ODD BITS OF HISTORY
BEING
SHORT CHAPTERS INTENDED TO FILL SOME BLANKS
BY
HENRY W. WOLFF
LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN & Co.
AND NEW-YORK: 15 EAST 16th STREET
1894.
(All rights reserved.)
The chapters composing this book appeared originally in the shape ofreview articles. I owe acknowledgments to the Editors of Blackwood'sMagazine, the National Review and the Gentleman's Magazine for thepermission kindly accorded me to republish them.
To my regret I find, on receiving the clean sheets, that pressure of timeand a rather troublesome nervous affection of one eye have led me tooverlook a few printer's errors, such as: p. 70, occassion foroccasion; p. 137, Fuensaldana for Fuensaldaña; p. 253, NicephorasPhorcas for Nicephorus Phocas; p. 267, Polydore Virgil for PolydoreVergil. The misprints will in every instance, I believe, explainthemselves.
H. W. W.
CONTENTS.
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| I. | THE PRETENDER AT BAR-LE-DUC | 1 |
| II. | RICHARD DE LA POLE, "WHITE ROSE" | 58 |
| III. | THE EARLY ANCESTORS OF OUR QUEEN | 91 |
| IV. | ABOUT A PORTRAIT AT WINDSOR | 120 |
| V. | THE REMNANT OF A GREAT RACE | 145 |
| VI. | VOLTAIRE AND KING STANISLAS | 181 |
| VII. | THE PRINCE CONSORT'S UNIVERSITY DAYS | 219 |
| VIII. | SOMETHING ABOUT BEER | 248 |
"The Pretender Charles Edward resided here three years in a house which isstill pointed out." So you may read in "Murray," under the head of"Bar-le-Duc." The information, which is apt to suggest inquiry to thosewho, like myself, are fond of picking up a little bit of neglected historyon their travels, is, as it happens, not altogether accurate. For, in thefirst place, the "Pretender" who "resided" at Bar was not "Charles Edward"at all—could not have been "Charles Edward," who was not born till fiveyears after the Pretender who did reside there had left. In the second,so little is "the house still pointed out" that, on my fir