290 NOTES AND QUERIES. ROBERT BURDETT was admitted to West- minster School Feb. 12, 1776. Information concerning his parentage and career is desired. G. F. R, B. PETER DUCASSE obtained his election from Westminster to a scholarship at Trin. Coll. Camb. in 1730, but seems never to have been admitted there, and to have sub- sequently become an usher at the school. Further particulars of his parentage and career are desired. G. F. R. B. BURIED WINE. Is there any information j as to the flavour and virtue of wine which I has been buried in bottles for a long period | of years. Sir Thos. Browne, in his ' Urn Burial,' does not seem to support the idea. ALFRED S. E. ACKERMANN. MoWnEA. In a will dated 1800 a Jane MeWhea of Scotland is mentioned. In- formation as to this lady or the MeWhea family will be welcome. A. W. WALLIS-TAYLER. Beulah Cottage, Tatsfield, near Westerham. THE WIDTH or CHEAPSIDE. In a recent lecture on Old London at the Overseas Club, Park Place, St. James's, the state- ment was made that Cheapside was wider in Tudor times than at present. Does this mean that roadway and footway were all one, hence giving the appearance of greater space, or have frontagers, in re-erecting premises from time to time, been allowed to advance the building line ? J. LANDFEAR LUCAS. 101, Piccadilly.
- STEVENSON'S ' VIRGINIBUS PUERISQUE.'
Is there any edition of this with notes ? Or could any correspondent tell me of any notes anywhere upon these essays ? A. R. LANCE CALKIN. Some years ago an artist I believe one of some repute by name Lance Calkin painted a picture, the subject of which was the sinking of the ship Bir- kenhead. Of what nationality was this Lance Calkin : English, Scotch, Irish or Welsh ? F. A. SLACKE. CAPTAIN SKINNER, 1764.- Wanted, fuU particulars of the family of Captain Skinner, who was in the service of the late East India Co. in India in 1764. He came from Scot- land, and the address of his original home is desired. E. C. WIENHOLT. 3, Ellachie Road, Alverstoke, Hants. GENERAL NICHOLSON'S BIRTHPLACE. (12 S. x. 109, 158, 173.) THE following facts about this great soldier, which I have been at considerable trouble to ascertain and verify, will, I hope, set at rest the many erroneous statements made by his biographers who are legion as to where and when he was born. A statue of him has lately been erected at Lisburn ; and the inscription claims him as having been a native of that town, which, most certainly, he was not. A claim has also been advanced, on utterly untenable grounds, that he was born at Vergemount, Clonskeagh, which may be summarily dismissed. The majority of Memoirs state that he was born in 1821, which is wrong ; and the article in the ' D.N.B.,' written by Colonel R. H. Vetch, R.E., C.B., tells us that Lisburn is in the Co. Wicklow ! John Nicholson was born in the parish of St. Thomas, Dublin. The following document-r a certified copy of the original declaration which I obtained from the India Office is, I think, conclusive enough to satisfy any reasonable person i [ This Declaration must not be made until the Party has ascertained by proper search, that no Register of Birth is to be found.] DECLARATION to be made by the CADET before a MAGISTRATE. I, John Nicholson, presented for the appoint- ment of Cadet, by Henry Alexander, Esqr., do solemnly and sincerely declare that I have caused search to be made for a Parish Register, whereby to ascertain my age, but am mable to produce the same, there being none to be found ; and further I declare that from the information of my parents and other relations, which I verily believe to be true, that I was born in the Parish of St. Thomas, in the county of Dublin, on the llth of Deer, in the year 1822, and that I am not, at this time, xmder the age of sixteen or above twenty-two years ; and I make this Declaration, conscientiously believing the same to be true ; and by virtue of an Act made and passed in the fifth and sixth year of his present Majesty William the Fourth, entitled . . . and so forth. Declared at Great Marlboro' Street this 18 day of Feby. 1839. P. J. CHAMBERS, Magistrate for Middlesex. Witness my hand this 15 day of Feby. in the year of Our Lord 1839. JOHN NICHOLSON. The Henry Alexander, Esq., mentioned in this declaration can easily be identified as of Forkill, Armagh (a branch of the house
