Nov. 20. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



483 



who had been Colonel Proprietaire of the brigade 



regiment called by bis name, and so referred to by 



Voltaire in his poem on the battle of Fontenoy, — 



" Clare avec I'lrlandais, qu'animent nos exemples, 



Venge ses rois trahis, sa patrie, et ses temples" — 



the Walsh family purchased the property and 

 command of the regiment, which then assumed 

 their name. In their mansion, and in social union 

 with the junior branches, the military aspirant 

 spent many a pleasant day in youthful pastime, 

 hunting, coursing, shooting, &c., as well as in the 

 society of the surrounding noblesse; and often 

 have I heard, not only the inmates of the Serent 

 chateau, with whom I became well acquainted, but 

 the officers of their regiment, who frequently 

 visited them, refer, in terms of most pleasing re- 

 collection, to their young companion's unaffected, 

 prepossessing, and altogether conciliatory dispo- 

 sition, intelligent mind, and agreeable conversation. 

 Such was the uniform report to me when the 

 earliest of his martial achievements, the victory of 

 Assaye, his first claim to renown, made him a 

 subject of inquiry. Among the most intimate of 

 his associates at Angers was a connexion of my 

 family, then in Walsh's regiment, Mr. Terence 

 M'Mahon, who on emigrating, and the subsequent 

 dissolution of the Irish brigade corps, after a short 

 service in England, obtained the rank of major in 

 an English regiment, but on returning to France, 

 where he had left his wife, in 1802, was included 

 in the mass of British subjects detained the fol- 

 lowing year by Bonaparte in France. Indulged 

 by special favour to remove from Verdun, the ap- 

 pointed locality of the British subjects' confine- 

 ment, to Toulouse, where resided his wife's re- 

 lations, he there lived in his daughter's house in 

 1814, when the last encounter with Soult ended in 

 our possession of the city. M'Mahon exultingly 

 waited on the victor, who at once recognised his 

 youthful friend, and appointed, for the short period 

 of the English possession of Toulouse, that is, 

 until the general peace became known, M'Mahon 

 governor of the town, though, as then there on 

 favour and parole of honour, he was justly blamed 

 for accepting the place. 



The Duke has been reproached by his country- 

 men, and particularly by Daniel O'Connell, with a 

 marked estrangement from them, as well, like 

 Swift, as with a denial, expressed or implied, of 

 his country. Both accusations are, I believe, 

 groundless, especially the latter ; for I assisted at a 

 St. Patrick's charity dinner in London, where he 

 presided, when I heard him most distinctly declare 

 the pride he felt in being an Irishman, and glory 

 in the achievements of his compatriots under his 



Count O'Connell, and no one could have been more 

 worthy of it ; but the revolution of 1830 prevented the 

 nomination. Tlie Count had saved the King's life in 

 1782 at Gibraltar. 



command, of whom the number considerably, in 

 fact, exceeded the proportion furnished by the 

 British population at large. 



Another circumstance in reference to the Duke 

 has been told me, and though I cannot vouch for 

 its accuracy, I think it worth communicating. 

 Dining at the old Queen Charlotte's table, on his 

 return in 1814 from the Peninsular campaigns, he 

 happened to be placed next to the Duke of Cla- 

 rence, our future sovereign, who observed to his 

 mother, " that on entering the port of Cork, while 

 in the naval profession in 1787, an escort of 

 honour awaited to conduct him to the city, com- 

 manded by a young officer, whom he was then 

 happy to find seated beside himself, a royal guest, 

 invested with all the distinctions which merit 

 could carry or power bestow." How far the state- 

 ment may accord with the dates and stations of the 

 Duke's services, I have not at this moment the 

 means of ascertaining ; but the prince's visit to this 

 city at the mentioned period, and the honours paid 

 him, can admit of no doubt. J. R. (of Cork.) 



iS&iwax §,atei. 



Pope Joan. — In looking over Dyer's History of 

 the University of Cambridge the other day, I no- 

 ticed a reference to a manuscript belonging to the 

 college of which I am a member (Trinity Hall). 

 As it is somewhat curious, I have ventured to 

 transmit to you the passage alluded to, which is in 

 the form of a marginal note to a chronological 

 succession of Popes of Kome. The MS. itself is 

 styled " Liber Cantuarensis," and is the history of 

 the foundation of the Augustine Monastery at 

 Canterbury, written on vellum, and beautifully 

 illuminated. At the dissolution of the monastery, 

 temp. Henry VIII., it fell into the hands of the 

 donor to the college, who, in presenting it, added 

 a proviso that, in case the monks should be again 

 restored to their possessions, the book should re- 

 turn to their hands. 



The passage Dyer refers to appears to have been 

 written by some after-reader or commentator, and 

 the date might probably be somewhere at the end 

 of the twelfth century, I have added to it two 

 other extracts which struck my fancy : 



"a.d. 853. Hie obiit Leo Till, duo tamen anni 

 usque ad Benedictum tertium (non) computantur, eo 

 quod mulier in papam promota fuit, quae non . . . puta- 

 batur." 



"A.D.856. Iohs(^^*^"''"/°"^P"ff:"^"lBndict III." 

 [ quia loemma luit J 



" Sylvester II. Hie fecit homagium diabolo." 



J. T. Abdt, LLJD. 



Trinity Hall, Cambridge. 



The Bacon Family. — It appears by the Roll of 

 Remembrances ex parte capitalis rememoratoris 

 Hibernice of the 15th and 16th years of Edward II., 



