"In 1729 he (Cumming) was induced, by a dream of Lady Cumming's, to undertake a voyage to America, for the purpose of visiting the Cherokee nations. He left England on the 13th of September, and arrived at Charlestown on the 5th of December. On the 11th of March following he set out for the Indians' country; on the 3rd of April, 1730, he was crowned commander and chief ruler of the Cherokee nations, in a general meeting of chiefs at Nequisee among the mountains; he returned to Charlestown the 13th of April with six Indian chiefs, and on the 5th of June arrived at Dover; on the 18th he presented the chiefs to George II. at Windsor, where he laid his crown at his Majesty's feet; the chiefs also did homage, laying four scalps at the king's feet, to show that they were an overmatch for their enemies, and five eagles' tails as emblems of victory. These circumstances are confirmed by the newspapers of that time, which are full of the proceedings of the Cherokees whilst in England, and speak of them as brought over by Sir Alexander Cumming. Their portraits were engraved on a single sheet. In 1766 Archbishop Secker appointed him one of the pensioners in the Charter-House, where he died at a very advanced age."
His son, who succeeded him in the title, became deranged in his intellects, and died about three years ago, in a state of indigence, in the neighbourhood of Red Lion Street, Whitechapel. He had been a captain in the army: the title became extinct at his death.
C. G.
Junius (Vol. iii., p. 411.; Vol. v., p. 159.).
—As in No. 120. J. R. assumes the acrimonious bearing of M. J. in No. 82., I am induced to refer to the stale, flat, and unprofitable question of the authenticity of the Letters of Junius. If those gentlemen will refer to No. 82., p. 412., fifth line from the bottom, and read "who once" for "and once," they will find any acrimony unnecessary; and that the use of the word "and" was an accidental error. This useless riddle has occupied too much of the time of able and of idle men, on what is, moreover, a worthless subject. Dr. Johnson, in his paper on the "Falkland Islands," has given a severe but just criticism on Junius, and truly says, that most readers mistake the "venom of the shaft for the vigour of the bow." Junius has laid down no great principle, illustrated no political truth, nor given any clear and irrefutable proof of contemporaneous history. To attribute reprehensible motives always shows lowness and vulgarity of mind. Junius gives one the idea of a democratic ruff mounted on stilts going, from natural predilection, through the mud and dirt, and splashing it wantonly, so as to bespatter and annoy a few, and to excite the attention and surprise of many; but never to produce a conviction of being just and true on any one.—Requiescat in pace.
Hell-Rake (Vol. v., p. 162.).
—The explanation given by J. SANSOM of the Devonian use of the term helling or heleing, signifying the roof or covering of a church, corresponds to the Midland meaning of the word hilling, s. bed-clothes or coverlet: "She has got no hilling at all." Ger. Hüllen, to wrap one's self up; Saxon, hilan. In Warwickshire used for the covers of a book: "It is the hilling which makes it so expensive." Hilled, p. hilled up, i.e. covered with bed-clothes. Leicestershire is particularly rich in quaint phrases and proverbs.
In Leicestershire it is common for the wives of farmers to style their husbands "the Master," and husbands to call their wives "Mamy;" and a labourer will often distinguish his wife by the title of "the O'man." There are people now living who remember the time when Goody and Dame, "Gaffer" and "Gammer," were in vogue among the peasantry.
KT.