R. D. H.
Pigeons.
—The popular belief, that a person cannot die with his head resting on a pillow containing pigeons' feathers, is well known; but the following will probably be as new to many of your readers as it was to myself. On applying the other day to a highly respectable farmer's wife to know if she had any pigeons ready to eat, as a sick person had expressed a longing for one, she said, "Ah! poor fellow! is he so far gone? A pigeon is generally almost the last thing they want; I have supplied many a one for the like purpose."
J. EASTWOOD.
Minor Notes.
Lord Nelson's Dress and Sword at Trafalgar.
—Perhaps you may think it worth while to preserve a note written by the late Rev. Dr. Scott on the 498th page of the second volume of Harrison's Life of Lord Nelson, in contradiction of a bombastic description therein given of the admiral's dress and appearance at the battle of Trafalgar.
"This is wrong, he wore the same coat he did the day before; nor was there the smallest alteration in his dress whatsoever from other days. In this action he had not his sword with him on deck, which in other actions he had always carried.—A. J. Scott."
Dr. Scott was the chaplain and friend in whose arms Lord Nelson died.
When the late Sir N. Harris Nicolas was engaged in a controversy in The Times, respecting the sale of Lord Nelson's sword, I sent him a copy of the above note, and told him I had heard Dr. Scott say that "the sword was left hanging in the admiral's cabin." It was not found necessary to make use of this testimony, as the dispute had subsided.