496
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. i. JUNE 17. me.
rate, where ' The Psalmist ' is fully appre-
ciated : Union Chapel, Islington, and Morn-
ington Crescent Chapel, Camden Town."
And I also remember, as a boy, hearing at
the Old Gravel -Pit Chapel, Hackney,
Samuel Wesley's fine tune ' Thyatira ' sung
(352 'Psalmist').
One may search the modern hymnals from one end to the other and not find this tune's equal, much less its superior. There is a massive grandeur in it well-nigh irre- sistible. But it belongs to a class no longer acceptable to the editors of modern hymnals.
71 Downs Park Road, N.E. A * PAYNE -
THE KING'S OWN SCOTTISH BORDERERS (12 S. i. 248, 314, 356, 434). The following information may be of interest to your correspondent S. The six Minden regiments are the Suffolk, the Lancashire Fusiliers, the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, the King's Own Scottish Borderers, the Hampshire Regiment, and the King's Own (Yorkshire Light In- fantry). Of these regiments the Lancashire Fusiliers, the old 20th, are associated, I think, the most closely with the battle. They are called frequently " the Minden boys," and they have a " Minden March " and a " Minden yell." The story of the roses, which they gathered in the gardens and wore on the day of the battle, is well known, and in recent years they have been authorized to bear on their colours the red rose, which, although it cannot be said that the roses worn in the battle were red, records the association of the regiment with Minden, and also with the county of Lan- caster.
The K.O.S.B. keep also Aug. 1, Minden Day, and wear roses in their caps on the anniversary. I am unable, however, to find evidence that the red tufts, to which your correspondent alludes, have any reference to the day. Moreover, those tufts are, I believe, of -quite recent date. A well-known officer and historian of the Lancashire Fusiliers, who has met many officers of the K.O.S.B., tells me that a former commanding officer of the K.O.S.B. informed him that until a battalion of that regiment met the 2nd Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers in Devonport some years ago, his regiment had never worn roses on Minden Day, and that they wore them then for the first time by way of chaff. Athletic sports, too, were held on that occasion as usual by the Lanca- shire Fusiliers, but the battalion of the K.O.S.B., side by side with them, did not hold any such sports. If that be so, the red-tuft theory seems to lack confirmation.
I was present with my friend, the above-
mentioned officer, on Sunday, Aug. 1, 1909 y
at the 150th celebration of the Battle of
Minden. We were the only Englishmen
there, and our story of the roses was not
known to our hosts, who were much inter-
ested in it, with the result that the Landrat
of Minden sent me some red -rose trees, which
are now blooming in my garden at home.
LEES KNOWLES, Bt.
Westwood, Pendlebury.
ACCIDENTAL LIKENESSES (12 S. i. 348 r 438). Among accidental likenesses in natural scenery the following deserve men- tion :
1. The striking likeness to the profile of a human face presented by the cliff in which the Overtoil hills end, just above Frodshanv in Cheshire. It is best seen as you go from Chester by rail.
2. Perhaps even more remarkable than this, though not so well known, is the like- ness to the Duke of Wellington (some, I believe, say to William III.) shown by a rock overlooking the Lledr Valley on the right hand, just beyond the first bridge over the- Lledr on the way to Dolwyddelan. The face is seen looking upwards as if in sleep. In this connexion one cannot but recall the finest of Hawthorne's ' Twice - Told Tales ' ('The Great Stone Face'), and the moral it carries.
3. Different in kind from the above, but equally worthy of note, is the close resem- blance to a serpent's head, half seen above the sea, presented by the western extremities of the Great Orme's Head and Puffin Island,. as viewed from the Lavan Sands. To this likeness, no doubt, the Great Orme owes its name.
The resemblances of cloud-scenery are an endless subject ; but I may mention two instances that have left permanent im- pressions on my mind. The stranger of the two was the silhouette of a singularly noble face of the Greek type formed by the pro- jecting edge of a dark cloud on the disc of the setting sun above Anglesey. The effect was that of a cameo, black on red, indescrib- ably beautiful. The other was the figure of a huge lion with open jaws, formed by a cumulus cloud, that once followed my train, from Banbury to Reading, changing shape a little, but retaining the likeness nearly the whole way. An incipient influenza that proved severe must have made me morbidly impressionable, for impressed I was almost to the point of terror. C. C. B
