436
NOTES AND QUERIES. pi s. vn. MAY 31, 1913.
THE HESSIAN CONTINGENT : AMERICAN
WAR OF INDEPENDENCE (11 S. vii. 364).
I send some quotations from ' The Hessians
and the other German Auxiliaries of Great
Britain in the Revolutionary War,' by Ed-
ward J. Lowell (Harper & Bros., New York,
1 884). Note to chap. viii. p. 97 :
"A letter which has frequently been published, purporting to be written at this time by a Prince of Hesse-Cassel to a Baron Hohendorf or Hogendprff, commanding Hessian troops in America, is a clumsy forgery (Kapp's 'Soldatenhandel,'2nd ed., pp. 199-201 ai.d 255)."
According to the Appendix, p. 301. 17 Hes- sians were killed at Trenton, and 78 wounded. On p. 96 it is said that 23 officers and 886 men surrendered. HELEN BEACH.
HENRY MEREDITH PARKER (11 S. vii. 49). I am glad to be able to give MR. H. R. W. BLUMFIELD the following particulars about this versatile Bengal Civilian, who w r as born in 1796 (?), and died in 1868.
In early life Parker is said to have been a violinist at Covent Garden Theatre, but, through the influence of Lord Moira (the Marquess of Hastings), he secured a clerk- ship in the Commissariat, entered the Service, and rose to be a member of the Calcutta Board of Customs, Salt, and Opium (later the Board of Revenue), retiring in 1842. He wrote occasionally as " Bernard Wycliffe," but is best known as the author, under his own name, of ' The Draught of Immortality, and Other Poems,' and ' Bole Ponjis ' (' The Punch Bowl '), in two volumes of brilliant prose and verse (Thacker, 1851). He excelled as a writer, speaker, actor, musician, modern linguist, and draughts- man, and was during his residence in Cal- cutta in great request by the society of his day. This " ornament of his service " was instrumental in materially aiding a movement for the regular importation of ice into Bengal, one result of which was the erection of the " Ice House " in Hare Street, only demolished in 1882 a curious globular building approached by a flight of steps, and on one occasion the scene of a sensational murder. Parker wrote " an inimitable ad- dress " to the women of the city for the benefit of the sick, beginning with the bor- rowed line, " O woman ! in our hours of ease." The Misses Eden, sisters of Lord Auckland, headed the subscription list, and in two days Rs. 3,000 were subscribed. He resided at a house in Chowringhee, then numbered 26, rented at Company's Rs. 453 5a. 4p., and valued by the pro- prietor, Baboo Nubkissin Sing, at Company's Rs. one lakh,
On his departure Parker was entertained
at a farewell dinner at the Sans Souci
Theatre in Park Street (now St. Xavier's
College), the ill-fated house at which, on
2 Nov., 1843, the beautiful Mrs. Esther
Leach, the actress (" the Indian Siddons ") t
was fatally burnt, the theatre never after-
wards recovering popularity as a place of
entertainment.
' Bole Ponjis ' includes, among much else, ' Mr. Simms ' (the owner of the office jaun "of pale Pomona green"), 'The Adjutant ' (with its clever references to Clive), ' Chateaux en Espagne ' (touching on the Calcutta of Parker's boyish imagination), and an article on the ' Decline and Fall of Ghosts.'
Authorities : Buckland's ' Dictionary of Indian Biography,' Cotton's ' Calcutta, Old and New,' and ' Bengal, Past and Present/ of the Calcutta Historical Society.
WlLMOT CORFIELD.
BUKATY FAMILY: " SUN FIRE OFFICE" MASONIC LODGE (11 S. vii. 268). It would be of considerable interest if MR. J. M. BULLOCH would be good enough to give his authority for the announcement that there was a Masonic lodge in existence, presumably in 1784, entitled the " Sun Fire Office " Lodge, London. Can he also state the date when the lodge was formed, and the circumstances which led to the adoption of its title ?
I have ascertained that towards the close of the eighteenth century several Masonic lodges under the title of the " Sun " w^ere in existence, but I have failed to trace that any one of these was specially named the- " Sun Fire Office " Lodge.
I should further be glad to learn what evidence MR. BULLOCH has that Francis- Bukaty was a Freemason, and the repre- sentative of the Grand Lodge of Poland in 1784.
Any additional particulars of the " Sun Fire Office " Lodge which MR. BULLOCH. may possess would be most acceptable.
FRANCIS H. RELTON..
9, Broughton Road, Thornton Heath.
ALEXANDRE DUMAS : ' MONTE CRISTO ' (11 S. vii. 369). Calmann Levy's list of 285 volumes of the ' (Euvres completes d'Alexandre Dumas' (1895) contains no reference to any " sequel " to ' Le Comtfc de Monte-Cristo ' ; but this publisher issued about the same time, in a cheap edition (a franc), ' Le Nouveau Monte-Cristo,' in one volume, by W. Reynolds, a prolific author. T. H. BARROW.,
