516
NOTES AND QUERIES. [u s. vi. DKC. -28, 1912.
works of a Roman marble-cutter still preserved
in Westminster Abbey,' he says, ' there is a
small tomb bearing no inscription, but believed
to be of the daughter of Henry III., who died in
1257. The name of PETRVS ROMANVS civis is
engraved in the basement of the shrine of Ed-
ward the Confessor. Peter, therefore, must have
worked on it toward 1260, the year in which the
relics of the Confessor were laid in the place of
honour by Henry IIT. The tomb of this king,
the second founder of Westminster Abbey, erected
in 1281, has nothing English about it, "save the
grey Purbeck marble. The materials of which
Ihe Romanesque pavement in front of the high
altar is composed were certainly imported from
Rome by the Abbot Richard of Ware. After his
election, which took place in 1258, the Abbot
paid a visit to the Eternal City, and brought back,
as a souvenir of his pilgrimage, some slabs of
porphyry and serpentine.* Upon his grave may
be read the following words :
HIC PORTAT LAPIDES QVOS HVC PORTAVIT AB VRBE,
that is to s&y, he lies buried under the red and green porphyries (the essential elements of a Romanesque pavement) which he brought him- self from the banks of the Tiber to those of the Thames.' "
EJDWABD BENSLY.
THE THREE WISHES (US. ii. 506 ; iii. 97). As a supplement to this correspondence it is perhaps worth while to call attention to an exhaustive article on the subject by Carl Marstrander, ' Deux Contes Irlandais,' in the ' Miscellany presented to Kuno Meyer,' Halle, 1912, p. 371 ff. He adduces versions from almost all the countries of Europe.
H. I. B.
GENERAL BEATSON AND THE CRIMEAN WAR (US. vi. 430). In The Illustrated Times, vol. ii. pp. 163, 164 (8 March, 1856), are a memoir and portrait of " General Beatson, late in command of the Turkish Irregular Cavalry on the Dardanelles." The portrait, full length, " from a photo- graph by Mayall," represents Beatson in uniform, with his plumed helmet by his side, wearing a long tunic heavily braided, sash, sword-belt and sword, and high boots. He was an officer of distinction, and appears to have been treated very badly after he had organized a force of about 3,000 men.
General W. F. Beatson had " served with honour and reputation as lieutenant- colonel in command of a regiment in the British Legion in Spain ; he was well known in India as an officer who had been in command of a brigade for eleven years ; who, for nearly half that period, held the specific rank of brigadier ; and who was mentioned six times in orders and despatches for successful actions in which he commanded. He volunteered, in the beginning
By serpentine " is, presumably, meant the
rich green Lacedaemonian porphyry to which the
misleading name of scrpcritino has been given.
of 1853, for service at the seat of war upon the
Danube. There he commanded the Bashi-
Ba/,ouks of Omar Pacha's army."
When he was in command of his own corps of Bashi-Bazouks his staff consisted at first of
" Colonel Walpol.\ well known as a traveller in Turkey, Captain Green of the Bombay Army, who had served with credit in the Scinde Irregular Horse, and Captain Rhodes of the 04th, who had been aide-de-camp t'> General Prim when he drew up his report on the military capabilities of Turkey for the Spanish Government."
Later he was joined by Col. Brett, Majors O'Reilly and Shelley, arid Capts. Ford and Wemyss.
Beatson appears to have suffered greatly from exaggerated complaints concerning his men, and from official bad treatment. The final cause of his resignation was that
"in September, 1855, the Minister-at-War attached Beatson's Horse to the Turkish Contingent, thus, as it were, degrading it from an independent to a secondary command."
The latter part of the memoir was written by " the late Chief of the Staff of the Bashi- Bazouks " (name not given, joined in July, 1855), and at the end is the following :
" The old and tried General, who was resolved at all hazards not to be shelved at Shumla or Magnesia, has lost his command. After the deadly campaigns on the Danube : after the bloody fields of Inkermann and Balaclava ; after the weary labour of organizing and disciplining a force which Ibrahim Pacha, Omar Paclia, and General Yusuf found intractable, General Beatson has returned home unnoticed and unknown."
Even the ' Dictionary of National Bio- graphy ' leaves him unnoticed.
In vol. i. of The Illustrated Times, pp. 146, 173, 243, 413, 459, are references to the Bashi- Bazouks. P. 173 gives a print of ' An Officer of Artillery attached to General Beatson's Irregular Cavalry,' about which it is written :
" The uniform, as here depicted, is a kind of half tunic of dark blue cloth, braided across the breast and up the back with gold cord, with scarlet and gold facings. The trousers are of dark blue with a scarlet stripe, and are met just below the knee by tight-fitting boots. The forage cap is scarlet, with a gold band and top- knot. In full dress, a scarlet helmet is worn, ornamented with gold and surmounted by a plume of scarlet horse hair."
Presumably this was the uniform of the English officers only.
The following notice appears in The Times of 9 Feb., 1872, p. 12, col. 5 :
" The death is announced of Gen. W. F. Beatson, who organized the Bashi-Bazouks during the Crimean War. Gen. Beatson entered the Bengal Army in 1820, and, being on furlough, served with the British Legion in Spain in 1835-36, and received the Cross of San Fernando. He
