In Thackery's Life of the Earl of Chatham is mentioned the following anecdote, which I have often seen otherwise applied: George II. was once expressing his admiration of Wolfe, when some one observed that the General was mad. "Oh! mad is he?" said the King; "then I wish he would bite some of my other generals." Other information occurs in the same work.
I have learnt that a family named Wolfe was settled at Saffron Walden, Essex, in the last century, and the obituary of Sylvanus Urban for 1794, p. 770., records the death of the lady of Thomas Wolfe, Esq., of that place. Does this give a clue as to the county in which George Wolfe settled?
I had intended to have applied myself to "NOTES AND QUERIES" relative to our hero; and though I have been anticipated, I will still endeavour to follow up my enquiries, and all I can obtain shall be at the service of Ȝ., in the hope that something substantial may be done to rescue from the comparative oblivion the life of one of England's greatest sons.
H. G. D.
"FLEMISH ACCOUNT."
(Vol. i., p. 8.)
The following examples may serve as further illustrations towards determining the origin and use of the expression.
I. "Within this hall neither rich nor yett poore
Wold do for me ought although I shold dye.
Which seeing, I gat me out of the doore,
Where Flemynges began on me for to cry,