Pickard Family (Vol. ix., p. 10.).—The Pickard family are not from Normandy, but from Piccardy. Doubtless, many a Le Norman, Le Gascoign, and Le Piccard settled in this Country during the Plantagenet connexion with those provinces.
P. P.
"Man proposes, but God disposes" (Vol. viii., pp. 411. 552.).—Piers Ploughman's Vision, quoted by your correspondent Mr. Thomas, proves that the above saying was used prior to the time of Thomas à Kempis; but in adding that it did not originate with the author of the De Imitatione, your correspondent overlooked the view which attributes that wonderful work to John Gerson, a Benedictine Monk, between the years 1220 and 1240; and afterwards Abbat of the monastery of St. Stephen. (Vide De Imit. curâ Joh. Hrabiéta, 1847, Præfat., viii. et seq.)
Can any of your correspondents give other early quotations from the De Imitatione? The search after any such seems to have been much overlooked in determining the date of that work.
H. P.
Lincoln's Inn.
General Whitelocke (Vol. viii., p. 621.).—In reply to G. L. S., I well remember this unfortunate officer residing at Clifton, near Bristol, up to about the year 1826; but as I then removed to a distant part of the kingdom, I cannot say where the rest of his life was spent. Although I was then but young, the lapse of years has not effaced from my memory the melancholy gloom of his countenance. If the information G. L. S. is seeking should be of importance, I cannot but think he may obtain it on the traces which have been given him. To which I may add, that up to a late period a son of the General, who was brought up to the church, held a living near Malton, Yorkshire; indeed, I believe he still holds it.
D. N.'s information, that General Whitelocke fixed his residence in Somersetshire, may probably be correct; but it has occurred to me as just possible that Clifton was the place pointed to, inasmuch as it is a vulgar error, almost universal, that Bristol (of which Clifton may now be said to be merely the west end) is in Somersetshire; whereas the fact is, that the greater part of that city, and the whole of Clifton, are on the Gloucestershire side of the Avon, there the boundary between the two counties.
I may mention, that in a late number of Tait's Magazine, there was a tale, half fiction and half fact, but evidently meant to appear the latter, in which the narrator states that he was in the ranks in General Whitelocke's army; and in that fatal affair, in which he was engaged, the soldiers found that the flints had been removed from all the muskets, so as to prevent their returning the enemy's fire! And this by order of their General. Is not this a fresh invention? If so, it is a cruel one!
M. H. R.