486 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[No. 268. 



for 1783, and no records of the services of medical 

 officers were commenced at the Army and Ord- 

 nance Medical Department, Horse Guards, until 

 the year 1803. 



I have searched every Baronetage that I could 

 find for the name of this officer; also Burke's 

 History of the Landed Gentry^ for any mention, 

 however casual, of himself or his family. I looked 

 into Burke's Extinct and Dormant Baronetage, 

 but was unable to find the name amongst the ex- 

 tinct Baronetcies of England (p. 230.), of Ireland 

 (p. 607.), or of Scotland (p. 624.). I am inclined 

 to think that he was only a knight, not a baronet ; 

 but if he were really a baronet, he is remarkable 

 as being the only baronet who ever served as a 

 medical officer in the British army at the period 

 when Sir Edward belonged to the army. 



G. L. S. 



^^ Nominal." — The official lists of the killed 

 and wounded in the Crimea are headed " Nominal 

 Returns." A friend asked me, the other day, the 

 meaning of the word " Nominal " as there used. 

 His opinion was, that it was employed as opposed 

 to " real ; " and I think it was intended to denote 

 that the lists were not actually complete, but only 

 " nominally " so, or, if I may use such a word, 

 " approximative." I gave it as my opinion that 

 the word is there used in its primary sense, as 

 derived from nomen, and that a " nominal " list 

 merely means a list of names. Is either of these 

 views correct ? If not, what is the true explana- 

 tion of the phrase "nominal returns?" The 

 word is evidently employed in an unusual sense ; 

 and I shall be glad to know upon what authority. 



H. Mabtin. 



Halifax. 



Prophecies of Nostradamus, Marino, and Joa- 

 chim. — In An Examination of the Pretended 

 Prophets, Lond. 1712, p. 47., it is said, — 



" Marino, citing Joachim and Nostradamus, says that 

 ' When a miller's ass shall speak with a human voice, 

 soon cometh Antichrist and the end of the world.' " 



I cannot find this in Nostradamus ; but as editions 

 difler, it may not be in mine. Of Joachim and 

 Marino I know nothing. Can any of your readers 

 refer me to their works ? E. L. 



" Demoralised." — Is the word demoralised, 

 which we are now so often hearing applied by 

 " our own correspondents " to the Russian army, 

 in the sense, I presume, of " disorganised " and 

 "disheartened," a word (in that sense) of any 

 standing in the English language ? or do we owe 

 it to our present alliance ? If so, it may be well 

 to have the baby registered before it gets any older. 



C. W. B. 



Thomas a Becket. — In Giles's Life of Arch' 

 bishop Becket, it is said, sub anno 1164, that — 



" Randolph de Bruc was commissioned by the king to 

 take the Church of Canterbury into his custody, and to 

 execute the king's harsh sentence against the archbishop's 

 partizans. All his relations, in whatever degree, and of 

 both sexes, were summoned to Lambeth, where they were 

 sentenced to be transported across the sea, and made to 

 swear immediately after landing they would present them- 

 selves before the archbishop wherever he might be." 



In a subsequent place, sub anno 1166, the arch- 

 bishop, in a letter to the clergy of England, says . 



" He was not, indeed, sprung from roj'al ancestors, but 

 would rather be the man to whom nobility of mind gives 

 the advantages of birth, than one in whom a noble an- 

 cestry degenerated. He was perhaps born beneath a 

 humble roof, as before he entered into God's service his 

 way of life was sufficiently easy, sufficiently honourable, 

 even as that of the best among his neighbours and ac- 

 quaintances whosoever they might be." 



Can you refer to any account of Archbishop 

 Becket's family ? What relations had he ? And 

 is there any account of the relations of either sex 

 summoned to Lambeth, and transported as stated ? 

 Giles says his father was Gilbert Becket, Sheriff 

 of London, and that his mother's name was Ma- 

 tilda. Little, however, seems known of his family. 



[Mary, the sister of Thomas a Becket, was appointed 

 Abbess of Barking Monastery in 1173; "Maria soror 

 sancti Thoniaa martyris, mandate regis patris, et contem- 

 platione fratris, facta est Berchingensis." — Rad. de Diceto, 

 col. 570. in Script. X., Twysden. The " Chronicon Ger- 

 vasii," ibid. col. 1424, sub an. 1173, says, " Kex instinctu 

 Odonis prioris [Cant.] dedit abbatiam Berkingensem 

 Mariae sorori sancti Thomas Cantuariensis martyris." 

 Compare also Stowe, Ann., p. 153., and Lysons' Environs, 

 vol. iv. p. 65. But it would seem from Roger of Wend- 

 over, anno 1169, that he had other relatives. He says, 

 " Who shall declare the sufferings and mental agonies of 

 the man of God, whose father and mother [ ?J, brothers 

 and sisters, nephews and nieces, clerks and mimsters, had 

 been driven into exile on his account." The best com- 

 piled.life of Thomas a Becket appeared in an ecclesiastical 

 journal called The Surplice, 1846; and if this Query 

 should meet the eye of the writer of those able articles, 

 he would be able no doubt to furnish some farther par- 

 ticulars of the family.] 



Mrs. Hofland. — Where can a good biography 

 be found of this lady, the authoress of many ex- 

 cellent stories for children ? Many of her works, 

 such as The Son of a Genius, The Clergyman's 

 Widow^ and The Merchants Widow, popular in 

 the United States thirty-five years ago, have been 

 lately republished for the benefit of the present 

 generation of children. Uneda. 



Philadelphia. 



[Mr. Thomas Ramsay has published The Life and 

 Literary Remains of Barbara Hofland, London, 12mo., 

 1849. There is also a biographical sketch of this lady in 

 the Gentleman's Mag. for January, 1845, p. 99.] 



