Drake's Drum.
A state drum, painted with the arms of Sir Francis
Drake, is preserved among other relics at Buckland Abbey, the seat of
the Drake family in Devon.
The Fighting Téméraire.
The two last stanzas have been misunderstood.
It seems, therefore, necessary to state that they are intended to
refer to Turner's picture in the National Gallery of "The Fighting
_Téméraire_ Tugged to her Last Berth."
San Stefano.
Sir Peter Parker was the son of Admiral Christopher
Parker, grandson of Admiral Sir Peter Parker (the life-long friend and
chief mourner of Nelson), and great-grandson of Admiral Sir William
Parker. On his mother's side he was grandson of Admiral Byron, and
first cousin of Lord Byron, the poet. He was killed in action near
Baltimore in 1814, and buried in St. Margaret's, Westminster,
where may be seen the monument erected to his memory by the officers
of the _Menelaus_.
The Quarter-Gunner's Yarn.
This ballad is founded on fragmentary lines
communicated to the author by Admiral Sir Windham Hornby, K.C.B., who
served under Sir Thomas Hardy in 1827.
Væ Victis.
See _Livy_, XXX.,43, _Diodorus Siculus_, XIX., 106.
Seringapatam.
In 1780, while attempting to relieve Arcot, a British
force of three thousand men was cut to pieces by Hyder Ali. Baird,
then a young captain in the 73rd, was left for dead on the field. He
was afterwards, with forty-nine other officers, kept in prison at
Seringapatam, and treated with Oriental barbarity and treachery by
Hyder Ali and his son Tippoo Sahib, Sultans of Mysore. Twenty-three of
the prisoners died by poison, torture, and fever; the rest were
surrendered in 1784. In 1799, at the siege of Seringapatam,
Major-General Baird commanded the first European brigade, and
volunteered to lead the storming column. Tippoo Sahib, with eight
thousand of his men, fell in the assault, but the victor spared the
lives of his sons and forbade a general sack of the city.
Clifton Chapel.
Clifton is one of the schools from which the largest
number of boys pass direct into the R.M.A., Woolwich, and R.M.C.,
Sandhurst. Thirty-five Old Cliftonian officers served in the campaign
of 1897 on the Indian Frontier, of whom twenty-two were mentioned in
despatches and six recommended for the Distinguished Service Order. Of
the three hundred Cliftonians who served in the war in South Africa,
thirty were killed in action and fourteen died of wounds or fever.
Clifton, remember these thy sons who fell
Fighting far oversea;
For they in a dark hour remembered well
Their warfare learned of thee.
The Echo.
The ballad was "The Twa Sisters of Binnorie," as set by
Arthur Somervell.