QUEER FACTS OF HISTORY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 101, 18 April 1908, Page 3

QUEER FACTS OF HISTORY

WHO WAS JACK CADE? due of the mysteries of history is that siirroundiiig the arch-traitor .lack Cade. Nearly all historians have described him as an Irishman. He was really liorn ill Sussex, where lie was, as a .voiith, a servj*nt to one Sir Thomas Dagre. 1 his Sir Thomas Dagre, or Dacre, was a Sussex knoght of great eminence, who had seats at Huratmoneeanx and HeathHeld, iu that county.

Cade has, tor several centuries, been a common name about Mayiield and Jleathtieid, as h proved, as well by numerous entries in the parish registers, as by lands and localities designated from that family. After his defeat, near London, Cade, took to the Sussex woods, and he finally would have escaped if his reckless courage had not brought him out into the open. It is traditionally related that he was engaged in a game of bowls in the garden of a little ale-house at Heathtield when a Kentish squire. Sir Alexander rden, Sheriff of Kent, taking him unawares, killed him with an arrow.

A i'Ui'K AS A PIC-MINDER. Most of us are accustomed to look down upon the humble pig, though, as someone wittily lias said, lie is good " from his tail to his snout." Hut in old days pigs were very important, for the people of England in the winter lived chiefly on salt meat, even in the castles of the great men and barons, and thus we lind in Domesday that the importance of an f .state is measured by how much mast or pannage for hogs it possessed.

Provision for hogs even figured in a chapter of tiie great Charter of Forests. The can* of hogs was anciently the occupation of great men. Jn the time of Homer, Euniaeus, one of the greatest persons in Ttliaea, tended hogs. But perhaps that is not so remarkable as the fact which heads this paragraph. One. of the most famous wearers of the triple crown, Pope Sixtus V., Cesser of the Armada, tended his father's swine, before he was called to the throne of St. Peter.

HOW NAPOLEON " COUNTED HIS CHICKENS." It has often l>eeu doubted whether Napoleon seriously intended to invade England iu 180-4. But there is a queer fact which practically settles the question. He had a die engraved by Denon in anticipation of the event, and from this die a number of medals were struck, with the obvious intention of beingissued from London, should the invasion prove successful. On the obverse of the medal is a finelycut bust of Napoleon, the head ineircled with a laurel wreath, with the legend •"Napoleon Kmp. et lloi." On the reverse is a design of Hercules conquering Antaeus, the features of the flerj cules being modelled alter tlui NapoleI onic -type. The principal inscription on the reverse U " Dcscenle en Angletere." In smaller characters, beneath the. feet of the group, are the words " l«'rappe a Londres, 1804." When this invasion failed these medals were carefully put aside; but some of them were discovered in Paris afler the battle of Waterloo.

A UlloST WHO NEARLY CHANGED HISTORY.

On JuiHi 12th, 1015, Charles 1. slept at the little inn at Naseby village. Scouts had brought news of the approach of the Parliamentary army, and the King was resolved to give them battle. In the middle of the night the Lords of the Bedchamber, who slept in the outer room, were disturbed by an extraordinary noise iu the King's room. Upon entering they found Charles sitting bolt- upright, iu his bed and in a much excited state.

On asking what the noise was, the King said he had heard no noise, but that their entry had aroused him from an extraordinary dream. He said that Strafford had stood at the foot of his bed and implored him not to give battle, for if he did he would be so disastrously defeated as to threaten his crown, and even his life.

The next morning Charles told Prince Rupert and his generals of his dream, but declared that he would fight. They in vain tried to dissuade him. In the evening uews arrived that the enemy were close at. hand. That night Charles again dreamed the >anie dream. Strafford warned him that it would be the last time he would try to help him. The next morning the King led his army out, and by sunset lie had lost cannon, and four-fifths of his troops, and, as vents proved, the war as well. Strafford's ghoM was right. Had Charles not met Cromwell at Nasebv it is quite likely he would not have met his dealh at Whitehall.

I A new monthly postal service across lh ( . Sahara lias'just been established. The messengers are mounted oil camels. After the death in a garret of a blind I beggar namde Martin, who had lived on I charitv for years at a village near ClerI mont-Ferrand, the police found a quan--1 tity of copper coins, worth in all CIIIO, >tiiffed in the mattress of his bed and under the bed. Altogether there wore about 00,000 copper coins which Martin hoarded. Creslow, a parish in Mid-Bucks, has hut a single ratepayer. He is Mr. Riehavd Rowland, gentleman farmer. Hesides being the owner of the whole parish of SS-' acres.. Mr. Rowland. who*e age is thirtv-live, i- his own overseer, rate assessor, rate collector, parish conncil. department of public highways, and a host of other public things. 1