{28b} In his interesting romance, _The French Prisoners of Norman Cross_, the Rev. Arthur Brown speaks of Mr. Vise as Chief Surgeon at the Prison; this, of course, is an error, the prisoners were not attended by the neighbouring practitioners. The statement that the surgeons were all English is also erroneous. {29} Major Kelly was highly esteemed and at the time of his death (when the Indian Mutiny was not yet quelled) the following lines were published in a local newspaper:— A MONODY ON THE LATE MAJOR KELLY Peace to the virtuous brave! Another son of chivalry lies low: Not in the flush of youth he finds a grave, Not stricken to the dust by foreign foe He fainting falls;—but laden with full years, With white-hair’d glory crown’d, he lays him down In earth’s maternal lap, and with him bears Benevolence, high honour, renown, And love-begetting mem’ries, such as throw A halo round the thoughts of mortals here below. Earth! keep thy treasured dead Awhile, in holy trust! Not with vain tears Wail we the loss of him who bravely bled For England’s might and weal, in early years, When life’s warm pulse beat high, and buoyant hopes On tip-toe look’d afar at distant fame; When views of greatness fill’d his vision’s scope, And daring deeds lent glory to a name: Here on our soldier’s grave no tear should fall; All hidden be our grief, as ’neath a funeral pall. O! that in this, our need, This hour of trial, when the swart Sepoy Blurs the fair front of nature, with each deed Of villainy conceiving; when the joy That, like the sun, lights up affection’s eyes, Is blotted out by Indian hate and lust— O! that a host of Kellys could arise, And with avenging steel, unto the dust, Smite down the Smiter, that the world might know How true the Briton as a friend, how mighty as a foe! O. P. _The Peterborough Advertiser_, 13th February 1858. This monody not only shows the esteem in which the Major was held by the local poet and his neighbours, but in the last stanza it revives the memory of a crisis in the history of the empire, and of the throes of the Indian Mutiny, from which our country was suffering when Major Kelly died. {30} _Auctioneer’s Catalogue_ (Peterborough: G. Robertson, Bookseller. 1816!)