94 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd S. VII. Jan. 29. '59. 



Carleton -was descended of an officer who had distin- 

 guished himself at the siege of Derry. He was an officer, 

 and, what was rare at that time, had some knowledge in 

 engineering. Johnson said he had never heard of the 

 book. Lord Elliot [Eliot] had a copy at Port Elliot, 

 but, after a good deal of enquiry-, procured a copj' in 

 London, and sent it to Johnson; who told Sir Joshua 

 Reynolds, that he was going to bed when it came, but 

 was so much pleased with it, that he sat up till he read it 

 through, and found in it such an air of truth, that he 

 could not doubt its authenticity : adding, with a smile 

 in allusion to Lord Elliot's having recently been raised 

 to the Peerage, I did not think that a young Lord could 

 have mentioned to- me a book in the English history that 

 was not known to me." 



On this statement I wish to offer a few remarks. 

 The case of the Memoirs was that it was a little- 

 known work. Even Dr. Johnson only heard of 

 it casually from Lord Eliot. It was with diffi- 

 culty that a copy was procured in London. If 

 little was known of the book, even less was known 

 of the author, and Johnson might easily misap- 

 prehend any slight notice of him which Lord Eliot 

 had given. The doctor accordingly (^pace tanti 

 viri dixerim) falls into at least one error in his 

 description of him. First, manifestly as to his 

 descent : the officer, whose service commenced in 

 1672, could scarcely have been descended of an 

 officer who had distinguished himself at the siege 

 of Derry in 1688-9. This Sir Walter Scott has 

 remarked. 



Still there is just such an amount of confusion, 

 — apart from contradiction — in Johnson's state- 

 ment as to adapt itself with the facts now before 

 us, especially with that note of General Stanhope's 

 vrhich Lord Stanhope has enabled Mr. Mark- 

 land to lay before your readers (p. 11. supra). 

 Among the prisoners taken at Denia we find, — 

 " Of the traine of Artillery — Capt. Carltone." 

 Exactly the corps to which we might have ex- 

 pected to find attached the officer whom Johnson 

 speaks of as having " some knowledge of engi- 

 neering ; " and Scott as having studied " mathe- 

 matics and fortification." 



" This siege of Denia" Mr. Markland tells 

 us, was " so petty a one, that it is not even al- 

 luded to by most historical writers of that time." 

 But, there ivas a siege, which, in Johnson's time, 

 was famous in ore omnium, — the siege of Derry. 

 Looking at the two names Denia and Derry to- 

 gether, and bearing in mind that one was familiar, 

 the other unheard before, any one who has ever 

 plodded through a blotted MS. can well under- 

 stand how the double " r " of the one name might 

 be confounded by a compositor for the " n " of 

 the other. Or, to trace the possibility of mistake 

 yet farther back, there is quite enough of simi- 

 larity between the names Denia and Derry, ra- 

 pidly uttered, to acquit of any very egregious 

 carelessness either Johnson, in his repetition of 

 Lord Eliot, or Boswell in his report of the Doctor. 

 Assuming such a mistake to have occurred, you 



may then read Johnson's designation of Carleton 

 as " One who had distinguished himself at the 

 siege of Denia. He was an officer, and, what 

 was rare at that time, had some knowledge in 

 engineering." All this goes far to identify him 

 with the officer of Gen. Stanhope's " Traine of 

 Artillery,^'' who was made prisoner at Denia in 

 1708 ; and thus with the writer of the Memoirs 

 in question, to which he would have fairly been 

 entitled to prefix the motto quorum pars magna 

 fui.' John Besly. 



Long Benton. 



CHRISTMAS. 



(2"^ S. vi. 499. 532. ; vii. 37.) 



In Roman matters we all allow F. C. H. to be 

 first-rate authority. This, however, is an Eng- 

 lish question. "O Sapientia" is, and has ever 

 been in England, not on the 17th hut I6th of De- 

 cember, the other great " Oes " then following in 

 order to the close of Advent (JPortif. Sar. Hiem., 

 fol. xvi. col. 2., 1556). 



Christmas season proper commences not with 

 the 1st evensong on the Vigil (Dec. 24.), because 

 the words of the Old Sarum rubric run " In vigilia 

 nativitatis Domini, ad primas Vesperas," but with 

 Matins (not Lauds) of Christmas Day itself, "/w 

 Die Nativitatis Domini, ad Matutinas, Invitato- 

 rium" (see folios xviii. and xix.). Compare, too, 

 the Roman " ordo recitandi." Yet the Roman 

 Breviaries would seem to include the first Vespers 

 of the Festival within the Christmas-tide, by 

 placing the words, " In Nativitate Domini " be- 

 tween Nones and Vespers on the Vigil, immedi- 

 ately after the last versulet response : "V. Crastina 

 die delebitur iniquitas Terrse." " R. Et regnabit 

 super nos Salvator mundi." 



Commencing then, according to English cus- 

 tom, with the Matins of the day, it continues to 

 Twelfth Day inclusive : so called in England to 

 signify the continuance of the feast for that speci- 

 fied number of days, instead of the more usual 

 Octave, or eight day celebration, which would have 

 ended with New-year's Day ; in old England, as 

 with us, the true octave of Christmas. See, in 

 Sarum, the collect " Deus qui nobis nati Salva- 

 toris diem celebrare concedis octavum," etc. ; and 

 compare it with that in the Roman, " Deus qui 

 salutis seternae, beatae Marise virginitate fsBCunda, 

 humano generi pra^mia prsestitisti," etc. And see 

 our proper preface in the Holy Communion for 

 Christmas seven days after. 



It may be said, however, that Twelfth Day had 

 an octave in old England; and, therefore, that 

 the Christmas season proper was proportionately 

 prolonged. Epiphany, as a several feast, undoubt- 

 edly had an octave with us, as with the other 

 Latins, which octave ended with Saint Hilary ; in 

 the English Church January 13th, and not the 



