e title of the "Flincher-General at
Buenos Ayres."

JAMES SPENCE HARRY.

I have only just seen your correspondent's Reply (Vol. ix., p. 87.)
respecting General Whitelocke. He is right in stating that the general
resided at Clifton: he might have added, as late as 1830; but he had
previously, for time, lived at Butcombe Court, Somersetshire.

There is an anecdote still rife in the neighbourhood, that when Whitelocke
came down to see the house before taking it, he put up at an inn, and after
dinner asked the landlord to take a glass of wine with him. Upon
announcing, however, who he was, the landlord started up and declared he
would not drink another glass with him, throwing down at the same time the
price of the bottle, that he might not be indebted to the general.

Respecting the story of the flints, it is said that he desired them to be
taken out of the muskets, wishing that the men should only use their
bayonets against the enemy.

ARDELIO.

I remember well that soon after the unsuccessful attack of General
Whitelocke upon Buenos Ayres, it was stated that the flints had been taken
out of the muskets of some of our regiments because they were quite raw
troops, and the General thought that they might, from want of knowledge and
use of fire-arms, do more mischief to themselves than to the enemy, and
that they had better trust to the bayonet alone. The consequence was, that
when they entered the streets of the town, they found no enemy in them to
whom they could apply the bayonet. The inhabitants and troops were in the
strong stone houses, and fired on and killed our men with perfect impunity,
as not a shot could be fired in return: to surrender was their only chance
of life. A reference to a file of newspapers of that date (which I am too
lazy to make myself) will show whether this was understood at the time to
be a fact or not.

J. SS.

In the _Autobiography of B. Haydon_ (I think vol. i.), he mentions that as
he was passing through Somersetshire on his way from Plymouth to London, he
saw General Whitelocke. A reference to the passage may interest G. L. S.

W. DENTON.

The following charade was in vogue at the time of Whitelocke's death:

"My first is an emblem of purity;
My second is that of security;
My whole forms a name
Which, if yours were the same,
You would blush to hand down to posterity."

J. Y.

* * * * *

"MAN PROPOSES, BUT GOD DISPOSES."

(Vol. v