as mercenaries in the wars of the Low Countries.

E. A. D.

POPE AND FLATMAN.
(Vol. iv., p. 132.)

MR. BARTON, in his "Note" on Pope and Flatman, inquires whether the coincidence mentioned by him has been noticed before. I believe it has, by more than one commentator, and among others by Croly in his edition of Pope, London, E. J. Valpy, 1835. Dr. Croly introduces the ode of "The Dying Christian to his Soul," with these remarks, from which it will be seen that Flatman was not the only source of Pope's inspiration:

"Pope, in a letter to Steele, at whose suggestion he had adopted the subject, gives this brief history of his composition:—'You have it,' he says, 'as Cowley calls it, warm from the brain; it came to me the first moment I waked this morning; yet you'll see it was not so absolutely inspiration but that I had in my head not only the verses of Hadrian, but the fine fragment of Sappho.' Pope omitted to observe the close similarity of his lines to those of Flatman, an obscure writer of the century before. Between his rough versification and the polished elegance of Pope there can be no comparison; but the thoughts are the same. Prior translated Hadrian's ode with more fidelity, but less good fortune."

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia.

DERIVATION OF "LONDON."
(Vol. iv., p. 437.)

I beg to suggest that the word London is derived from the Celtic Luan, "the moon," and dun, "a city on a hill;" thus Luandun would mean "the city of the moon," i.e. of "the temple of the moon." I have seen it stated somewhere, that the site of St. Paul's was formerly that of a temple of Diana: if this be true, it gives weight to my definition of the word. I would also suggest that the name of Greenwich is indicative of the religious worship of the ancient people of Britain; as Grian is "the sun" in Celtic, and no doubt Greenwich could boast of its "Grynean grove."

"His tibi Grynæi nemoris dicatur origo:

Ne quis sit lucus, quo se plus jactet Apollo."

FRANCIS CROSSLEY.

M. C. E. is referred to the two following passages from Fuller, if he has not already met with them:—

"That it was so termed from Lan Dian, a temple of Diana (standing where now St. Paul's doth) is most likely, in my opinion."—Worthies, art. "London."

"This renders their conceit not unlikely who will have London so called from Llan Dian, which signifieth in British, 'the temple of Diana.'"—Church History, i. § 2.

J. EASTWOOD.

The name of London is certainly older than the Romans, and is probably, therefore, as your correspondent says, British. Its significance, if any, therefore, is to be sought in Welsh. Now, your correspondent is certainly quite wrong as to the meaning of Llan in Welsh. It always means, here at any rate, church, not plain. Possibly your correspondent was thinking of Llano. The word is written in Welsh Llyndon, or Llyndain, which also speaks against its being compounded with Llan. The word certainly might mean anything: but I know of no satisfactory explanation having been given for it as yet. The only words for town in Welsh are, I believe, tre "city," or caer "castle,"—as parts of compound words, I mean.

SC.

Carmarthen.

I cannot think that M. C. E.'s etymology of London is a correct one; nor did I know that the British Llan means a "level place generally." I take it that originally Llan meant no more than "an inclosure," as we see in winllan, "a vineyard," "an inclosure for vines;" perllan, "an orchard" (literally a pear-yard). As churchyards were probably for some time almost the only inclosures in their districts, this will explain why the names of churches in Wales so commonly begin with Llan. Llanvair, Llanilltid, Llandilo, &c. were the inclosures, or yards, in which churches dedicated to St. Mary, St. Iltyd, St. Teilo, &c. were built, though in the course of time these names became applied to the churches themselves. The word don is nothing more than din, or dinas, "a fortress," as we see in Lugdunum, Virodunum, Londinium, Dumbarton, Dunmore, &c.

Old chroniclers say that the city of London was nearly, if not entirely, surrounded by water, which on the north, north-east, and south sides spread out into considerable lakes. Present names of localities in and about the City show traces of this. Finsbury and Moorfields take their names from the fens and moors, or meres, which were partially reclaimed from the lake which spread to the north and north-east, almost from the city wall. To the south the Thames extended far beyond its present boundary, forming an extensive lake. Fenchurch Street, Turnmill Street, Fleet Street, show that there were streams and fens to the east and west.

Bearing in mind that British names were generally descriptive of the locality, may not the situation of old London furnish a clue to its etymology? Was not London then truly and descriptively Llyn-dun, or Llin-dun, the fortified place or fortress in or on the lyn or lake?

CUDYN GWYN.