THE 69TH REGIMENT CALLED THE OLD AGAMEMNONS (5th S. xi. 329; xii. 14, 177.)As you do not appear to have received a satisfactory answer to the question, "Why did Nelson call the 69th or South Lincoln Regiment' the old Agamemnons'?" permit me to suggest one. According to James's Naval History there were two infantry regiments embarked in Lord Hood's fleet for the siege of Toulon in November, 1793. He does not name them. Nelson commanded the Agamemnon, 64, on that occasion. Is it not reasonable to conclude that the 69th was one of these, and that a part of them at least was in his ship? The history of the 69th has not been published, the Naval Chronicle does not go into such details, and I have found no contemporary account. James incidentally mentions officers of the 1st Royals, 11th, 18th, and Royal Artillery. He does not mention any officer of the 69th; but this negative evidence does not outweigh the strong probability that Nelson referred thus affectionately to the gallant 69th because they had served with him while he commanded the Agamemnon, which was from Jan., 1793, to April, 1796.

MILES.

I think this matter can be set at rest by an extract from James's Naval History, vol. ii. p. 40. Battle of St. Vincent, Captain, 74, Commodore Nelson, boarding the St. Nicholas ::

"We prefer giving what immediately ensued in the words of Commodore Nelson himself: The soldiers of the 69th, with an alacrity which will ever do them credit, and Lieut. Pearson of the same regiment, were almost the foremost on this service. A soldier of the 69th Regt. having broke the upper quarter gallery window, I jumped in myself, and was followed by others."" Again, p. 41:—

"On receiving the swords of the vanquished Spaniards I was surrounded by Capt. Berry, Lieut. Pearson of the 69th Regt., John Sykes, &c., all old Agamemnons.'

JAS. DIAPER.

"DAG" OR "DARG" (5th S. xii. 128.)-Dag is the old Saxon form of "day"; in the Scandinavian mythology Dag" (day) is the son of "Nitt " (night). "I'll do your dags" probably means "I can do as good a day's work as yourself." Darg for a day's work is quite common in Scotland. "A love-darg" is a day's free help given to a farmer by his neighbours; and a Scotch newspaper of to-day reports a "short darg movement" among the coal miners of Wishaw in Lanarkshire. X. C. FUNERAL FOLK-LORE (5th S. xii. 148.)-In reply to CUTHBERT BEDE'S query on this subject, it is certain his informants were confusing some idea of their own with what they actually saw with the deceased lady, which was probably a crucifix, and one or two medals of some religious significance. There is no Catholic custom or fancy to account for the placing a hammer and

coin in a coffin. I have heard such equipments for a corpse spoken of among the Monmouthshire peasantry. The coin savours something of Charon's toll. C. R.

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED (5th S. xii. 170, 199.)—

"What profits now to understand," &c. attack made in Punch by Sir E. K. Bulwer on the l'oet These verses, it may be added, were a reply to a severe Laureate, in consequence of the latter having been appointed while Sheridan Knowles was "starving." CHARLES STUART,

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c. The Monks of the West. By Count de Montalembert. Authorized Translation. Vols. VI, and VII. (William Blackwood & Sons.) THESE concluding and posthumous volumes form in reality a separate episode, treating of the relation of monasticism to the feudal system and to the Holy Roman Empire. They are deeply interesting, like everything writings. Nevertheless they lack, to our thinking, much else that has been published of Count de Montalembert's of the picturesqueness which was such a striking feature of the earlier volumes, dealing with the saints of the Celtic monastic families of Iona and Lindisfarne, and of Luxeuil and Bobbio, or which told us how when Wilfrid, the great athlete for Roman supremacy in England, lay dying at Hexham, the abbots of the monasteries which he had founded journeyed day and night "to see their father, ere they were left orphans." And in the present volumes it must be acknowledged that we scarcely recog nize the Montalembert of L'Eglise libre dans l'Etat libre, while we do see a Montalembert who seems at constant war with the modern world. The explanation of this apparent anomaly seems to be that the substance, at least, of the present volumes was written long ago, and that we have in them the earlier rather than the later views of their author. No modern historian worthy of the name would deny the services rendered to mediæval Europe by monasticism. But all monks were not "chosen souls," and they certainly did not all die "in transports of love and joy," as is gravely asserted of them at pp. 296-7 of vol. vi. This is a brilliant panegyric, but it is not history. With regard to the questions at issue between Gregory VII. and the Emperor Henry IV., opinions will necessarily vary, according to the point of view from which the conflict is considered. Count de Montalembert had no doubt on which side his book should be written. The late Mr. Bowden, indeed, had, as an Anglican historian of Gregory VII., taken up very similar ground, and the fact is approvingly noted by Montalembert. But we do not think either writer is adequately fair to the Imperial side of the question. Unfortunately, Henry was personally a bad representative of a cause which was, by anticipation, to a great extent that of the modern state. Gregory triumphed over Henry and over the married clergy. But John XXIII. and Alexander VI. were among the successors of Gregory, and the "Pontifex Maximus" is no longer the lord of Rome.

The New Plutarch.-Gaspard de Coligny. By Walter Besant, M.A. Judas Maccabæus and the Jewish War of Independence. By Claude Reignier Conder, R.E. (Marcus Ward & Co.) MR. BESANT deserves the thanks of all those whose affections are stirred and whose hearts beat quicker at

the mention of noble deeds for having given us this most lifelike picture of the great admiral of France. In the seventeenth century Coligny's name was familiar in every Puritan household as the great French martyr for Protestantism and the ideal of a religious and honourable noble. Life has changed in many ways since then, and we believe that now there are many people whom the world would not count ignorant whose sole knowledge of him consists of that one line in Macaulay's Ivry which tells of

"Good Coligni's hoary hair all dabbled with his blood." Mr. Besant says that he believes he is right in stating "that no life of Coligny has yet been published in England." This is, however, an error, unless he means a life in a separate volume. If he consults Samuel Clarke's General Martyrologie, third edition, 1677, he will find a very good account of this heroic Frenchman, extending over upwards of forty folio pages. Coligny's life was not fortunate. It is therefore the more admirable in an age such as this, when the worship of men who have risen is so unreasoning and so profound, and the contempt for the unsuccessful so pronounced, to find a writer like Mr. - Besant with courage enough to state his convictions fully and firmly. "I fail," he says, "to find in any gallery of worthies, in any country or in any century, any other man so truly and so incomparably great." This is strong language, stronger than we dare have used of any one; but that there are grounds for it we should be the last to call in question. The human race cannot well honour too much the man who first conceived the idea of general education, and who thought out the revolutionary doctrine that the poor, as well as the nobly born or rich, had a right to knowledge.

Lieut. Conder's Judas Maccabæus cannot, from the nature of the case, contain new biographical facts-facts new to scholars, that is-for all that can be known concerning the heroic band of five brethren who delivered Israel from the Greek yoke has long been before the world. Antiquaries and theologians have, however, had this most picturesque period of Jewish history almost to themselves. Lieut. Conder is, so far as we can call to mind, the first person who has ever endeavoured to give a lifelike picture of the leading spirit of that great time. He has been enabled to do this the more fully on account of his intimate personal knowledge of the country, having, in the course of his duties on the Palestine Survey, visited more than once each of the battlefields where Judas fought and conquered.

Burnham Beeches. By Francis George Heath. (Sampson Low & Co.)

THE Corporation of London have just performed an astounding feat, and Mr. Heath is the Prospero who has charmed them into doing it. He has caused the voice of the turtle to be heard in their land, and under the spell of that familiar name has led them forth in sylvan array into the wilderness to inspect the doomed vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, and to save it from the rapacious Ahab of speculation. No wonder that in the first glow of his triumph Mr. Heath has written a book, and has described Burnham Beeches and the rescue thereof, and the history thereof from John de Moleyns even unto Mrs. Grote, in a lofty and enthusiastic recitative, full of staccato passages-a Song of Victory that might have been sung by Miriam herself. And truly we have so much respect for Mr. Heath's enthusiasm, and so much delight in the fact that one more bit of Old England has been saved from the spoiler, that we shall at once join our voice to that of others, and sound the loud timbrel in praise of this meritorious little handbook. For have we not also, in company with other lunatics escaped from the Bedlam of London, gone down of old time to

Burnham, and read Gray's Elegy, and sung Mendelssohn in chorus under the giant beeches; yea, and haply wandered, too, at eve among the "floral crowns and "pendent clusters" described by Mr. Heath with some charmer who is now, alas! the bride of another? Therefore, ingenuous reader, we have a right to say unto thee that Burnham Beeches were well worth saving and are well worth seeing. And when thou art there, seated nigh the old woodside cottage where cakes and cream are (or were) to be had, then shalt thou bless the Lord Mayor and Corporation, and Mr. Heath's little book, the accurate and fruitful companion of thy visit. The Library Journal. Vol. IV. Nos. 7 and 8, July— August, 1879. (Trübner.) THIS double number is devoted entirely to the meeting of the Conference of Librarians at Boston, and is full of information of interest and importance to all. It occurs to us that, if Americans go on learning how to be librarians in the energetic way they have been, they will soon make their country the school of the world for library economy and management.

THE Second Report of the New Shakspere Society, issued in August, shows a considerable amount of work done, and an equally considerable field of work for the future. Mr. Furnivall pleads for more workers and more subscribers, and we cannot doubt that with fresh sinews of war this deserving society will press on still more vigorously to its goal. There is a good deal of material only awaiting funds for publication. Those who obtain the Report and see what this material comprises will surely be desirous to help it through the press

Notices to Correspondents.

We must call special attention to the following notice: ON all communications should be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith.

ABHBA.--Your query seems to be fully answered in Pt. iii. p. 73 of Gloucestershire Notes and Queries.

ECLECTIC.-For "Boylow" read Beaulieu, and see Lewis, Topog. Dict., s.v.

HERMENTRUDE.-Have you tried G. Crabb's English Synonyms, and Dr. Roget's Thesaurus, and C. J. Smith's Synonyms Discriminated?

A. A. and CRFSCENS-Many thanks, but you will have seen that your communications were anticipated.

R. H. RYLAND ("Unpublished Letters," 5th S. vii. 381).-We have a letter for you; where shall we forward

it?

H. (Temple), "Henry VII.'s Instructions," &c., has not sent name and address.

JOHN TAYLOR.-We shall be happy to forward a prepaid letter.

H. B. C.-Pray exercise your own discretion in the matter.

P. BERNEY BROWN.-We cannot find it within the period named.

J. S. E. H.-Appeared 5th S. x. 427.

NOTICE.

Editorial Communications should be addressed to "The Editor of Notes and Queries ""-Advertisements and Business Letters to "The Publisher"-at the Office, 20, Wellington Street, Strand, London, W.C.

We beg leave to state that we decline to return communications which, for any reason, we do not print; and to this rule we can make no exception.