278 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 92., Oct. 3. '67. 



natural philosopher, if he had published nothing 

 but his De Orbitis Planetarum. The above is 

 only one of several positions perhaps equally as 

 mysterious to Locke's MS. annotator, upon whom 

 Hegel's followers would probably retort the charge 

 of ignorance. T. J. Buckton. 



Lichfield. 



'■'■Bring me the wine;'' 8fc. (2°* S. iv. 216.) — 

 The two first stanzas copied by J. S. D.'will be 

 foynd in a collection of Indian Melodies, by, as I 

 think, " Thompson;^ published nearly forty years 

 ago. I do not recall the third stanza, nor am I 

 sure that the others are correctly quoted ; but I 

 remember the commencing stanza of this wild and 

 beautiful song, of which words and music are 

 singularly adapted to each other ; so that though 

 it is nearly the period I mention since I heard 

 either, they haunt my memory yet. The first 

 verse is as follows : 



" Maid of the wildly wishing eye, 

 See by yon faint streak dawn is nigh ; 

 'Tis not a meteor gleam of light. 

 Warm as thy blush of swift delight. 



The wild rose spreading to catch the gale, 



The doe in her covert waking, 



But most the throbs of our parting tell 



Morn on our hills is breaking. 



" Soon as again each envious eye 

 Slumbers at eve to Zaida flj'," &c. 



As I write I begin to doubt whether, though 

 the metre be the same, these stanzas belong to 

 the same song ; but I am quite sure the inquirer 

 will find the verses he has quoted in the collection 

 of melodies I mention. A. B. R. 



Belmont. 



Notes on Regiments : 83rd, or Glasgow (1'' S. 

 passim.) — 



" When the American war was carried on. Provost 

 Donald proceeded to London, and offered to George IIL 

 to raise a regiment of a thousand men, at the expense of 

 the citizens, which, considering the limited wealth and 

 population of the town, was no small effort. The offer 

 was accepted, and the corps was called the Glasgow 

 Regiment, and afterwards the 83rd. His Majesty offered 

 Provost Donald a knighthood, but he declined to accept 

 the honour. The raising of this regiment caused a great 

 stir in the city, and so enthusiastic were the leading 

 classes in getting the ranks filled up, that many gentle- 

 men paraded with drums and fifes, offering large bounties 

 for recruits. 



" The first public movement to raise the Glasgow Re- 

 giment was made by Mr. Gray of Carntyne, Mr. James 

 Finlay, and ex-Provost Ingram, who met somewhere in 

 the Gallowgate, whence they proceeded as a recruiting 

 party towards the Cross; Mr. Gray, who was a tall, 

 handsome man, wielding a sword, as the sergeant, in 

 front, followed by Mr. Finlay playing the pipes, and 

 Mr. Ingram bringing up the rear. On arrival in front of 

 Peter M'Kinlay's, a famous tavern near the Exchange, 

 this trio followed the example of other recruiting parties, 

 by halting and proceeding upstairs, where they were in- 

 stantly joined by a number of their friends from the 

 reading-room, anxious to know the success they had met 



with ; upon which Mr. Ingram said, ' There's a sergeant 

 and a piper, but I am the regiment.' It was not many 

 daj's, however, before a thousand men were obtained." — 

 Strang's Glasgow and its Clubs. 



w. w. 



Malta. 



Benediction of Flags (1" S. x. 75. ; 2"'' S. iv. 

 172.) — The origin of the service employed in 

 blessing flags I traced some time since : the cause 

 of the custom may be found in the fact that ban- 

 ners were at an early period employed in religious 

 processions, as by S. Augustine when he entered 

 Canterbury, and from the monasteries were carried 

 to the field of battle ; as S. Peter's, S. Wilfrid's 

 of Ripon, and S. John's of Beverley were dis- 

 played at the battle of Northallerton ; S. William's 

 of York and S. Cuthbert's of Durham were borne 

 by the Earl of Surrey in his Scottish expedition. 

 The oriflamme of S. Denis was carried in the 

 armies of S. Louis and Philip le Bel. Our Ed- 

 wards and Henries fought beneath the banners of 

 S. Edmund and the Confessor. The crosses of 

 S. George, Patrick, and Andrew, mark the re- 

 spective flags of England, Ireland, and Scotland. 

 The Labarum was the sacred ensign of Constan- 

 tine. The famous standard, which gave name to 

 the Battle of the Standard, was an imitation of the 

 Caroccio, an invention of Eribert Archbishop of 

 Milan in 1035. 



Flags are still thought worthy of a place in a 

 church, whether the banners of S. George or S. 

 Patrick at Windsor and Dublin, or the memorable 

 remains of colours riddled with shot on some 

 glorious field. Mackenzie Walcott, M.A. 



Parish Registers (2""^ S. iv. 188.) — In answer 

 to the Query of M.D., I would remark that 

 " Initium regni dominae nostras Elizabethae Re- 

 ginse, Nov. 17, '59," is not apparently an inaccu- 

 racy, but refers to the day of her accession, 

 Nov. 17, without reference to the year. It was 

 afterwards called " the Queene's Day." See The 

 Chronology of History by Sir H. Nicolas. 



The following will help to explain the increase 

 of marriages after the parson's deficiency, but not 

 the subsequent decline, except on the supposition 

 that the officers appointed grew careless, and the 

 plan adopted was defeated. There had been a 

 general want of attention to the registers, for, as 

 Bigland remarks : 



" It is much to be lamented that, during Cromwell's 

 usurpation, few parochial registers were kept with any 

 tolerable regularity." — Observations on 3Iarriages, Bap- 

 tisms, and Burials, as preserved in Parochial Itegisters, p. 7., 

 4to., Lond. 1764.'V 



This was not unnoticed at the time, for in 

 August, 1653, an act was passed, intituled, '= An 

 Act touching Marriages and the registering 

 thereof; and also touching Births and Burials." 

 In this it was ordered that, on or before Sept. 22, 

 1653, a vellum or parchment register should be 



