قراءة كتاب Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 110, December 6, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.

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Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 110, December 6, 1851
A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.

Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 110, December 6, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.

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me from these sufferings [sea-sickness], though in former trials I never could overcome it", &c.

I cordially assent to your encomium on England's young general.

II.—To YUNAFF.

The lady to whom the affectionate and touching lines you have quoted were addressed was Miss Louther, a sister of Sir James Louther; rich, highly accomplished, and most amiable. Wolfe was to have been married to her, had he returned from Quebec. She was very averse to his accepting the command. But nothing could stay his military ardour, even though in indifferent health. Well might the epithet be applied to him—"favourite son of Minerva."

Miss Louther was an object of general sympathy, after her brave lover's fall; and some of the periodicals of the day contain beautiful verses, addressed to her, appropriate to the occasion. This lady's name is not mentioned in any of Wolfe's letters in my possession; but an allusion is made to her incidentally. She was a favourite with the old general and Mrs. Wolfe. In one of the early letters a graphic description is given by young Wolfe of another lady of rank, with whom he was much smitten. That was before he paid his addresses, however, to Miss Louther. But I do not feel at liberty to break the seal of confidence under which this information was communicated in Wolfe's letter, though at the distance of one hundred years, by mentioning farther particulars.

May I ask if the verses in your possession are signed by Wolfe; or in his autograph; and dated? It would be very interesting to have precise information, tending to identity Wolfe as the author of these lines.

III.—To W. A.

I shall be glad to know the contents of the petition, dated February, 1746, and of the six letters mentioned by you. They may throw some light on Wolfe's history. Will you allow me to communicate with you on this subject, by letter, through the Editor, as I reside at a distance from London?

IV.—To J. H. M.

The packet of Wolfe's letters in my possession was never shown to Southey. They were discovered only three years ago. I believe Southey intended to write a memoir of Wolfe, but I am not aware that he carried his intentions into effect. The letters in my care were published in Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, December, 1849, under the title "Original Correspondence of General Wolfe." I shall feel obliged by any information you possess regarding the other collection of Wolfe's letters which you believe to exist. Pray, where are they to be seen?

Ȝ.

P.S.—Since expressing my acknowledgments to the other gentlemen who have kindly answered some of my inquiries respecting Wolfe, I have had the pleasure to peruse the information communicated by J. R. (Cork), and I beg to thank him for his courtesy. The sketch he has given of Wolfe's ancestors is very interesting, the more so, as J. R. mentions he is himself connected with Wolfe's family. Would J. R. be kind enough to supply information on the following additional points, viz.:

1. In which of the English counties did Captain George Wolfe, who escaped after the siege of Limerick, settle?

2. Was the son of this officer (father of General Edward Wolfe) also a military man, or a civilian; and what was his Christian name?

3. The birth-place of General Edward Wolfe, father of the hero of Quebec.

Answers to these Queries would connect some of the broken links in the history of one of the most gallant and skilful young generals that England ever entrusted with her armies.

Ȝ.

General Wolfe's executor was General Warde, of the family of Squerries, near Westerham, by whom the epitaph was written, which is now over the south door of Westerham church. General Warde's nephew and executor was General George Warde, who by that means became possessed of several very interesting objects, viz., an original portrait of Wolfe, representing him with his natural red hair. After some time the natural red was converted, by water colours, into a powdered wig; consequently a sponge and clean water would restore it to its original state. Another portrait of Wolfe painted after his death by West; he is represented sitting and consulting a plan of military operations. West has given him the same countenance in which he appears in the celebrated picture of his death. When West was offered the original portrait on which to form this picture, he declined making use of it, as he had already committed himself in the historical portrait, and it would not do for him to alter it, and send out in his name two different portraits. Gen. G. Warde also possessed Wolfe's short sword and black leather letter-case, and a collection of original letters; among which was one of much interest, where Wolfe, mentioning the flattering terms in which he was spoken of by the public and high military authorities, says, that unwarranted expectations were raised, and that to maintain his reputation he might be driven into some desperate undertaking.

I write all this from memory, but my details cannot be very far from correct.

GRIFFIN.

CHRISTIANITY, WHEN FIRST INTRODUCED INTO ORKNEY.

Christianity is believed to have been introduced into Orkney before the Norwegian conquest by King Harold Harfager, in 895; but the race who inhabited the country at that period are said to have been extirpated or driven out by the Scandinavians, who were worshippers of Odin and Thor. In the end of the tenth century, the King of Norway, Olaf Tryggveson, renounced Paganism for Christianity, which he forced both on Norway and Orkney at the point of the sword. M. Depping, in his Histoire des Expéditions Maritimes des Normands, tom. ii. p. 60. ed. 1826, states that Sigurd, the second Earl of Orkney (whose brother Ronald, Earl of Mære, the first Norwegian Earl of Orkney, was the common ancestor of the Earls of Orkney and Dukes of Normandy), drove the Christians out of Orkney. This was towards the beginning of the tenth century. It has been overlooked by Barry, the local historian, or unknown to him, who mentions (p. 123.) the introduction by King Olaf Tryggveson as either the first introduction, or at least the final establishment of the Christian religion. I have looked into Torfæus' Orcades, the Orknayinga Saga, and the Sagas of the two kings, Harold Harfager and Olaf Tryggveson, in Mr. Laing's translation of Snow's Hermskringla, and have not found the expulsion of the Christians by Sigurd mentioned in any of those works. Will some of your learned correspondents be so obliging as to point out M. Depping's authority for this fact? I have just now fallen in with a curious example of the rude Christianity of the Northmen, who worshipped both Thor and Christ, and the passage is perhaps worth quoting. Torfæus, in his Orcades, p. 15., mentions a Scandinavian chief called Helgius, who lived in Iceland about 888, and says:

"Christianis sacris quibus infans initiatus est, per totam vitam adhæsit, valde tamen in religionis articulis rudis; nam Thorem, ad ardua negotia, itineraque maritima feliciter expediunda, invocandum, cætera Christum dictitavit, tanquam cum Thore divisum imperium habentem. Simile Witichendus Monachus et Sigebertus Gemlansensis, de Danis, in primis religionis incunabulis, prodidere."

W. H. F.

THE ROMAN INDEX EXPURGATORIUS OF 1607.

This work, both in the original edition, and in the reprint of Bergomi, 1608, is reputed to be of extreme rarity. Mr. Mendham, in his Literary Policy of the Church of Rome Exhibited, in an Account of her Damnatory Catalogues or Indices, both Prohibitory and Expurgatory, &c., 2nd ed., London, 1830, calls it "perhaps the most

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