2nd s. No 81., July 18. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



45^^ 



season of the year, and nature of the enterprise, 

 called for the quickest and most vigorous execu- 

 tion, whereas our proceedinjjs were quite other- 

 wise." A very interesting and long letter. 



Lot 48. Halifax, May 19, 1738. Relating to 

 the attack on Louisbourg. 



Lot 47. Camp before Louisbourg, July 27, 

 1758. This letter also chiefly related to the 

 operations at Louisbourg ; he complains of the 

 want of vigour, and the ignorance of the engineers, 

 &c. He also alludes to the Indians, who he de- 

 clares are "the most contemptible c«7<az7/<? upon 

 earth ; " but adds, " those to the southward are 

 much braver and better men." 



Lot 46. Blackheath, July 27, 1758. Had his 

 uncle's answer copied on the blank pages, and 

 mentioned meeting a squadron of homeward-bound 

 French men-of-war, which they did their utmost 

 to engage. 



Lot 45. London, Jan. 29, 1759. " If the siege 

 of Louisbourg had been pushed with vigour, 

 Quebeck would have fallen." — " The backward- 

 ness of older officers has in some measure forced 

 the Government to come down so low." — "I shall 

 think myself a lucky man — what happens after- 

 wards is no great consequence." Prophetic words 

 indeed ! 



Lot 44. Louisbourg, May 19, 1759. A long 

 letter of four folio pages, and a valuable one evi- 

 dently. Referring to his father's death, his ina- 

 bility " to remove his and his mother's pecuniary 

 difficulties ! " Full of detail also respecting the 

 movements against Quebec ; " a very nice opera- 

 Hon" noted the general. 



Lot 52. Sir John Ligonier to Major Wolfe, 

 Dec. 6, 1759. It announced the king's consent to 

 a request made in consequence of the general's 

 death. 



Is there no correspondence extant between 

 Wolfe and Ligonier, or with Laurence, his early 

 friend ? And \?here was Wolfe's London resi- 

 dence ? 



Wolfe was one of the court-martial in August, 

 1756, who tried Lieut.-Gen. Fowke, late Go- 

 vernor of Gibraltar, for disobeying orders in not 

 having sent troops to Minorca. His secret in- 

 structions for the conquest of Quebec are printed 

 in Fraser's Magazine for August, 1832. 



H. G. D. 



HISTOEY OF INVENTIONS. 



There is a scope for " N. & Q." which would do 

 much good and enlist a new class of readers, and 

 that is, to form a distinct head for the history of 

 inventions. This is a department which it is no- 

 torious enough has been much neglected, for there 

 has been no record in the nature of Notes and 

 Queries where the materials could be garnered 

 up ; and thus histories of arts dependent to a 



great degree on the accumulation of small facts 

 are most imperfect, and yet when properly em- 

 ployed how valuable and interesting do they be- 

 come, as in Stewart's History of the Steam Engine 

 for instance. As I found when writing the life of 

 George Stephenson, that of Trevithick, and on 

 other occasions, there is a great paucity of ma- 

 terials, which, scattered in paraplilets and pe- 

 riodicals, elude individual industry, and present 

 themselves casually to observers. The iiistory of 

 the steam-engine, that of the railway, that of the 

 electric telegraph, and the biography of many of 

 our leading engineers, older or later, as Captain 

 Perry for instance, and Richard Trevithick, are 

 very obscure. The greater number of our pa- 

 tentees, inventors, and engineers, the authors of 

 our machinery, canals, and railways, have no 

 biography. I recollect being forcibly struck some 

 years ago, when compiling some biographical me- 

 moranda for the Civil Engineei's' Journal, with 

 the number of engineers who had carried out 

 works of importance, and of whom there is no 

 published record. 



Of late years engineers, civil and mechanical, 

 have acquired a recognised public standing and 

 importance, but the history of themselves and 

 their arts has yet to be cultivated ; nor can pro- 

 fessional writers alone suffice, because, as I have 

 observed, the facts are so widely and loosely scat- 

 tered, that it requires the contributions of a large 

 number of observers to collect them and make 

 them available. Thus the pamphlets in the 

 British Museum afford a large store of valuable 

 facts, which come under the notice of the literary 

 collector. Then, too, there are the observations 

 and reminiscences of contemporaries of Smeaton, 

 Watt, and Arkwright, now passing from among 

 us. 



I end this by saying that such collections of 

 facts are useful and interesting ; that " N. & Q." 

 has a staff" of contributors to begin such an enter- 

 prise, and will soon enlist numerous coadjutors. 



Hyde Clarke. 



BYGONE REMINISCENCES OF GREAT MEN. 



Few objects, I imagine, could be found more 

 befitting the mission of "N. & Q," or more con- 

 genial to the literary tastes of its readers, than 

 the rescuing from oblivion past memories of our 

 poets and literary men : of whom, in a twofold 

 sense it may be truly said, " the places that 

 'knew' them once, 'shall know them again no 

 more.' " I have been led to these considerations 

 by a review of the changes that have taken place 

 of late in this neighbourhood. Besides its con- 

 tiguity to no less than three ruined abbeys, 

 Southampton possesses remains of nearly every 

 feature of antiquity, and " of almost every date, 

 from the earliest Saxon to the age of James the 



