April 29. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



397 



and when they differ in some of the minor details, 

 it requires some time and trouble to find, from 

 other sources, which is the most modern, and 

 therefore likely to be the most accurate. 



J. S. Warden. 



Walton. — The following cotemporary notice of 

 Ihe decease and character of honest Isaac's son, is 

 from a MS. Diary of the Rev. John Lewis, Rector 

 of Chalfield and Curate of Tilbury : 



"1719, Dec. 29. Mr. Canon Walton of Polshott 

 died at Salisbury; he was one of the members of the 

 -clergy club that meets at Melksham, and a very pious, 

 sober, learned, inoffensive, charitable, good man." 



E.D. 



Whittingtori s Stone on Highgate Hill. — It is 

 -well that there is a " N. & Q." to record the re- 

 moval and disappearance of noted objects and 

 relics of antiquity, as one after another disappears 

 before the destroying hand of Time, and more 

 ruthless and relentless spirit of enterprise. I have 

 to ask you on the present occasion to record the 

 removal of Whittington's stone on Highgate Hill. 

 I discovered it as I strolled up the hill a few days 

 since. I was informed that it was removed about 

 a fortnight since, and a public-house is now being 

 built where it stood. Tee Bee. 



Turkey and France. — The following fact, taken 

 from the foreign correspondence of The Times, 

 may suitably seek perpetuity in a corner of 

 "ST. &Q." 



" I wish to mention a curious fact connected with 

 the port of Toulon, and with the long existing relations 

 between France and Turkey, and which I have not 

 seen mentioned, although it is recorded in the mu- 

 nicipal archives of this town. In the year 1543, the 

 sultan, Selim II., at the request of the King of France, 

 sent a large army and fleet to his assistance, under the 

 command of the celebrated Turkish admiral Barba- 

 rossa, who, according to the record, was the grandson 

 of a French renegade. This army and fleet occupied 

 the town and port of Toulon at the express wish of 

 Francis I., from the end of September 1543, to the 

 end of March 1544. And on 'this day, the last of 

 March 1 854, a French army and fleet has sailed from 

 the same port of Toulon to succour the descendant of 

 the Sultan Selim in his distress. What a remarkable 

 example of the rise and fall of empires ! " 



It will not invalidate the force of the foregoing 

 extract to state, that Selim II. did not become 

 sultan until 1566, and that it must have been his 

 father Suleyman (whom he succeeded) who came 

 to the rescue of France in 1543. The same 

 Turkish fleet was afterwards nearly annihilated 

 by the Venetians in 1571, at the battle of Le- 

 l>anto. Geo. Dtmond. 



©ucrtaS. 



A FEMALE AIDE-MAJOK. 



The following is an extract from the letter of 

 the French general, Custine, to the National 

 Convention, June 14, 1793 : 



" My morality is attacked ; it is found out that I 

 have a woman for my aide-de-camp. Without pre- 

 tending to be a Joseph, I know too well how to respect 

 myself, and the laws of public decency, ever to render 

 myself guilty of such an absurdity. I found in the 

 army a woman under the uniform of a volunteer bom- 

 bardier, who, in fulfilling that duty at the siege of 

 Liege, had received a musket-ball in the leg. She 

 presented herself to the National Convention, desired 

 to continue her military service, and was admitted to 

 the honours of the sitting. She was afterwards sent 

 by you, Representatives, to the Minister of War, who 

 gave her the rank of aide-major to the army. On my 

 arrival here, the representatives of the people, com- 

 missioners with this army, had dismissed her. Her 

 grief was extreme ; and the phrenzy of her imagination, 

 and her love for glory, would have carried her to the 

 last extremity. I solicited the representatives of the 

 people to leave her that rank which her merit and 

 wounds had procured her; and they consented to it. 

 This is the truth. She is not my aide-de-camp, but 

 attached to the staff as aide-major. Since that time I 

 have never had any public or private conversation with 

 her." — From the Political State of Europe, 1793, 

 p. 164. 



Can any of your readers furnish me with the 

 name and history of this French heroine ? 



James. 

 Philadelphia. 



fflhxav (Huzvitg. 



" Chintz Gowns." — Tuesday, Jan. 9, 1768 : 



" Two ladies were convicted before the Lord Mayor, 

 in the penalty of 51., for wearing chintz gowns." — 

 Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xxxviii. p. 395. 



Can any other instances be given ? Investigator. 



"Nodes Amhrosianccy — Can any one inform 

 me why the celebrated " Noctes AmbrosianaB" of 

 Blackwood's Magazine has never been printed in a 

 separate form in this country (I understand it has 

 been so in America) ? I should think few re- 

 publications would meet with a larger sale. 



S. Wmson. 



B. Simmons. — Will you permit me to ask for a 

 little information respecting B. Simmons ? I be- 

 lieve he was born in the county of Cork : for he 

 has sung, in most bewitching strains, his return to 

 his native home on the banks of the Funcheon. 

 He was the writer of that great poem on the 

 " Disinterment of Napoleon," which appeared in 

 Blackwood some years ago. He was a regular 



