Dec, 9. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



461 



the age of autographs, albums, and bazaars. It 

 is purely the age of perfection in small things. 

 Half my time, and what is worse, all m;^ eyes are 

 embarked in this hard service. The dimensions 

 of the mind shrink up to nothing in this incessant 

 frivolity. Do, my dear Sir, invent a plan for ex- 

 erting our energies on something a little bigger. 

 I must tell you that I am a great enemy to books 

 of extracts, beauties, &c. : the young misses learn 

 a few passages from these, and having picked out 

 the plums, leave the plundered pudding for those 

 who have more curiosity or patience; thus we 

 have quoters and reciters, but not substantial 

 readers. 



Adieu, my dear Sir ; 

 Believe me to remain your very obliged and 

 faithful servant, 



Hannah More. 

 Barley Wood, 13th March, 1828. 



One of the obstacles, I would observe, in the 

 way of publishing a good memoir of great men 

 and women is, that their most interesting and 

 characteristic letters, which ought to be in the 

 hands of the biographer, are lying carefully se- 

 creted in the secretaries of relatives and friends. 

 Eustace W. Jacob. 



Crawley, Winchester. 



English Lady Attendants on the Army. — The 

 zeal and energy of our countrywomen, in going 

 forth to the Crimea to nurse the sick and wounded, 

 needs no comment from us. Their devotion is of 

 European fame. That women of high rank and 

 station, endowed with every gift of fortune, should 

 thus make a sacrifice so great, fills us with ad- 

 miration and respect. Let me however assure 

 your readers, that this same noble spirit has ever 

 animated the breast of Englishwomen. There is 

 a curious circumstance mentioned in Ballard's 

 Memoirs of several Ladies of Great Britain, which 

 is deserving of a nook in your curious volumes. 

 Speaking of Margaret, Countess of Richmond, 

 mother of Henry YII., he quotes Camden's Re- 

 mains (edit. 1657, p. 271.). She would often say, 



" On condition that the Princes of Christendom would 

 combine themselves, and march against the common 

 enemy the Turks, she would most willingly attend them, 

 and be their laundress in the camp." 



Though the circumstance is not exactly parallel, 

 as " the common enemy" is now our ally, the 

 spirit is surely the same. And I am sure our 

 gallant army would be glad of a laundress (what 

 shall we say to a Royal one ?), judging from the 

 reports we have of the scarcity of water, even to 

 wash their faces. All honour to Miss Nightingale 

 and her devoted band ! All honour to some noble 

 hearts, who are now preparing to go forth ! Let 



them however know, that the mother of a king 

 has expressed a similar solicitude for that brave 

 profession which nobly fights our battles. 



Richard Hoopek. 



Pall Mall. — " Bowling, horse-racing, cock- 

 fighting, the fight of quails and of partridges, bull- 

 baiting, pall-mall, billiards, and all other games," 

 &c., are the words of Jeremy Taylor, Duct. Dub., 

 iv. I. §31. W.R.C. 



Second Blooming and Bearing of Fruit. — I send 

 you two records : one rather singularly corro- 

 borative of an ancient credence, perhaps not pecu- 

 liar to this remote part of the kingdom ; and the 

 other illustrative of the splendid autumnal weather 

 in these parts, and aflTording to myself and several 

 aged folks the first known instance of fruit-trees 

 in England bearing two crops in one season. 



1. Last year I was walking in the garden of a 

 neighbouring farmer, aged seventy-one. We came 

 up to an apple-tree, heavily laden with nearly 

 ripe fruit; and perceived a sprig of very late 

 bloom, a kind of second edition. He told me, 

 rather gravely, that in his boyhood this occur- 

 rence was invariably held to herald a death in the 

 family within two or three months. On my joking 

 him about Welsh credulity, he pretended not to 

 believe the idle lore ; but evidently was glad to 

 pass from the subject. His brother, aged sixty- 

 eight, in perfect health then, who resided in the 

 same house, was dead within six weeks ! A few 

 weeks afterwards, walking in our own orchard, I 

 discovered a still later blossom on a Ripstone 

 Pippin tree ; and called a man-servant, aged 

 sixty-three, to look at it. He at once told me, 

 with some concern, that it always foretold death 

 in the family ; he had known many instances. 

 Singularly enough, he himself was dead within a 

 very few weeks! I build no theory upon these 

 instances, but merely record them as coming 

 within my own knowledge. 



2. A Jargonelle pear-tree, in the garden of a 

 friend at Pembroke, having borne a good crop 

 this summer, has a second now ; the fruit being at 

 present as large as a bantam's egg. Twice to 

 blossom is not very unusual, and in this case the 

 second was a beautiful and luxuriant bloom ; but 

 twice to form fruit— and there is a good crop this 

 time as well as before — I suppose is not well 

 established. Perhaps this paper will call forth 

 some other cases from distant correspondents. 



B.B. 

 Tenby. 



The Forts of Sebastopol. — It has been lately 

 stated, more than once, in several of the leading 

 journals, that the fortifications of Sebastopol are 

 composed of granite. Now, in books of travels 

 worthy of credit, the stratification of the Crimea 

 is compared to that of the Isle of Wight, and the 



