2n« S. No 100., Nov. 28. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



437 



WOBKMEU 9 TERM9. 



(2°'» S. iv. 192.) 



Tympan : Composing' Stick. — I am much 

 obliged to J. S. D. for his Replies. Hia derivation 

 of the word tympan, as used by printers, geeras 

 certainly the most natural, though it does not 

 agree with one I have just come across from a 

 writer of no mean authority. Mr. Bowyer thus 

 wrote, inter alia, in the margin of hia copy of 

 Palmer's History of Printing* : 



" Tympanum signified the great seals which made the 

 impression on the pendent seals. 'Privilegium Bulla 

 aurea tympano impressa robatorum.' — Salm. de signand. 

 Test., p.'325. Hence perhaps the printers' tympan, which 

 comes between the platten and the sheets, and is the im- 

 mediate occasion of the impression." 



With regard to the word stick, if J. S. D. can 

 show that it was commonly applied in the fifteenth 

 century to wooden articles, he would, I think, 

 settle the derivation of the word, and we might 

 assume that our first compositors satisfied them- 

 selves with the clumsy contrivance of a wooden 

 composing-stick. Prima facie there is nothing to 

 lead us to suppose that Caxton, or any of his 

 workmen, would choose so unfit a material for 

 their use, any more than their successors, and we 

 may say for certain that they were imknown in 

 Moxon's time, 1683, who describes with minute 

 care the smallest article in use by the printers of 

 his day, and who, if such a thing had then existed, 

 would never have left us without an engraving 

 as well as description of the wooden composing- 

 stick. 



Query. Were camlilesticks called so because 

 originally made of wood ? Em Quad. 



NOTES ON REGIMENTS .* ARMT MOVEMENTS. 



(2"'' S. passim.) 



At a time like the present, when so many regi- 

 ments are on their way, or under orders for India, 

 it is of the first importance that all army news 

 should be given correctly. How far this has been 

 done in one instance, the following paragraph, 

 which is taken from the Overland Mail of August 

 26, with the necessary corrections, will show : — 



" Orders (says this journal) Mere forwarded on the 

 14th, per the French Mediterranean packets, vid Mar- 

 seilles, to the governors of Malta and Gibraltar, and the 

 High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands, to hold the fol- 

 lowing six regiments in readiness for embarkation, viz., 

 28th Foot, 48th do , at Malta ; 2nd battalion 1st Foot, 2l8t 

 North British Fusiliers, and 71st Light Infantry, at Gib- 

 raltar ; and 44th Foot at Corfu." 



The 28th Foot, under the command of Colonel 

 Adams, a very fine regiment, and ready for any 



* See Appendix, by J. Nichols, to Rowe Mores's Dis- 

 sertation on Type Founders and Foundries. 



service, is here ; but, as yet, has received no orders 

 to prepare for embarkation. The 48th Foot is at 

 Gibraltar, as is the 2nd battalion of the "Royals," 

 or as it is more commonly called the 1st Foot. 

 The 21st "North British Fusiliers," and 71st 

 " Light Infantry," are not at Gibraltar, as stated 

 by the Overland Mail, but now in Malta ; and as 

 to the 44th Foot, it never has been stationed at 

 Corfu, but is at this time, it is to be hoped, all well 

 on board the transports " Hirsilia" and " Kher- 

 sonese," under the command of Lietit.-Colonels 

 Stavely and MacMahon ; having left Portsmouth 

 for Madras, on the 26th and 28th of August, for 

 that destination. 



The following reminiscences of the 44th are not 

 without interest. This was the only English re- 

 giment stationed at Cabul at the time of the out- 

 break in 1842 ; and though it numbered at one 

 period 600, officers and men, yet when General 

 Pollock reached that place in September, only 

 three oflScers — Col. Shelton, Capt. Souter, and 

 Lieut. Evans — with three Serjeants, two corporals, 

 three drummers, twenty-eight privates, and two 

 boys, were living. The officers who had perished 

 were Lieut.-Colonel Mackerell; Mnjor Scott; 

 Captains Swayne, M'Crea, Leighton, Dodgin, and 

 Collins ; Lieutenants Raban, W^hite, Fortye, 

 Wade, Hogg, Cumberland, Cadett, and Swintcn ; 

 Ensign Gray; Surgeon Harcourt, Assist.-Surgeons 

 Balfour and Primrose ; Quartermaster Halatan 

 and Paymaster Bourke. Thus dreadfully did this 

 unfortunate regiment suffer, in this, which, as truly 

 said by the late Sir Robert Peel in the House of 

 ...Commons, was "the greatest disaster that ever 

 befel a British army." On two occasions the 

 colours of the 44th have been most gallantly pre- 

 served by its officers : once at Waterloo, by an 

 ensign, and at a later period by Captain Souter, 

 when on the retreat from Cabul. In both in- 

 stances the ofiicers wound them round their bodies, 

 it being the only manner in which they could be 

 safely secured. 



General Scarlett mentioned this gallant conduct 

 in his address when presenting new colours to the 

 regiment, a few weeks since, at Portsmouth ; and 

 at the same time most feelingly alluded to the great 

 loss which it sustained on the occupation of the 

 suburbs of Sevastopol in 1855, when four of the 

 six captains who were in the field nobly fell in 

 the unflinching and unwavering discharge of their 

 duty. The much lamented officers who perished 

 on this occasion were Captains Agar, Caulfield, 

 Fenwick, and Mansfield. It may be remarked 

 that Colonel Shelton, who brought the remains of 

 his regiment to England In 1843, survived only 

 two years after his arrival, having been unfortu- 

 nately killed when on service in Dublin by being 

 thrown from his horse. This casualty gave the 

 command to Lieut.-Colonel, now M^or-General 

 Spencer, who took the 44th to the Crimea, and 



