John. I. Dredge.
Louis Napoleon, President of France (Vol. vi., p. 435.).—Modern history furnishes more than one instance of the anomaly adverted to by Mr. Relton. After the murder of Louis XVI., his son, though he never ascended the throne, was recognized by the legitimists of the day as Louis XVII.; and on the restoration of the family in 1815, the Comte d'Artois assumed the title of Louis XVIII. In this way the revolutionary chasm was, as it were, bridged over, and the dynasty of the elder Bourbons exhibited on an uninterrupted line.
So it is as regards the Napoleon dynasty. The Duke de Reichstadt, Napoleon's son, was in the same predicament as the son of Louis XVI. He received from the Bonapartists the title of Napoleon II.; and Louis Napoleon therefore becomes Napoleon III.
A similar case might have occurred to the House of Stuart, if the Pretender's son, who began by taking the title of Henry IX., had not extinguished the hopes and pretensions of his ill-fated race, by exchanging his "crown" for a cardinal's hat. And to-morrow (though that is perhaps a little too soon) the same thing may happen again to the elder branch of the Bourbons, should the Comte de Chambord (Henry V.) leave a son of that name to ascend the throne as Henry VI.
Henry H. Breen.
St. Lucia.
Chapel Plaster (Vol. vii., p. 37.).—For an explanation of the word plaster, on which your correspondent has offered so elaborate a commentary, I would beg to refer him to White's Selborne (vol. i. p. 5; vol. ii. p. 340., 4to. edit.):
"In the centre of the village, and near the church, is a square piece of ground surrounded by houses, and vulgarly called The Plestor. In the midst of this spot stood, in old times, a vast oak.... This venerable tree, surrounded with stone steps, and seats above them, was the delight of old and young, and a place of much resort in summer evenings; where the former sat in grave debate, while the latter frolicked and danced before them.
"This Pleystow (Saxon, Plegstow), locus ludorum, or play-place, continues still, as in old times, to be the scene of recreation for the youths and children of the neighbourhood."
Chapel Plaster is, I believe, an outlying hamlet belonging to the parish of Box; and the name imports merely what in Scotland would be called "the Kirk on the Green"—the chapel built on, or near to, the playground of the villagers.
The fascinating volumes above named will afford a reply to an unanswered Query in your second volume (Vol. ii., p. 266.), the meaning of the local word Hanger: