212
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9- s. vn. MARCH ie, 1901.
remark that, as MR. MARSHALL has referred
to the defence of Cremona, in the winter of
1702, by the immortal Brigade (only the regi-
ments, by the way, of Dillon and Burke were
engaged), perhaps the following lines from
Dr. A. Conan Doyle's 'Cremona,' in his really
charming ' Songs of Action ' (London, Smith,
Elder & Co., 1898), will not be inappropriate
on the present occasion :
Major Dan O'Mahony is in the barrack square, And just six hundred Irish lads are waiting for him there ;
Says he, " Come in your shirt,
And you won't take any hurt, For the morning air is pleasant in Cremona."
All the weary day the German stormers came,
All the weary day they were faced by fire and flame :
They have filled the ditch with 'dead,
And the river 's running red ; But they cannot win the gateway of Cremona.
Just two hundred Irish lads are shouting on the
wall ; Four hundred are lying who can hear no slogan call ;
But what 's the odds of that,
For it 's all the same to Pat If he pays his debt in Dublin or Cremona.
Says General de Vaudray, " You Ve done a soldier's
work ! And every tongue in France shall talk of Dillon and
of Burke !
Ask what you will this day, And be it what it may, It is granted to the heroes of Cremona."
"Why, then," says Dan O'Mahony, "one favour
we entreat': We were called a little early, and our toilet 's not
complete.
We've no quarrel with the shirt,
But the breeches wouldn't hurt,
For the evening air is chilly in Cremona.'
HENRY GERALD HOPE. 119, Elms Road, Clapham, S.W.
Abraham Hay ward, in his essay entitled ' Pearls and Mock Pearls of History,' quotes from a letter written by Lord Charles Hay, in which Lord Charles said that when he was near enough to the enemy to be heard, he called to them in French that he hoped they would stay where they were till he and hi's men came up, and not run away as they had done at Dettingen two years before ; then, turning to his troops, he bade them hurrah. Doubtless Voltaire's informant thought this address too sarcastic, and gave it a more courtly turn. It has been said that Ligonier's division, which Lord Charles headed, was driven back, not by French artillery, but by Irish musketry. However, every one will believe as he thinks proper. * M. N. G.
MR. MARSHALL may.be interested to learn that Dr. Conan Doyle delivered a lecture to the Irish Literary Society, about three years
ago, at the Society of Arts, Adelphi, on ' The
Irish Brigade,' in the compilation of which
he used the fruit of much recent research.
He said he hoped shortly to embody it in a
book. Any one acquainted with this author's
writings in fiction or history would conclude
that no better qualified person could under-
take such a duty. J. S. C.
There is a good account of this act of gallantry at the battle of Fontenoy, and of the battle itself in 1745 supposing a work of fiction to be admissible as evidence in ' L. S. D. ; or, Treasure Trove,' by Samuel Lover, published in 1844. The novel is illus- trated by the author, and one engraving depicts Marshal Saxe carried on a litter at Fontenoy on the shoulders of his soldiers, as the Black Prince was at the sack of Limoges in 1371. The great French general Marshal Saxe is represented in the story as a very brave man, but one of licentious habits, and the scene of it is laid partly in Ireland and partly on the Continent. The Irish Brigade, of course, figures in the story, which brings in the rebellion of 1745.
JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.
Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.
INOCULATION (9 th S. vii. 108). The practice of inoculating smallpox is very old and was introduced into England from the East. It was first described in English by Kennedy in his 'Essay on External Remedies,' p. 153 (London, 1715), in which he was rather against the practice. An account of it as carried out among the Turks was communicated to the Royal Society by Wood ward, and appears in the Transactions, vol. xxix., 1717. As is well known, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was the first who persuaded the profession in England to adopt it. She was inoculated in 1717, and the practice was employed for the first time in England in 1721. Amidst much controversy it became more general. In 1754 it was fairly established, the movement being greatly strengthened, partly by the royal children being inoculated in that year, and partly by the declaration of the College of Physicians :
"The College, having been informed that false Deports concerning the success .of inoculation in England have been published in foreign countries, "hink proper to declare their sentiments in the fol- owing manner, viz. : That the arguments which, at the commencement of this practice, were urged against it have been refuted by experience ; that it x s now held by the English in greater esteem, and practised among them more extensively than ever t was before ; and that the College thinks it to be highly salutary to the human race."
In South Wales the custom was of great
