243 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 283. 



Carronades are believed to have been first used 

 with effeot in the battle between Lord Rodney 

 and the Comte De Grasse, April 12, 1782. Ac- 

 cording to the British official Navy List of Jan. 9, 

 1781, there were then 429 ships in the navy that 

 mounted carronades ; among which were eight of 

 32-pounders, the first of that calibre employed. 

 The complete list of this class of gun then in the ser- 

 vice was eight of 32-pounders, four of 24-pounders, 

 306 of 18-pounders, and 286 of 12-pounders; 

 total, 604. For some time their adoption was con- 

 fined to the English navy. Nor did they make 

 their way into the U. S. marine until the com- 

 mencement of the present century, or very close 

 of the last. The U. S. frigate Constellation, 36, 

 after her action with the French frigate "In- 

 surgent," and previous to her action with " La 

 Vengeance," had ten 24-pounder carronades on 

 her quarter-deck, which are believed to be the 

 first guns of this description introduced into the 

 U. S. navy. The action with La Vengeance oc- 

 curred Feb. 1, 1800. Latterly they have been in 

 the U. S. navy supplanted by a light gun heavy 

 at the breech, but of longer bore and mounted 

 on wheel instead of slide carriages. The intro- 

 duction of Paixhan or shell guns has also con- 

 tributed to put them aside. 



'Geo. Henky Pbeble, Lieut. U. S. N. 



SULTAN CRIM GHERY. 



(Vol. xi., p. 173.) 



In consequence of the various Queries relative 

 to this person, perhaps the information I can com- 

 municate may not be valueless. When at school, 

 I remember frequently meeting him in his walk to 

 Milbank Canaan, which was in the immediate 

 vicinity of my residence. This was many years 

 previous to 1820. The account given of him by 

 persons professing to have a knowledge, was that 

 he had been obliged to fly from his own district of 

 country in the Caucasus in consequence of his 

 religion ; that his relations wished to put him to 

 death ; that he had with difficulty escaped ; and 

 that he was educating in Edinburgh at the ex- 

 pense of the Emperor of Russia, with the view of 

 returning to his own barbarous regions as a 

 Christian missionary. What degree of truth may 

 have been in this legend I know not. 



The Sultan was much patronised in modern 

 Athens, especially by the female portion of the 

 community, and was generally popular amongst 

 them, until his marriage with a young lady of the 

 name of Neilson, the daughter of a gentleman of 

 that name, who having made money either in the 

 East or West Indies, had purchased a villa at 

 Canaan, about two miles from Edinburgh, where 

 he resided with his wife and family. Mrs. Neil- 



son, his mother-in-law, was alive in 1826, as her 

 name occurs in the Directory of that year, as 

 living at " Milbank Canaan." This marringe con- 

 tributed very much to cool down the ardour of 

 his fair admirers ; and there was a scandal as to 

 his having jilted some young lady or other, — pro- 

 bably a fiction, as he nevertheless continued to be 

 received in good society. A friend of mine met 

 him and the late Earl of Buchan at a breakfast 

 given by a member of the faculty of Advocates, 

 the prince and the earl being the lions of the 

 party. He was a sallow-looking man of middle 

 size. His wife was hardly ever known by any 

 other appellation than that of Sultana. They had 

 a family. He took, her, I rather think, but cannot 

 be positive, to his own country. |*J. M. 



VALUE OF MONET IN 1653. 



(Vol. xi., p. 105.) 



The market price of wheat in 1653, says Bishop 

 Fleetwood in his Chronicon Preciosum, was 

 11. 15*. 6d., or, in money of the present time, 

 1/. 17*. 9d. per quarter of nine gallons to the 

 bushel ; having fallen successively from 21. 9s. 6d. 

 in 1652, 3Z.135.4J. in 1651, 31 16s.8d. in 1650, 

 41. in 1649, 4/. 5.9, in 1648, 31. 13,9. 8d. in 1647, 

 and 21. 8s. in 1646. After this it still declined for 

 a few years, falling in 1655 so low as \l. 3s. 4d.; 

 but its average for the last four years of the Pro- 

 tectorate exceeded 21. os., or in our money about 

 6^ per cent, more, being the amount of the 

 seignorage reimposed on the coinage of silver by 

 the 56 Geo. III.* This varies slightly from the 

 prices quoted in the audit books of Eton College ; 

 the average of the Windsor markets for the same 

 period of ten years, from 1646 to 1655 (reduced 

 to the Winchester bushel of eight gallons), being 



* The mint price of silver prior to 1816 was 5s. 2d. per 

 ounce. In 1600 (43 Elizabeth) the pound weight of 

 silver of 11 oz. 2 dwts. fineness (the present standard) 

 was first coined into 62s.; this continued until 1816 

 (56 Geo. III.), when the pounil of the same weight and 

 fineness was coined into 66s., which still obtains. From 

 this it will be found that thirty-one of the old shillings 

 are equivalent to thirty-three of the new ones, giving a 

 seignorage of 6^| per cent, on the latter. In the year 

 1527 the Troy pound was substituted for the Saxon or 

 Tower pound, previously in use at the Mint. The Tower 

 pound contained only 1 1 oz. 5 dwts. Troy ; so that from 

 the Conquest to 28 Edward I., 20s. in tale were exactly a 

 pound in weight. . 



Of the gold coinage it may be observed, that m 1626 

 (2 Charles I.) the pound weight of gold of 22 carats fine- 

 ness (the present standard) was coined into 41Z. (on which 

 the seignorage was 1/. Is. 5d.), equal to the mint standard 

 price of 391. 18s. 7d. ; this continued until 1666, when the 

 same weight and fineness was coined into 44/. lOs., and 

 the seignorage given up; in 1717 (3 Geo. I.) inta 

 46/. 14s. Gd., the present rate. 



