132 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°d S. VIII. Ave. 13. '59. 



could furnish, had not been equal to what that House 

 had that da}' heard in Westminster Hall." Mill, the 

 historian of India, who was an auditor, both in the Com- 

 mons and in the Hall, was also decidedly of opinion that 

 Sheridan's second effort was grander than the first. 

 " When doctors disagree," &c.] 



John Lord Cutis. — To what circumstance in 

 his history was this brave soldier indebted for the 

 name of "Salamander?" He was one of the 

 Lords Justices of Ireland, and Commander of the 

 Forces in that kingdom, in the year 1705, and 

 died, I believe, not long after his appointment. 

 Where is the best account of bis career ? 



Abhba. 

 [At the siege of Namur, in 1695, Lord Cutts com- 

 manded a bodj' of English employed as a storming party, 

 and displayed such cool intrepidity amidst a most tre- 

 mendous fire of artillery and musketry, that he was com- 

 plimented with the name of the Salamander, as if the 

 scene of flame and terror had been his proper element. 

 Swift, no admirer of military merit, and unfriendly to 

 Lord Cutts in particular, employed his wit in deducing 

 from his vices and follies the name bestowed on him for 

 his intrepid braverjs and published in 1705 a satirical 

 piece, entitled The Descnption of a Salamander:—^ 

 "Would you describe Turenne or Trump? 



Think of a bucket or a pump. 



Are these too low ? then find out grander, 



Call my Lord Cutts a Salamander." 



These very bitter, or rather scurrilous verses (says 

 Sir Walter Scott), were highly resented by Lord Cutts 

 and his relations. For a brief account of Lord Cutts, see 

 Gentleman's Magazine, xlix. 150., and Nichols's Poems, ii. 

 327.] 



Gauntlope. — In a MS. diary of the Civil Wars 

 I read of soldiers being punished by being made 

 to run the gauntlope (so spelt). I should be 

 obliged by information as to the history of this 

 punishment in England, and as to this spelling 

 of the word. W. C. 



[Phillips in his World of Words, informs us that 

 Gantlop, or Gantlope, as " To run the Gantlope," is a 

 punishment among soldiers : the offender having to run 

 with his back naked through the whole regiment, and to 

 receive a lash with a switch from every soldier. It is de- 

 rived (he adds) from Gant, a town of Flanders, where 

 this punishment was invented, and the Dutch word lope, 

 i.e. running.] 



Canhury. — It is stated in Martyn's Life, of 

 Shaftesbury, vol. i. p. 43., that Shaftesbury, after 

 his marriage with the Lord Keeper Coventry's 

 daughter, lived at Durham House and Canbury. 

 What or where is Canbury ? W. C. 



[Canbury is a corruption of Canonbury, in the centre 

 of "merrie Islington." From 1627 to 1635 Canonbury- 

 house was rented by the Lord Keeper Coventry. In the 

 Strafford papers is a letter from the Earl of Derby, dated 

 Jan. 29, 1635, from Canbury Park, where he was staid 

 from St. James's by the greatest snow he ever saw in 

 England. All that remains of this once-famed mansion 

 is a venerable tower, 17 feet square and 58 feet high, 

 where poor Goldsmith often lay concealed from his ere - 

 ditors. He is said to have moved here to be near New- 

 bery the bookseller, who lodged at this time in Canon- 



bury tower. The old hostess, Mrs. Tapps, used to affirm 

 that Goldsmith here wrote his Deserted Village ; but Sir 

 John Hawkins says it was the Vicar of Wakefield, which 

 "a pressing necessity " compelled him to write at Isling- 

 ton. Even now this venerable relic of olden time is well 

 worthy of a visit, for the sake of the extensive panoramic 

 view from the roof.] 



CROMWELL IN SCOTLAND. 



(•2'^i S. viil. 70.) 



The game of " Willie Wastle," as practised long 

 ago by Scotch boys, was in the following manner 

 — and I have often been a party in these con- 

 flicts. One stood upon a high stone with a long 

 handkerchief in his hand, firmly knotted at the 

 end, and proclaimed in a defiant strain to his 

 companions : — 



" I, Willie Wastle, 



I'm in my castle, 



A' the dogs in the town 



Winna ding me down.*' 



It was then their business to bring him down from 

 his position after he had dealt out many severe 

 blows, which being accomplished, another took 

 his station ; and so on did the game proceed, with 

 much fun and jollity. 



The story is thus mentioned in The Perfect 

 Politician, 1680 : — 



" After the fatal battle of Dunbar, Oliver Cromwell 

 sent Col. Fenwick with two regiments to reduce Hume 

 Castle. A singular man, called Thomas Cockburn, com- 

 manded the castle, and he was ordered to surrender. 

 Cockburn returned a scoffing answer, with the following 

 lines: — 



' « ' I, William of the Wastle, 

 Am now in my castle ; 

 And a' the dogs in the town 

 Winna gar me gang down.' 



" Fenwick immediately raised a battery, and returned 

 the Governor hard bullets for his resolute rhj'mes, whereby 

 Cockburn was very soon obliged to capitulate and march 

 out with his men." 



We find it also rather curiously noticed for a 

 religious purpose in Scotch Preshytei-ian Eloquence 

 Displayed, edit. London, 1786, p. 110. : — 



" Mr. William Veitch, preaching at Linton, in Teviot- 

 dale, said : ' Our Bishops thought they were very secure 

 this long time, like 



" Willie, Willie Wastle, ■ 

 I am in my castle ; 

 A' the dogs in the town 

 Dare not ding me down." 



Yea, but there is a doggie in Heaven that has dung them 

 all down.' " 



The time of this noted Presbyterian preacher 

 was, born 1640, died 1720; respecting whom his 

 biographer remarks (Scots Worthies, edit. 1796, 

 p. 551.) : — 



" Xor is it any disparagement to him that that black- 



