448 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°'J S. VI. 153., Dec. 4. '58. 



to Mrs. Carter, in 1739, left all studiously guarded 

 and intangible. In direct contradiction to bis 

 previous story, he says, " that I did pass under 

 another name till I was seventeen years of age is 

 truth ; but not the name of any person with whom 

 I lived." What then was the name ? AVas it 

 Eichard Smith, or Richard Ousley ? Even John- 

 son, in all their friendship and their midnight 

 •wanderings, had heard no whisper of it. Why 

 should Savage speak in riddles, when truth would 

 be so easy, and when a few circumstantial state- 

 ments might have placed his claims beyond a 

 doubt? Who was Mrs. Loyd ? Who were her 

 friends or connexions ? How did Savage come to 

 tave access to her papers, " many years after her 

 decease ?" What were the names of her fraudu- 

 lent executors ? Whereabouts, '^vear St. Alban's," 

 was the grammar-school at which he spent seven 

 or eight years ? were any of his schoolfellows liv- 

 ing who could remember him ? If his "nurse" was 

 "quite a fictitious character," with whom did he 

 spend his early life ? Who was the shoemaker to 

 •whom his mother ordered him to be apprenticed 

 " when about fifteen ?" and who were the persons 

 who attempted to kidnap and transport him ? 



That Savage never answered these, or any other 

 of the obvious questions that present themselves 

 — but silently dropped his story as the public in- 

 terest in it tailed — left it with its blanks unfilled, 

 its falsehoods uncontradicted, and its inconsis- 

 tencies unexplained — is, under the circumstances, 

 I think in itself conclusive. I have not, I confess, 

 any doubt that llichard Savage was an impostor. 



W. ]\IoY Thomas. 



WATEEI.00. AKETVAL IN LONDOX, AXD TIRSX 

 READING, OF THE DUKe's DESPATCH. 



As the attention of your readers has been re- 

 cently * directed to a question respecting Vae first 

 intelligence received in England of the battle of 

 Waterloo, they may perhaps feel an interest in a 

 few details respecting the arrival and first reading 

 of the authentic and official statement, conveyed in 

 the Duke's Despatch. This tmadorned and al- 

 most too modest narrative, (for it failed to convey, 

 on the first perusal, any full and adequate con- 

 ception of the magnitude or completeness of the 

 victory achieved,) arrived in London, as already 

 stated in " N. & Q.," late at night on the Wed- 

 nesday following the Sunday on which the battle 

 of Waterloo was fought. It was brought by the 

 Hon. Major Percy, one of the very few members 

 of the Duke's personal Staff who had come out 

 unscathed from the three eventful days, June 16 

 — 18,1815; and it was published in a "Gazette 

 Extraordinary" on Thursday, June 2'2nd, as "A 

 Dispatch from F. M. the Duke of Wellington, 



* Ante, p. 43-1. 



K.Gr., to Earl Bathurst, his Majesty's Principal 

 Secretary of State for the War Department." 



In the daily papers of that exciting and anxious 

 period, there is considerable variety of statement 

 as to the circumstances attending the arrival of 

 the Despatch, and its delivery. 



According to the account in the Courier of 

 Thursday, June 22, the chaise and four conveying 

 the Hon. Major Percy drove across Westminster 

 Bridge, up Parliament Street and Whitehall 

 about eleven o'clock on Wednesday night to the 

 house of Lord Castlerengh, [then Foreign Minis- 

 ter] St. James's Square. French flags and eagles 

 were seen pointing out of the windows on each 

 side of the chaise. At Lord Castlereagh's house 

 it was ascertained that his Lordship was then at 

 ]\Ir. Boehm's, also in St. James's Square, where 

 he had dined. Thither, therefore, the Hon. Major 

 drove ; and there he found not only his Lordship, 

 but the Prince Regent, and also Lords Liverpool 

 and Chatham. 



This statement, as it respects the Regent, is 

 confirmed in the fashionable intelligence of the 

 Morning Chronicle, June 22 ; — " Mr. and Mrs. 

 Boehm gave a dinner yesterday to his R. H. the 

 Prince Regent." 



The Mo7-ning Chronicle, however, somewhat 

 differently describes the progress of the Hon. 

 Major : — " Last night, at a quarter past eleven 

 o'clock, the Hon. Major Percy arrived at the 

 office of Earl Bathvrst, with dispatches from the 

 Duke of AVellington." 



Farther on in the same paper appears a more 

 detailed account : — 



" Major Percy drove first to the office of Earl 

 Bathurst, and irom thence to his house, where 

 the dispatches ivere opened, and the Noble Earl 

 immediately went, accompnnied by Major Percy, 

 to present them to tlie Prince Regent, who was 

 dining at the house of Mrs. Boehm." 



On a careful comparison of the several cotom- 

 porary statements, the following appears to be a 

 correct account of Major Percy's West-end pro- 

 gress, after passing AVestminster Bridge. He 

 drove, 1, to Earl Bathurst's office ; 2, to the Earl's 

 house (where the Despatch was first opened and 

 read) ; 3, to Lord Castlereagh's ; 4, to ]Mr. 

 Boehm's, where he found the Prince ; — and 

 where, no doubt, he had the honour, as the Duke 

 expresses it in his Despatch, of laying the French 

 Eagles at his Royal Highness's feet. Next day 

 he found himself a Lieutenant-Colonel. 



Connected with the opening and first reading 

 of the Duke's Despatch at Earl Bathurst's, there 

 are some interesting particulars which, having 

 been communicated only by oral statement, are 

 not, perhaps, generally or accurately known. 



Although the Cabinet (as well as Mr. Roths- 

 child) appear to have received early information 

 of a private kind that a great victory had been 



