348 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. N« 96., Oct. 31. '67. 



whether it be a Campo santo like the superb one 

 of Pisa, or where in England, 



« The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep." 



A few years ago I was returning home from 

 Baden Baden, and stopping at Verdun (where the 

 unfortunate detenus and prisoners of war of our 

 countrymen were by the arbitrary mandate of 

 Buonaparte placed in confinement in tbe early 

 part of this century), I went up to la cimetiere on 

 the left of the road to Metz, about a mile out of 

 the town of Verdun. There the Roman Catholics 

 are buried within an enclosure, and those who 

 died out of the pale of that church are buried 

 separately on the outside. There were three or 

 four stones erected to the memory of those who 

 had died in captivity ; but the stone itself was of 

 so soft a nature, that time and weather were fast 

 operating to render the inscriptions on them 

 illegible. One was quite covered with the rude 

 brier, but this removed, it was seen to be inscribed 

 to Dr.- Alexander Allen, and there was one to a 

 John Wyatt ; but the most distinct was " to Jack- 

 son Pearson, late Midshipman of H. B. M. ship 

 Minerve, youngest son of Sir Richard Pearson *, 

 late Lieut.- Governor of Greenwich Hospital ; — 

 Died at Verdun, March 11, 1807 ; aged 21 years." 

 Of one stone a large piece was broken off, so that 

 the name was quite lost, and I left the ground, 

 grieved that such " frail memorials " only should 

 mark the spot where my countrymen lie. *. 



A Note of the Past. — The following may pos- 

 sibly be interesting to some of the readers of 

 " N. & Q.," royalist, if not republican. 



On the front of the " Tree Inn," at Stratton in 

 Cornwall, is a tablet with the following inscrip- 

 tion : — 



« In this place y« array of y« Ilebells under y« command 

 of y« Earl of Stamford, receivd a signall ouerthrow by 

 y« Valor of S"" Bevill Granville and y« Cornish Army on 

 Tuesday y« 16"^ of May, 1643." 



The words, " in this place," convey an incorrect 

 idea of the locality of the battle : the tablet was 

 originally placed on the field of strife near the 

 town, — Stamford Hill, on which the remains of a 

 circular fortification are still to be seen. Major 

 Fortescue of Widmouth (now aged and infirm) 

 raised, we are told, some years ago, small subscrip- 

 tions from the inhabitants of the town, adding 

 something himself, and caused the old tablet to be 

 repaired and renovated with cement. This done, 

 the tablet was enclosed in a frame of oak, and it 

 was placed in its present position on May 16, 

 1843, — exactly 200 years after the date of the 

 battle. As a preserver of an interesting historic 

 memorandum, the Major is entitled to the thanks 



* This Sir R. Pearson was captain of the Serapis in 

 the desperate combat with Paul Jones and his piratical 

 squadron, on Sept. 23, 1779. 



of those who value or venerate the relics of the 

 past. 



To him, by the bye, who enjoys the wild and 

 the desolate in nature, we would say : Go, take 

 your stand beside the Major's lonely dwelling 

 (three or four miles from Bude) during a wintry 

 storm ; and thence contemplate the grim Black 

 Rock in front, and the magnificently tumbling 

 waves of Widmouth Bay. In the evening 3'ou 

 might perhaps appropriately wind up, by the fire- 

 side, with reading a portion of Scott's tale of The 

 Pirate. E. Wilket. 



Painting on Porcelain. — May I suggest as an 

 amusement, the painting on porcelain by ladies. 

 That tasteful class of beings seem capable of 

 everything artistic, from a pair of Gothic bracers 

 to a design for a cathedral ; from a flower to a 

 landscape, from a head to a scene in a tragedy ; 

 they excel in water-colours, and in all those pro- 

 ducts of the needle which require form and the 

 arrangement of colours. If there be nothing im- 

 possible in the process, one may picture the plea- 

 sure with which Man)a would receive a service 

 designed and painted by her dear daughters ; or 

 the brother accept a few ornaments for his "dear," 

 the handiwork of his sisters ; and Papa might 

 even be coaxed out of his abhorrence to tobacco, 

 "just for the sake of poor Charles, who likes his 

 weed when we girls are out," by the present of a 

 sweet china pipe-bowl, embellished with a medal- 

 lion; or perhaps the nice young man who has 

 done so well at college, and has just got his 

 curacy, would feel a pleasure in (^ontemplating a, 

 or the, romantic landscape done by the hand of 

 his betrothed, and which, being sketched on tiles, 

 he has let into the wall over his mantelpiece, in 

 perpetuam rei memoriam. Such monuments of 

 skill might not be so portable as, but they would 

 be more useful and perhaps more durable and 

 carefully preserved than, those at present en- 

 couraged. They would certainly offer greater 

 scope for individual design, in consequence of the 

 innumerable forms of which pottery is susceptible. 



Whether it would too much stimulate, or en- 

 croach upon, the existing trade, or whether the 

 mechanical difficulties, as burnishing, &c., would 

 be too great for amateurs, I do not pretend to 

 know, but should like to hear the opinions of 

 practical people. Fukyus. 



DERIVATION OF " SUNDERLANDE." 



Can any of your correspondents supply facts, in 

 addition to those about to be given, in sufficient 

 number to educe therefrom a principle of con- 

 struction applicable to the Saxon word Sundor- 

 lande ? Bede, in his Ecclesiastical History, uses the 

 following words with respect to the place of his 



