Footnotes:

“Mr. City-Editor of the Public Ledger,—In your edition of this date, I notice a communication headed ‘To Local Antiquarians.’ Without any well-founded pretensions to the designation ‘Antiquarian,’ as I get older I still take a great interest in the early history of our beloved city. I remember distinctly the fact, but not the date, of reading a description of the ‘mantelpiece.’ It was of wood, handsomely carved on the pillars, and under the shelf, and on the centre between the pillars, was the following quaint and witty hieroglyphic inscription:—

When the grate is M. T. put: When it is . putting:

which is a little puzzling at first sight, but readily translated by converting the punctuation points into written words.

Senior.

“Frankford, May 24, 1892.”

I can add to this, that the chimney-piece was originally made for wood-fires, and that long after a grate was set in and the inscription added.

“Here shall itt bee, And here shall itt stande; And this shall bee called: Ye Churche of Leyland.”

The proposal of General Smith to resist with us alone the tremendous maddened rush of half of Lee’s veterans has its re-echo in my ballad, where Breitmann attempts with his Bummers to stem the great army of the South. The result would have probably been the same—that is, we should have been “gobbled up.” But he would have undoubtedly tried it without misgiving. I have elsewhere narrated my only interview with him.