I find in accounts of the war, that the winter commenced then (1812) on November 7, N. S., with deep snow. Last year (1852) it commenced at St. Petersburg on October 16, N. S., as noted in my diary, with snow, which has remained on the ground ever since, accompanied at times with very severe frost.
Query: Can November 7, N. S., be the correct date? If it is, this last winter's commencement must be unprecedented; as I have always heard it remarked, that the winter began unusually early the year the French were at Moscow.
I may mention as a note, that by the last accounts from Russia, they say the ice in the Gulf of Finland was four and a half feet thick.
J. S. A.
Old Broad Street.
[Queries.]
SATIRICAL PLAYING CARDS.
I have lately been much interested in a pack of cards, complete (fifty-two) in their number and suits, engraved in the time of the Commonwealth at the Hague, and representing the chief personages and the principal events of that period. I have been able, by reference to historical authorities, and, in particular, to the Ballads and Broadsides in the British Museum, forming the collection presented to the nation by George III., to explain the whole pack, with the exception of two. These are "Parry, Father and Sonne," and "Simonias slandering the High Priest, to get his Place." The former simply represents two figures, without any thing to offer a clue to any event; the latter gives the representation of six Puritans, forming an assembly, who are being addressed by one of the body. I cannot find any notice of Simonias, or to whom such a name has been applied, in any of the Commonwealth tracts with which I am acquainted. Probably some of your readers can help me in this matter. Of these cards I can find no notice: they are not mentioned by Singer, and appear to have escaped the indefatigable research of Mr. Chatto. They were purchased at the Hague, more than thirty years since, for thirty-three guineas, and are exceedingly curious: indeed they form a bundle of Commonwealth tracts. All the principal persons of the time figure in some characteristic representation, and the private scandal is also recognised in them. Thus, Oliver is to be found under a strong conflict with Lady Lambert; Sir Harry Mildmay solicits a citizen's wife, for which his own corrects him; and he is also being beaten by a footboy,—which event is alluded to in Butler's Posthumous Works. General Lambert, of whom your pages have given some interesting information, is represented as "The Knight of the Golden Tulip," evidently in reference to his withdrawal with a pension to Holland, where he is known to have ardently cultivated flowers, and to have drawn them in a very superior manner. I hope this communication may enable me to complete my account of these cards, the explanation of which may probably throw light upon some of the stirring events of that extraordinary period of our history.
T. J. Pettigrew.