266
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s i. APR. 2, 1910.
BYRON RELICS. The Daily Chronicle
recently mentioned that the carriage of Lord
Byron, used by him in travelling, was now
in Australia, lying neglected in the outhouse
of an inn, the roosting-place of fowls.
Samuel Irenseus Prime mentions a com- panion relic of the poet, which he saw at Liverpool, and of which he remarks :
" Dr. Baffles showed me also the identical table on which Lord Byron wrote ' Childe Harold ' and other poems ; and the doctor has put it to a better use in writing many a good sermon on it. The table shuts up, so as to be conveniently stowed away in a carriage, and was Byron's travelling secretary while he was in Italy." See ' Travels in Europe and the East,' New York, 1855. vol. i. p. 210.
Anderson says the third canto of ' Childe Harold ' was written in Switzerland ( ' Works of Lord Byron,' vol. i. p. 161). D. J.
FLY PAINTED ON A SHIELD : JAPANESE
VARIANT. In ' Mery Tales and Quicke Answeres,' ed. Hazlitt, 1881, p. 122, is this anecdote :
" A yonge man that on a tyme went a warfare, caused a flye to be peynted in his shylde, euen of the very greatnes of a flye ; wherfore some laughed at him and sayde : ye do well, because ye wyll not be knowen. Yes, quod he, I do it because I wyll be knowen and spoken of. For I wyll approch so nere our enemys, that they shall well decerne what armes I beare."
The following Japanese variant may interest some of your readers, especially MR. COLLING WOOD LEE, who has left this tale entirely unhandled in his valuable notes (9 S. xi. 363) :
" Kitajd Tango [killed 1579] had his sashimono [a signum carried on the warrior's back] made of white silk, only one foot square, and with a black ant represented in its midst. When his master, Kenshin, asked him why he adopted so incon- spicuous a banner as his own, he replied thus : ' Indeed, sometimes this might prove indiscernible to our soldiers ; but should I head them in every march, and should I bring up the rear in every retreat, our enemies would find this small banner of mine ever as conspicuous as the much larger and heavier ones of other warriors.' " Yuasa, ' Jozan Kidan,' 1739, torn. iii. chap, xviii.
KUMAGUSTJ MlNAKATA. Tanabe Kii, Japan.
BELT FAMILY. (See 8 S. xii. 128.) Robert Belt of Bossal married Margaret Gordon, daughter of Peter Gordon, and granddaughter of James Gordon, merchant, Garmouth (died 1765, aged 69), who be- longed to the Gordons of Cairnfield. Did Mr. Belt the sculptor belong to the Bossal family ? J. M. BULLOCH.
118, Pall Mall, S.W.
WE must request correspondents desiring in-
formation on family matters of only private interest
to affix their name's and addresses to their queries,
in order that answers may be sent to them direct.
TRAVELLERS NOT IN ' D.N.B.'
I HAVE recently referred to the ' Dictionary of
National Biography ' in vain for a number
of travellers whom I should have expected
to find noticed there.
D'Abbadie, Antoine, born at Dublin 1810 ; died 20 March, 1897.
D'Abbadie, Arnauld Michel, born at Dublin 1815 ; died 8 Nov., 1893. These two brothers, sons of a French father and Irish mother, travelled in Abyssinia (or Ethiopia, as the country should be called) from 1838 to 1848. They traversed the country in various directions, and published accounts of their travels. Antoine was the first European to visit Enarea and Kaffa (1843), though his claims were adversely and bitterly criticized by Dr. C. T. Beke. (See ' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' Supple- ment to 9th ed. i. 1902, p. 2 ; ' The Catholic Encyclopaedia ' ; The Geographical Journal, xi. 459 ; 'A Travers le Monde,' 1897, p. 159.) Arnauld returned to Ethiopia in 1853, and I should be glad to learn particulars of this visit.
Bell, John G., travelled in Ethiopia 1840-60. He married an Abyssinian lady ; was in the service of Ras Ali (1849) ; entered that of the Emperor Theodores, 1855 ; killed by rebels in October or December, I860. His diary, 1840-42, was published ' Miscellanea ^gyptiaca,' vol. i. part i., 1842. (I should be glad to have an opportunity of seeing this work.) There are casual refer- ences to him in Ferret et Galinier, ' Voyage en Abyssinie,' 1847 ; Mansfield Parkyns, ' Life in Abyssinia,' 1853 and 1868 ; Henry Dufton, ' Narrative of a Journey through Abyssinia,' 1867 ; Dr. C. T. Beke, ' The British Captives in Abyssinia,' 1867 ; Dr. J. L. Krapf, 'Travels,' 1860; Henry A. Stern, ' Wanderings among the Falashas, 1862 ; Walter Chichele Plowden, ' Travels m Abyssinia,' 1868; and E. A. De Cosson, ' the Cradle of the Blue Nile,' 1877. ' D.N.B., xlv. 431, mentions him as " J. Bell n in its notice of Walter Chichele Plow- den, who joined him in 1843.
Coffin, W. H., in Abyssinia, 1810-26 ; 1832- 1855 or later. (See 10 S. xii. 108, 2300
