2°* S. NO 112., Feb. 20. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



155 



only : hence innumerable errors would very natu- 

 rally find admission into the new register, which 

 is undoubtedly the case. To one of these manu- 

 script calendars as an authority, Mr. Samuel 

 Lucas refers in a letter addressed last week to a 

 local paper, where he says : — 



" Before we indorse the recent historic doubts as to the 

 birthplace of one whom we have hitherto been proud to 

 regard as a Bristolian, I wisli to cite a marginal note of 

 R. Eden in a work respecting Sebastian Cabot, and which 

 I copied, if I remember rightly, from an unpublished MS. 

 of the Rev. Mr. Seyer : — 



" ' Sebastian Cabote told me that he was borne in Bris- 

 tow, and that at iiii 3'eres old he was carried with his 

 father to Venice, and so returned agajne to Englande with 



his father after yeres, whereby he was thought to 



have been borne in Venice.' " 



Mr. Lucas adds : — 



" 1 have now no means of tracing this note, but if 

 authentic, which I have no reason to doubt, it would pro- 

 bably be considered conclusive." 



Not quite so, I think, and for the reasons al- 

 ready given in relation to all MSS. possessed by 

 Mr. Seyer. Waiving this point, however, let us 

 see what information upon the subject, direct or 

 otherwise, can be adduced from another quarter. 



At p. 173. of his History of Bristol, Mr. Barrett, 

 citing Fabian and Stowe, says : " This year (1498) 

 one Sebastian Cabota, a Genoese's son (others say 

 a Venetian) born at Bristow, professing himself," 

 &c. ; yet, on the same page, with his usual 

 felicitous way of doing things, he contradicts 

 this by asserting from " Peter Martyr of An- 

 glerla, (that) Sebastian Cabot (was) a Venetian 

 born, whomme yet but in manner an infant his 

 parents carried with them into England, having 

 occasion to resort thither for trade." Now as 

 Peter Martyr says, " Cabot is my friend (see 

 Barrett, p. 174.) whom I use familiarly, and de- 

 light to have him sometimes keep me company in 

 my own house," he is more likely to be correct, 

 from his intimate personal knowledge of the man, 

 in his statement that Cabot was " a Venetian born," 

 than those writers are who, without such personal 

 acquaintance, and speaking of him onlj'^ at second- 

 hand, claim Bristol as his birthplace. Farther on 

 in the same page, Barrett says that Martyr's ac- 

 count of Cabot's voyage, " being given by his 

 friend and intimate associate, who might have it 

 from Cabot's own mouth, it is most likely to be 

 true and genuine ; " if so, then why should not 

 Martyr's statement, that Cabot was " a Venetian 

 born," which also he in all probability " had from 

 Cabot's own mouth," be entitled to the same amount 

 of credit ? Geobge Price (City Librarian). 



FBNCIBLE LIGHT DKAGOONS. 

 (2°'' S.V. 110.) 



In complying with the question specified above, 

 it is necessary to advert to the then existing poli- 



tical affairs both of France and this country. On 

 March 25, 1794, his Majesty (Geo. III.), in a 

 message to the House of Commons, accused the 

 French of menacing this country with invasion, 

 and announced his having augmented our land 

 forces, with his determination still farther to in- 

 crease them, and to destine them for such services 

 as might be deemed necessary. Nor was the do- 

 mestic state of Great Britain such as could be 

 viewed without apprehension of its tranquillity 

 being disturbed : there were several trials for se- 

 dition in Scotland, and one person (Robert Watt) 

 was convicted of high treason, and executed at Edin- 

 burgh ; and in England we may adduce the State 

 prosecution of Messrs. Hardy, Home Tooke, and 

 Thelwall, without alluding to others. At this 

 period the National Convention, having abolished 

 monarchy upon the execution of Louis XVI., 

 made Paris one scene of anarchy and bloodshed, 

 and, incredible as it may appear, from fifty to sixty 

 unfortunate creatures were sent to the scaffold 

 daily by the Revolutionary Criminal Tribunal. 



All these facts conspired to create a great sen- 

 sation throughout this country, and roused an 

 immediate feeling of counteraction to such great 

 and impending dangers, both foreign and domes- 

 tic ; and meetings in the several counties were 

 directly called, which were attended by the ma- 

 gistrates and all influential persons, and subscrip- 

 tions to considerable amounts were immediately 

 contributed, to promote the objects which those 

 assembled had in view. 



We are in possession of collectanea of matters re- 

 lating to the county of Surrey, for a period em- 

 bracing much of the last and the present century, 

 with considerable extracts from newspapers, and 

 which will, for the most part, furnish a specimen 

 of what was effected in other counties. Meetings 

 having been held at Kingston and at Epsom, it 

 was agreed, at an adjourned meeting at the latter 

 place, on Wednesday, April 30, 1794, to raise six 

 troops of Surrey Fencible Cavalry. At another 

 meeting on May 14, subscriptions had come in to 

 the amount of 15,066Z. 17*., and George Lord 

 Onslow, Lord Lieutenant of the county, laid be- 

 fore the Committee his Majesty's gracious appro- 

 bation of the offer to raise the Fencible Light 

 Dragoons, to be called the Surrey Regiment. Lord 

 Onslow was gazetted as colonel, and head-quarters 

 were at Richmond, where the recruiting was very 

 successful, as well as in the county generally. 

 The regiment was reviewed October 24 follow- 

 ing, and shortly after were ordered to Colchester. 

 The next summer they were encamped on Lexden 

 Heath, near Colchester, and here they were sent 

 for express at midnight, on account of riots at 

 Saffron- Walden, on which dut^ they acquitted 

 themselves to the satisfaction of the Marquis of 

 Cornwallis, and received his warmest thanks in 

 general orders. From camp they were ordered to 



