H. N. E.
Bitton Vicarage, Oct. 1851.
Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester (Vol. iv., p. 274.).
—Is it worth while, in reference to SIGMA'S inquiry as to the name of the author of one of the Bishop of Worcester's works, to tell you a droll mistake on that point, which I have before my eyes? I have the work in a fine old binding, which in the gilt lettering on the back, states it to be by Ed. Wigorn. This reminds me of another similar naïveté. When the late Bishop Prettyman, then Bishop of Winchester, wrote to propose to Mr. Murray to publish his life of Pitt, Mr. Murray, following the signature too literally, addressed his answer to George Winton, Esq.
C.
Yankee Doodle (Vol. iv., p. 344.).
—During the attacks upon the French outposts in 1755 in America, Governor Shirley and General Jackson led the force directed against the enemy lying at Niagara and Frontenac. In the early part of June, whilst these troops were stationed on the banks of the Hudson, near Albany, the descendants of the "Pilgrim fathers" flocked in from the eastern provinces; never was seen such a motley regiment as took up its position on the left wing of the British army. The band played music some two centuries of age, officers and privates had adopted regimentals each man after his own fashion; one wore a flowing wig, while his neighbour rejoiced in hair cropped closely to the head; this one had a coat with wonderful long skirts, his fellow marched without his upper garment; various as the colours of the rainbow were the clothes worn by the gallant band. It so happened that there was a certain Dr. Shuckburgh, wit, musician, and surgeon, and one evening after mess he produced a tune, which he earnestly commended as a well-known piece of military music, to the officers of the militia. The joke succeeded, and Yankee Doodle was hailed by acclamation "their own march." During the unhappy war between the American colonies and the mother country, that quaint merry tune animated the soldiers of Washington; it is now the national air of the United States.
MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A.
General Wolfe (Vol. iv., pp. 271. 323.).
—Some of the inquiries made at p. 271. respecting General Wolfe have been subsequently answered, I find, in p. 323., but no mention appears of his family beyond his father and mother; a deficiency which I can in some degree supply by ascending to his great-grandfather, Captain George Woulfe (sic), of whom we are told by Ferrar, in his History of Limerick, there printed by A. Watson, in 1787,—