Aug. 27. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



205 



Sf/mon Patrick, Bishop of Ely — Durham — 

 Weston (Vol. viii., p. 103.).— 



"Edward Weston, A. 13. 1723, A.M. 1727, born at 

 Eton, son of Steven Weston of 1682, Bishop of Exeter. 

 He was secretary to Lord Townsend at Hanover, 

 during the king's residence there in 1729. He con- 

 tinued several years in the office of Lord Harrington 

 as secretary. He was also transmitter (query, trans- 

 lator ?) of the State Papers, and one of the clerks to the 

 Signet. In 1741 he was appointed gazetteer, a place 

 of considerable emolument. In 1746 he was secretary 

 to Lord Harrington, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and 

 became a privy councillor of that kingdom. He pub- 

 lished, though a layman, a volume of sermons. His 

 son is now [viz. 1797] a prebendary of Durham and 

 St. Paul's, and rector of Therfield near Royston." — 

 llarwood's Alumni Etonenses, p. 300., under 1719. 



Corkenhatch must be Cockenbatch, near Bark- 

 way. J. H. L. 



Battle of Villers en Couche (Vol. viii., pp. 8. 

 127.). — An authoritative record of this action may 

 be found in — 



" An Historical Journal of the British Campaign 

 on the Continent, in the year 1794; witli the Retreat 

 through Holland, in the year 1795. By Captain L. T. 

 Jones, of the 14th regiment. Dedicated, by permis- 

 sion, to his Royal Highness Field Marshal the Duke 

 of York. Printed for the Author. Birmingham, 

 1797." 



The list of subscribers contains about a hundred 

 names. There is a copy of it in the British Museum. 

 The one now before me is rendered more valuable 

 by copious marginal notes, evidently written by the 

 author, which are at the service of your corre- 

 spondents. They furnish the following extra- 

 ordinary instance of personal bravery : 



" The same officer of this corps (3rd dragoon 

 guards), who bore off the corpse of General Mansell, 

 relates some particulars in the action of the 24th, under 

 Gen. Otto : — that a man of the name of Barnes, who 

 had been unfortunately reduced from a serjeant to the 

 ranks, had bravely advanced, doing execution on the 

 enemy, till his retreat was foreclosed, and he was seen 

 engaged with five French dragoons at once; all of 

 these he fairly cut down, when nine more came upon 

 him, whom he faced and fairly kept at bay, till one of 

 them got behind him, and shot the brave fellow in the 

 head." 



In reference to ihe action of the 26th, Captain 

 Jones observes : 



" It is not possible to describe the bravery of the 

 .irmy on that day, nearly the whole of the British 

 cavalry were engaged, and gained immortal honour." 



The Duke of York's address to the army, 

 published on the 28th of April, thus concludes : 



" His Royal Highness has, at all times, had the 

 highest confidence in the courage of the British troops 

 in general, and he trusts that the cavalry will now be 



convinced that whenever they attack with the firmness, 

 velocity, and order which they showed on this occasion, 

 no number of the enemy (we have to deal with) can 

 resist them." 



BiBLIOTHECAR. ChETHAM. 



Curious Posthumous Occurrence (Vol. viii., p. 5.). 

 — Though the worthy grave-digger's account, re- 

 ported by A. B. C, may be chargeable with some 

 exaggeration as to the generality of body-turning, 

 and though the decomposing reason assigned may 

 not be true, yet, that many dead human bodies 

 are found with their faces downwards, is never- 

 theless quite correct. 



Works are now in progress, at the east end of 

 this metropolis, under my own immediate observ- 

 ation, where this fact has been incontestably veri- 

 fied. How long since, or on what occasion, these 

 remains of mortality were placed there, I know 

 not ; but, in the course of excavation required for 

 the foundations, they are frequently met with, 

 and, in many instances, in this strange position. 



I had come to the conclusion, that, during some 

 raging pestilence (and which may indeed again 

 occur, unless an acceleration takes place in our 

 wounded-snake-like motion in the way of sanitary 

 improvement), I say, it had been my impression, 

 that during some such awful calamity, the anxiety 

 of the uncontaminated to avoid infection had in- 

 duced them to remove their less fortunate fellow- 

 creatures out of the way with so much haste as 

 actually to bury them alive ! and in some con- 

 vulsive struggle between life and death, they had 

 turned themselves over ! R. M. 



In reply to this Note, I would remark that I 

 have consulted a grave-digger "grown old in 

 the service" here, and he tells me he never re- 

 members a case where, after interment, in pro- 

 cess of time the occiput takes the place of the 

 facial bones ; but, he says, very frequently the 

 head drops either on one side or the other — a cir- 

 cumstance which any one conversant with the 

 human skeleton and the connexion of the cranium 

 with the vertebras would deem most natural. 



Bristoliensis. 



Passage in Job (Vol. vii., p. 14.). — This question 

 is answered, as far as it seems possible, by Barnes, 

 in his Notes on Job, which Mb. Edwin Jones may 

 easily consult. The fact appears to be that we have 

 no information respecting the passage in question 

 beyond what is furnished by itself. B. H. C. 



St. Paul and Seneca (Vol. viii., p. 88.). — There 

 is an account of the work referred to in the July 

 number of the Journal of Sacred Literatui^e, edited 

 by Dr. Kitto. It will be found among the "Foreign 

 Intelligence." B. H. C. 



Haidf-naked (Vol. vii., pp. 432. 558.). — As my 

 Query in reference to this place has drawn forth a 



