Martello Towers (Vol. ii., p. 9.).—A misspelling for Mortella towers. They are named after a tower which commands the entrance to the harbour of St. Fiorenzo, in Corsica; but they are common along the coasts of the Mediterranean. They were built along the low parts of the Sussex and Kent coasts, in consequence of the powerful defence made by Ensign Le Tellier at the Tower of Mortella, with a garrison of 38 men only, on 8th February, 1794, against an attack by sea, made by the Fortitude and Juno, part of Lord Hood's fleet, and by land, made by a detachment of troops under Major-General Dundas. The two ships kept up a fire for two hours and a half without making any material impression, and then hauled out of gun-shot, the Fortitude having lost 6 men killed and 56 wounded, 8 dangerously. The troops were disembarked, and took possession of a height comnanding the tower; and their battering was as unsuccessful, till a hot shot fell and set fire to the bass-junk, with which, to the depth of five feet, the immensely thick parapet wall was lined. This induced the small garrison, of whom two were mortally wounded, to surrender. The tower mounted only one 6 and two 18-pounders, and the carriage of one of the latter had been rendered unserviceable during the cannonade. (See James' Naval History, vol. i. p. 285.) The towers along the English coast extend from Hythe to Seaford, where the last tower is numbered 74, at intervals of about a quarter of a mile, except where the coast is protected by the cliffs. The tower at Seaford is 32 feet high, with a circumference of 136 feet at the base, and gradually tapering to 90 feet at the top. The wall is 6 feet thick at the top next the sea, and 2 feet on the land side. The cost of each tower was very large,—from 15,000l. to 20,000l. I am not aware of any blue book on the subject; blue books were not so much in vogue at the time of their erection, or perhaps a little less would have been spent in these erections, and a little more pains would have been taken to see that they were properly built. Some have been undermined by the sea and washed down already; in others, the facing of brick has crumbled away; and in all the fancied security which the original tower taught us to expect would be probably lessened were the English towers subjected to an attack.
WM. DURRANT COOPER.
"A Frog he would a-wooing go" (Vol. ii., p. 75.).—I know not whether this foolish ballad is worth the notice it has already received, but I can venture to say that the supposed Irish version is but a modern variance from the old ballad which I remember above sixty years, and which began—
"There was a frog lived in a well,
Heigho crowdie!
And a merry mouse in a mill,
With a howdie crowdie, &c. &c.
This frog he would a-wooing go,
Heigho crowdie!
Whether his mother would let him or no,