346 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 288. 



tread, and the bones of many a brave Welshman lie 

 mouldering there. Bloody and hard-won honours! 

 Arthur himself, Cadwallader, Glendower, and many an 

 ancient Cambrian chief, might in ghosth' form — if ghosts 

 can grudge — envy their bold descendants the fame of 

 these modern exploits, and confess, with solemn sigh, 

 that the lance and the corslet, the falchion and the mace, 

 have done no greater deeds than those of the firelock and 

 the buff belts, the bayonet and sixty rounds of ball- 

 cartridge ! 



" It has been the custom of this regiment, from time im- 

 memorial, to be preceded in all its marches, and accom- 

 panied in all its parades, by a mighty goat, the emblem 

 of old Cambria, whose venerable beard, and grimly grave 

 aspect, might inspire the fanciful idea, under the old su- 

 perstition of the transmutation of souls, of being a fitting 

 dwelling-place for the departed spirit of one of those 

 ancient bards, so famed in Cambrian story, and of whom 

 the poet writes, — 



• * His hoary beard and tangled hair, 



Stream'd like a meteor in the troubled air.' 



" It is on record that the goat of the regiment accom- 

 panied the Welsh Fusiliers into action at Bunker's Hill ; 

 and Cooper, the American novelist, in one of his interest- 

 ing national narratives, relates that such was the san- 

 guinary nature of the contest, that ' the Welsh Fusiliers 

 had not a man left to saddle their goat.' . 



" The last representative of this horned and bearded 

 dynasty lately accompanied the regiment from Canada to 

 Barbadoes, where his knowledge of his place at the head 

 of the drums, his correct and soldierlike demeanour, his 

 grave and patriarchal aspect, so struck the dusky race of 

 Afric's blood, that, on watching his stately progress at tlie 

 head of the corps, the exclamation has been heard — ' He 

 got tense (^sense) same as Christian ! ' Poor Billy ! 

 Whether the climate disagreed with him, or he missed his 

 native mountains, or he found his coat too hot for our 

 broiling regions, did never appear ; but, alas ! he died, 

 and great was the lamentation throughout the regiment. 



" This circumstance happened, not long ago, to be men- 

 tioned at the table of our Gracious Monarch. The death 

 of poor Billy was duly lamented, and the Queen directed 

 that two milk-white goats, of a magnificent Cashmere 

 breed, peculiar in England to Windsor Park alone, and 

 part of a flock sent to Her Majesty as a present from the 

 Persian Shah, be forthwith presented to the gallant 23rd, 

 to replace poor Billy's loss. We understand that this 

 mark of Her Majesty's condescension has just been com- 

 municated to Colonel Torrens, and suitably acknowledged 

 bj' His Excellency. This tribute of regard from the so- 

 vereign to one of her brave regiments, strikes us as pecu- 

 liarly interesting. To feel their services and value thought 

 of in the ro3'al palace, when far away guarding the distant 

 possessions of their mistress, will add, if possible, to the 

 esprit de corps and devotion of this famous old regiment ; 

 and the gift sheds honour on her who gave, and on them 

 who received. Good Queen ! brave soldiers ! " 



The " Governor " spoken of is that able man and 

 distinguished officer, Major-General Arthur Wel- 

 lesley Torrens, one of the heroes of Inkerman. 

 At the period in question he administered the 

 government of this island. Henry H. Bbeen. 



St. Lucia. 



LORD BYRON. 



(Vol. xL, p. 262.) 



When I last visited my native city, Aberdeen, 

 in 1850, I went to the Grammar Sohool for the 

 purpose of seeing Lord Byron's name, which he 

 had cut out on one of the forms of the school when 

 he atteniied it, about sixty years ago. The worthy 

 rector, Dr. Melvin (since dead), to whom I stated 

 my wish to see the name, said that he was sorry 

 it no longer existed, for that a carpenter, to whom 

 the form or bench had been given in order to 

 have it repaired, had ignorantly destroyed the in- 

 scription in the course of his task. I was ex- 

 ceedingly mortified to learn that such neglect had 

 been shown to so interesting a memorial of the 

 boyish days of the great and unfortunate poet — 

 who, in after years, proved that he was not un- 

 mindful of, or ungrateful to, the country and 

 scenery which had stored his youthful imagination 

 with impressions and thoughts " never to die." 

 When on the subject of Lord Byron, respecting 

 whose early days every little incident has that 

 peculiar charm which attracts us in observing 

 dawnings of poetic genius, perhaps the readers of 

 " N. & Q." will pardon me for recording the fol- 

 lowing slight memorials. Mr. D. Wyllie, a highly 

 respectable bookseller in Aberdeen, who died in 

 the year 1841, and whose son is now bookseller to 

 the Queen, informed me many years since, that he 

 often used to take Byron when a boy on his back 

 and gallop about with him, while Byron would 

 thump him lustily with his feet and legs to make 

 him run the faster. On another occasion, young 

 Wyllie gave Byron a treat of roasted chestnuts, 

 which brought on a fit of indigestion. In conse- 

 quence of this, Byron's mother called on Wyllie, 

 and heaped upon him some epithets couched in 

 the most vigorous language, of which the lady in 

 question was well known in Aberdeen to be a 

 perfect mistress. As Byron's mother, before he 

 came to his title, lived with him in comparatively 

 humble lodgings in Broad Street, he was in the 

 habit of playing about in the street with the 

 laddies and lassies of the neighbourhood, and of 

 visiting the homes of their parents. In the house 

 of an aged relative, who died in 1817, there was a 

 fine old cat (of whose venerable figure I have a 

 dim recollection) to which Byron became much 

 attached, and was in the habit of frequently re- 

 turning to play with and to feed it. Tliese inci- 

 dents, insignificant and trifling in themselves, 

 become invested with a portion of that intense 

 interest which must ever belong to those whom 

 Heaven has endowed with the prerogative of 

 genius; even although, in the reminiscences re- 

 corded, we see only early indications of Byron's 

 indomitable energy and love of the brute creation. 



John Mac ray. 

 Oxford. 



