2»a S. IX. Jan. 14. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



23 



lectures of Professor van Swinden.* Now it happened 

 that once a banking-house had given the Professor a 

 question to resolve, which required a difficult and prolix 

 calculation. And often already had the mathematician 

 tried to rind out the problem, but as, to effect this, some 

 sheets of paper had to be covered with ciphers, the learned 

 man, at each trial, bad made a mistake. Thus, not to 

 overfatigue himself, he communicated the puzzle to ten 

 of his students, me amongst the number, and begged us 

 to attempt its unravelling at home. My ambition did 

 not allow me any delay. I set to work the same evening, 

 but without success. Another evening was sacrificed to 

 my undertaking, but again fruitlessly. At last I bent 

 myself over my ciphers, a third evening. It was winter, 

 and I calculated to half past one in the morning . ... all 

 to no purpose! The product was erroneous. Low at 

 heart, I threw down my pencil, which already, that time, 

 had beciphered three slates. I hesitated whether I 

 ■would toil the night through and begin my calculation 

 anew, as I knew that the Professor wanted an answer 

 the very same morning. Butlo! my candle was already 

 burning in the socket, and, alas ! the persons with whom 

 I lived had long ago gone to rest. Thus I also went to 

 bed, my head filled with ciphers, and, tired of mind, I fell 

 asleep. In the morning I awoke just early enough to 

 dress and prepare myself to go to the lecture. I was 

 vexed at heart, not to have been able to solve the ques- 

 tion, and at having to disappoint my teacher. But, O 

 wonder! as I approach my writing-table, I find on it a 

 paper, with ciphers of my own hand, and, think of my 

 astonishment! the whole problem on it, solved quite 

 aright and without a single blunder. I wanted to ask 

 my hospita whether any one had been in my room, but 

 was stopped by my own writing. Afterwards I told her 

 what had occurred, and she herself wondered at the 



* Jean Henri van Swinden, born at the Hague June the 

 8th, 1746, died March 9tb, 1823 ; Art. Liberal. Mag. et 

 Phil. Dr. in June 1766, after having publicly defended a 

 dissertation De Attractione : appointed Professor of 

 Natural and Speculative Philosophy at the Academy of 

 Francken, towards the end of the same year; inaugurates 

 his lecture by an oration De Causis Errorum in Rebus 

 Philosojihicis ; gets just renown and bad health in con- 

 sequence of his observations concerning Electricity, the 

 Deviation of the Magnetic Needle and Meteorology, 

 printed in the works of the most celebrated learned So- 

 cieties of Europe ; his Recherches sur les Aiguilles Aimanties 

 et leurs Variations, of more than 500 pages, in 1777, got 

 the Medal of the Paris Academy of Sciences, and his Dis- 

 sertatio de Analogia Electricitatis et Magnetismi next year 

 is crowned with the prize by the Electoral Academy of 

 Bavaria; nominated Professor at Amsterdam of Philo- 

 sophy, Mathematics, Astronomy, and Physic in 1785, he 

 takes up this post with a public speech, De Hypothesibus 

 Physicis, qunmodo sint e mente Newtonis adhibendw. In 

 1798, he, with Aeneae, is committed to Paris to take part 

 in the deliberations about the new system of weights and 

 measures: and, of these deliberations, he is called to 

 make a report, first to the Class of Mathematical and 

 Natural Sciences, and then to the whole Institute. — For 

 an account of his life and very numerous writings, see 

 Httlde nan de Nagedachtenis van Jean Henri van Swinden 

 (te Amsterdam bij C. Covens en P. Meyer Warnars, 

 1824), containing, from pp. 1 — 72, a panegyric in his 

 honour by Dr. Itavid Jacob van Lennep, and, from pp. 73 

 — 100, a poem in his praise by Ilendrik Harmen Klijn. 

 A List of his Lectures and Discourses in the Society 

 Felix Meritis, section Natural Philosophy, fills pp. 103 — 

 110, whilst the enumeration of his Works occupies pp. 

 Ill— 122. 



event ; for she assured me no one had entered my apart- 

 ment. 



" ' Thus I must have calculated the problem in my 

 sleep, and in the dark to boot, and, what is most remark- 

 able, the computation was so succinct, that what I saw 

 now before me on a single folio sheet, had required three 

 slates-full, closely beciphered at both sides, during my 

 waking state. Professor van Swinden was quite amazed 

 at the event, and declared to me, that whilst calculating 

 the problem himself, he never once had thought of a so- 

 lution so simple and so concise.' " 



J. H. van Lennep. 



Ze3-st, near Utrecht. 



Minor #ntc3. 



Notes on Regiments (passim). — Allow me to 

 call attention to what I humbly conceive to be a 

 curious blunder in the motto of the 5th (Prin- 

 cess Charlotte of Wales') Regiment of Dragoon 

 Guards : " Vestigia nulla retrorsum" 



The birth-place of these words is Horace, 1 

 Epist. i. 74. : — 



" Olim quod vulpes segroto cauta leoni 

 Respond it, referam : Quia me vestigia terrent 

 Omnia te adversum spectantia, nulla retrorsum." 



Thus the real meaning is, the fox is too cau- 

 tious to enter the lion's den ; the notion of a trap 

 terrifies us ; let us have nothing to do with the 

 enemy, because there is danger. 



A mistake as absurd as quaint when considered 

 in connection with any British regiment, and spe- 

 cially with one bearing on its colours the proud 

 titles " Salamanca," " Vittoria," " Toulouse," 

 " Peninsula," " Balaklava," &c. 



I wonder if the Regimental Records give any 

 explanation of the motto. W. T. M. 



Hongkong, Anniv. Balaklava, 1859. 



The Stuakt Papers. — ■ Inquiry was "made in 

 "N. & Q." (2 nd S. iii. 112.'), whether there was 

 any known list of persons on whom titles were 

 conferred by James II. after his abdication, and 

 by his son and grandson. A well-informed cor- 

 respondent in reply (2 od S. iii. 219.) gave some 

 information in respect to a particular patent, but 

 knew not of any published or MS. lists. I think 

 it well, therefore, to inform your correspondent 

 that Browne, in the Appendix to his History of 

 the Highlands, gives a large collection of letters 

 from the Stuart Papers, and amongst them one 

 from Mr. Edgar, secretary to the Chevalier, to 

 young Glengary, wherein he says (iv. 51.), — 



"His Majesty being at the same time desirous to do 

 what depends on him for your satisfaction, he, upon your 

 request, sends you here enclosed a duplicate of your 

 grandfather's warrant to be a peer. You will see that it 

 is signed by H. M., and I can assure you it is an exact 

 duplicate copie out of the book of entries of such like papers." 



Here then is proof, of what might reasonably 

 have been assumed, that there was a " book of 

 entries" of such grants. Is that book in exist- 



