376
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. viii. NOV. s, 1913;.
Westminster Hall, he soon obtained a large practice in it; so much so. that when he became a Q.C. the junior Bar had reason to be grateful for his promotion. I knew him well, and during the years that I was in practice in that Court I was often "with him" as his junior. I cannot say whether Serjeant Spinks was in any way related to him. Neither the Serjeant nor the Doctor has been accorded a niche in the 'D.N.B.' Wm. E. Browning.
Fire and New-Birth (11 S. viii. 325).—The following may interest W. H.-A.
When in charge of the first Atlantic cable station in Newfoundland, 1858, we gathered wild raspberries on certain spots along the track of the telegraph land-lines, and only on the track where the earth had been disturbed.
On making inquiries I was told that the wild raspberry made its appearance when the virgin soil was turned up, and also on the ground laid bare by forest fires. H. A. C. Saunders.
THE ROAR OF GUNS (11 8. viii. 269,
3 10). Apropos of the above subject, some
of your readers may possibly welcome
two more instances, if they have not
already appeared in .your columns. On
22 May. 1794, the firing of the heavy guns
at the Battle of Tournay in the Austrian
Netherlands was said to have been heard in
East Kent. And, more remarkable still,
the heavy firing in one of the Napoleonic
engagements in the English Channel was
heard at Penn in Buckinghamshire. This
latter story is. I think, mentioned in some
history I read of the orphanage established
in that village by Burke for the children of
the French emigres, but I cannot lay my
hand on the exact reference. Penn, one
ought to add, stands unusually high
BRADSTOW.
THE PILGRIM FATHERS : JOHN ALDEN (11 S. viii. 306), The term "Pilgrim Fathers " is used only of those 41 men who, with their families (amounting in all to 101 persons), landed in Cape Cod Harbour in December, 1620, and there founded the Colony of New Plymouth ; and of these, and these alone, I believe, of all the Puritan settlers in New England, it is true to say that they did not persecute in the name of religion. The Massachusetts Bay settlers and their colony were of later date, and did not amalgamate with those of New Plymouth until 1692. John Alden the first was one of the Fathers, and I need
hardly say that the fact that his son (if
Capt. John Alden of Boston was. as we
may suppose, his son) was persecuted doe<^
not make him a persecutor. It is a startling:
fact that twenty-one more than half
of these Fathers died within less than four
months of their landing. (See Prince's^
' New England Chronology ' in vol. ii. o
Arber's 'English Garner,' p. 412.)
C. C. B.
MOUNT KRAPAK (US. viii. 329). By the- date given in one of the extracts Voltaire had already settled down permanently at Ferney in France, where he spent the last twenty years of his life. The place is close- to the Swiss frontier, and can be reached by electric train from Geneva in about half an hour. The Krapacks are in reality the- Carpathian Mountains between Hungary and Austrian Poland ; but if a Mount Krapak exists anywhere else, it must be sought for at Ferney, or Ferney- Voltaire, as it is now officially called in honour of the- " patriarch of Ferney," who has practically founded the village. The chateau he for- merly occupied is about half a mile from, the tram terminus. L. L. K.
'FUDGE IN IRELAND' (US. viii. 329). This clever brochure was written (in a single- night, it was said) by my mother's brother, Andrew Meredith Graham, bookseller, of College Green, in collaboration with Pat Fitzpatrick, a shining light of the Irish Bar at that time. As the reading public took it for the work of " Thomas Brown the- Younger " (though it was noticeably inferior in style), the sale at first was rapid; but Fitzpatrick, in a fit of irrepressible vanity r soon divulged the names of the authors, and, as might have been expected, very few more copies of the book were asked for.
Andrew and his chum were somewhat noted wits in Dublin middle-class society. Squibs from their pens appeared from time- to time in the papers. My uncle died young the result, it was said, of fast living. HERBERT B. CLAYTON.
39, Renfrew Road, Lower Kennington Lane.
STATUE OF WILLIAM III., HOGHTOX- LANCASHIRE (11 S. viii. 328). This statue, which is of lead, is described and figured in. Mr. Lawrence Weaver's ' English Leadwork ' (1909), p. 149. Mr. Weaver attributes it to " some competent artist of the calibre- of Rysbrack or Roubiliac," but adds : " There is a directness and simplicity about this work which perhaps suggests it was done by an Englishman rather than by a