2nd §, No 91., May 24. °56.] 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
423 
presents the cords with which they bound up 
their forage ; and the red cord on the front of the 
cross-belt is the substitute of the string that held 
the powder-flask for priming. Some of your 
military readers could add some curious informa- 
tion with respect to the origin of regimental 
names, the “ Half Hundred,” the “ Black Watch,” 
the “ Die Hards,” the ‘ Shoulders to Shoulder,” 
and the “ Pompadours” (from their purple 
facings), &e. What regiment wears the plate be- 
fore and behind the cap? Why did the Lancers 
adopt the death’s head and cross bones ? 
The sash worn by officers was intended to serve 
in carrying the wounded from the field of battle. 
Mackenzie Watcotr, M.A. 
Bibliographical Queries (274 §. i. 289.) — 
5. “ An Answer to a Book intituled ‘The State of the 
Protestants in Ireland’” [by Charles Leslie ]. 
7. “ History of the Dependency of Ireland” [by Wil- 
liam Atwood ]. 
12. “A Letter to Deane Swift, Esq., on the Essay upon 
the Life, &c., of Dr. Jonathan Swift” [by Patrick De- 
lany, D.D.] 
For authority see Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica. 
“AAtes. 
Dublin. 
Old Deeds (1S. xii. 408.; 2S. i. 116.) — 
Will the following be of any service to Karu, who 
inquires as to the mode of cleaning and restoring 
old pamphlets used in the Public Record Offices. 1 
take it from amongst some recipes, dated 1749 :— 
“ A liquor to wash old deeds, writings, &c., whereby 
they are rendered as legible as when first wrote; com- 
municated and used with success by the late Mr. Holmes, 
Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London : — 
“Take five or six galls; bruise them, and put them 
into almost a pint of the very best white wine. Let it 
stand in the sun two days. After this time of infusion, 
dip a brush into the liquor, and wash the part wanted to 
be cleared up; and you will soon see upon trial whether 
the tincture be too strong or too small.” 
R. W. Hacxwoop. 
Kentish Fire (28. i. 182.) —— The reply of 
Y.S.M., dating the invention of this term in 
1834, and assigning Dublin as the place of its 
origin, is scarcely satisfactory. At least my im- 
pression is strong (though I made no note at the 
time) that it dates several years farther back, viz. 
at the time when the question of Roman Catholic 
Emancipation was still unsettled; that question 
having been settled, if I remember right, in 1829. 
The locality of the invention seems also to savour 
of a bull, — Kentish Fire having its origin in Tre- 
land! 'The fact is, the Protestant cause was very 
strong in the county of Kent, as proved by the 
well-known monster meeting on Penenden Heath, 
when the late Mr. Sheil, M.P. made his grand 
speech, so celebrated for having been reported 
verbatim in Zhe Times, when not a word of it 
could be heard by the reporters, owing to the in- 
tense row amongst the Protestant mob. Further 
information on this term is desirable. M. H.R. 
Greek Fire (2°78. i. 316.) — Consult on this 
subject Libri’s Histoire des Sciences Mathéma- 
tiques en Italie, 8vo., 1838, tom. ii. p. 128. Me 
“ The Country Book Club” (24 §. i. 353.) — 
This poetical piece, with a caricature etching on 
the title, by Rowlandson, representing the club 
and its members, is by Charles Shillito. See 
| Literary Memoirs of Living Authors, 1798 ; copied 
into Biographia Dramatica, 1812. Mr. Shillito is 
connected with our Scottish poetry by virtue of 
A Sonnet supposed to have been written by Mary 
Queen of Scots to the Earl of Bothwell, §c., pub- 
lished by him, anonymously, at London in 1790, 
and I should like to hear something about him. 
His Sea Fight, 1780, written at sea, suggests his 
being a naval man; while his farce of the Man of 
Enterprize, 1789, coming from the Colchester 
press, and the bulk of his subscribers to the Book 
Club from the same place, leads to the inference 
that our author belonged to that locality. J.O. 
Registers of Births in Scotland (2°7 S. i. 335.) — 
Your correspondent R. T. is recommended to pro- 
cure a copy of Turnbull’s Memoranda of the State 
of the Parochial Registers of Scotland, published 
at Edinburgh in 1849, price 6s. 6d, 8vo., boards, 
where, upon examination, he will find full in- 
formation as to the “ Registers,” with their dates, 
of every parish and county throughout Scotland. 
The “sessions clerk” of each parish was, and in 
most cases still is, the proper party to apply to 
when extracts are wanted from their important 
records. TGe8s 
Edinburgh. 
PMiseelaneaus, 
NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 
Tt was the penalty paid by Sir Robert Peel for his im- 
mense political influence, that he was éwice compelled to 
advocate and carry the very measures of which he had 
previously been looked upon as the great opponent. “His 
own vindication of his conduct, so far as relates to Catholic 
Emancipation, is now before us. It is entitled Memoirs 
of the Right Hon. Sir Robert Peel, Bart., M.P., published 
by the Trustees of his Papers, Lord Mahon (now Earl 
Stanhope), and the Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, M.P. 
Part I. Zhe Roman Catholic Question, 1828-9, As a 
chapter of our political history, it will be read with the 
deepest interest. But with politics, we do not interfere. 
As the vindication of the character of a distinguished 
statesman, placed in a position of almost unparalleled 
difficulty, eventually compelled to sacrifice deep-rooted 
feelings, long-cherished opinions and private friendship, 
to a sense of public duty and stern necessity, it must be 
received with great satisfaction by all the personal and 
political friends of the writer; and we expect to find 
