ROBERT POCOCK. 215 



from the horizon. The late comets brought very warm 

 weather, and within this last week it has been warm, 

 or very mild ! Sent a caravan box to Sarah Pocock 

 (by Mrs. Wallace), by Newman's coach, to be left at 

 the Flower Pot, Bishopsgate Street, until called for. 



" Wednesday, 31st. Heard that the comet, first 

 seen about the 29th, had been announced in the news- 

 papers. This morning Mrs. Saxon (wife of Lieut. - 

 Colonel Saxon, of the East India Company's Artillery) 

 called and breakfasted and I went with her on 

 board the Berwickshire, Bast India ship, with her son 

 Charles, to get him a berth in any capacity, but without 

 success. I gave her a letter of recommendation to Henry 

 Blanchard, Esq., No. 1, Broad Street, near the Eoyal 

 Exchange, whose brother is an East India captain/' 



Referring to the whale mentioned under date the 

 13th December, the "Encyclopaedia Britannica " tells us 

 that " an ancient perquisite belonging to the Queen 

 Consort, mentioned by all our old writers (and only 

 therefore worthy notice), is this : that on the taking 

 a whale on the coasts, it being a royal fish, it shall be 

 divided between the King and Queen, the head only of 

 it being the King's property and the tail of it the 

 Queen's. ( De sturgione observetur, quod Rex ilium 

 habebit integrum, de balena vero sufficit si Rex habeat 

 caput et Regina caudam.' The reason of this 

 whimsical division, as assigned by our ancient records, 

 was to furnish the Queen's wardrobe with whale- 

 bone." 



"The editor of the ( Encyclopaedia' is ignorant upon 

 the subject of whales, as the whalebone is taken from 

 the mouth not from the tail." 



