Cockade

“ The White Cockade.
[The following are the old Jacobite verses to the popular tune of "The White Cockade."]
My love was born in Aberdeen,
The bonniest kid that e'er was seen;
But now he makes our hearts fu' sad—
He's ta'en the field wi' his white cockade.
⁠O, he's a ranting, roving blade!
⁠O, he's a brisk and a bonny lad!
⁠Betide what may, my heart is glad
⁠To see my lad wi' his white cockade.
O, leeze me on the philabeg,
The hairy hough, and garter'd leg!
But aye the thing that glads my e'e,
Is the white cockade aboon the bree. ”

“ That white cockade, the symbol of a cause so full of poetry and romance, seems to have brought a benison with it to the babe Rosemary Dacre, to have dowered her with beauty, and gifted her with an unusually magnetic attractiveness. As she grew into fairest womanhood she had many lovers, declared and undeclared, and in the hearts of those who failed to win the lady her memory seems to have lingered tenderly with no touch of bitterness ”

“ He was interrupted by cries of enthusiasm; 'we will protect you, we will kill the tigers.' Some men sprang upon the table and embraced him, the tumblers were thrown down and broken, and the sugar and water was poured over the gravel.
'What is to be done?' was shouted; 'how shall we know the friends of liberty?'
[Pg 154]
'Let us adopt a cockade,' cried Camille; 'then we shall know those who are on our side from our foes.'
'A cockade, a cockade!' was shouted. ”

“ At a place named Coil-chro, or the Wood-of-hazel-nuts, a turn of the path, as it wound over the headland, brought us in view of a gentleman and two ladies on horseback, attended by a smart mounted servant, clad in a grey surtout, and accoutred with a leather girdle, laced hat, and black cockade. ”

“ Some good old Bonapartist soldiers, who had retired to the village, went to see this creature with great devotion. The mountebanks gave out that the tricolored cockade was a unique phenomenon made by God expressly for their menagerie. ”

“ By 1802 these cockade eagles had taken the colors used for the buttons and lace of the different arms. The Purveyor of Public Supplies in that year purchased cockade eagles in tin (white) for infantry and in brass (yellow) for artillery enlisted men at a cost of one and two cents, respectively. [41] The cockade eagles of infantry officers were to be of silver and those of artillery officers of gold. Cockades for company officers and enlisted personnel were to be of leather. ”

“ One of the animals was to be received at the outer end of the flanked passage leading into the arena by a net, into which he was to plunge “comme un lapin se prend dans la bourse en sortant du terrier.” Another was to wear a cockade mounted on his horn; and a twenty-franc piece was to reward that skilful youth who might pluck the cockade from the horn within ten feet (trois mètres) of the barricades.
Our determination was at once taken to be present at the “grande course,” the proper study of mankind being man, even man the bull-aggravator. ”

“ On the contrary, this people, who love and venerate their king and on holidays insist that everybody shall wear an orange cockade in homage to his family name, in general never trouble themselves about him or his doings. ”

“ REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.
Cockade (Vol. iii., p.7.) .—The black cockade worn by the officers of the army and navy is the relic of a custom which probably dated from the Hanoverian succession; the black cockade being the Hanoverian badge, the white that of the Stuart. In Waverley, when the hero for the first time meets the Baron Bradwardine, he is accosted by the latter thus:—
"And so ye have mounted the cockade? ”

“ Sheffield, Jan. 2. 1851.
Cockade (Vol. iii., p. 7.) .—The Query of A. E. has not yet been satisfactorily answered; nor can I pretend to satisfy him. But as a small contribution to the history of the decoration in question, I beg to offer him the following definition from the Dictionnaire étymologique of Roquefort, 8vo., Paris, 1829:—
"Cocarde, touffe de rubans que sous Louis XIII. on portoit sur le feutre, et qui imitoit la crête du coq."
If this be correct, Apodliktes (p. 42.) must be mistaken in attributing so recent an origin to the cockade as the date of the Hanoverian succession. ”

“ This cockade is of black leather of the size prescribed by the 1813 regulations. Tooled into the upper fan is an eagle-on-cannon device with a stack of 6 cannon balls under the trail; an arc of 15 stars partially surrounds the eagle device. It is believed to have been worn on artillery chapeaux de bras as early as 1808.
The specimen is unmarked as to maker, but from correspondence of Callendar Irvine, Commissary General of Purchases from 1812 to 1841, it seems very possible that cockades similar to this one were made by Robert Dingee of New York City. ”

“ The 1813 and 1814 uniform regulations merely (p. 9) specified black leather cockades of 4 inches and 4-1/2 inches in diameter respectively. However, since the Militia generally did not start adopting Regular Army devices until the 1820's it seems probable that this cockade was an item of Regular Army issue, despite the lack of evidence of specific authorization.
As early as January 1799 War Office orders specified: "All persons belonging to the Army, to wear a black cockade, with a small white eagle in the center. ”

“ Enlisted men's cockades of the early 19th century were of leather, as were those of line officers. [101] This cockade, of black tooled leather (p. 52) with painted gold fan tips, was a common form of the period and was worn with an eagle in the center or possibly on the upper fan. It is assigned to the Militia because of the gold ornamentation.
CAP PLATE, C. 1810 USNM 60275-M (S-K 33) . Figure 99.
Figure 99
This grenadier-type plate, which is untrimmed and thus may be a die sample, is a rare example of the use of coiled snakes as a military device after 1800. ”

“ There is no resisting a Cockade, my dear.’ ‘I hope there is,’ said Mrs. ”

“ I involuntarily drew back a step when I saw the engineer, but he held out both hands to me and said, smiling, showing his strong white teeth that looked like a sledge-driver's:
"Here he is, here he is! Very glad to see you, Mr. House-painter! Masha has told me all about it; she has been singing your praises. I quite understand and approve," he went on, taking my arm. "To be a good workman is ever so much more honest and more sensible than wasting government paper and wearing a cockade on your head. I myself worked in Belgium with these very hands and then spent two years as a mechanic. ”

“ The current that dangerously and helplessly sweeps him away from the land delights him by a sense of velocity. The waves which rise and threaten to fill the boat gladden him with the sensation of going “up and down.” I once took the trouble to watch a cockney get into a wherry and row himself out to sea. I kept a very powerful glass bearing upon him, and had his face within reach of my hand, so to speak, when he was two miles off. There was a strong tide setting to the eastward, in which direction lay the North Sea. ”

“ The Coquette was still in sight, some eight miles away to windward, and, famous as she was for her speed, I had the supreme delight of observing that we had head-reached upon her to the extent of quite two miles. And now we began to discover the great advantage of having exchanged our stone ballast for iron, the schooner being not only much stiffer under her canvas, but also more lively than before. ”

“ AN HOUR’S ROW. There is not a more painfully diverting sight in the whole world than that of a cockney with a face as yellow as a London fog, a tall hat at the back of his head, his coloured shirt-sleeves rolled above his elbows, tugging upon the sea at a small pair of oars in a rather heavy wherry. He has no idea of tides, of waves, of winds, or weather. He looks to leeward for squalls, and over the stern for any other news of the sea. ”

“ From the schooner’s deck, a mile and a half away, Captain, cook, and cooper—the head, tail, and midriff of the ship’s company—we perceive that the white puff of spray from the whale’s blowholes has changed to a darker color. “Spouting blood,” we remark. The boat is lying quite near by. At intervals of a few minutes a circular streak of white water is seen breaking the smooth surface of the lagoon. He’s in his “flurry.” He is dying. ”

“ It was a large and imposing stateroom with a big teak bed—evidently the captain’s, a relic of the days when the captain of a crack sailing ship was decidedly a somebody, and when, moreover, he frequently took his wife to sea with him. And in the middle of the bed was a brass cage containing the owner of the voice—a fine sulphur-crested cockatoo, which was even now pouring forth a flood of the choicest polyglot oaths Kavanagh had ever heard. ”

“ The cockswain stood examining his game with cool discretion, and replied to this interrogatory:
“No, sir, no—he's going into his flurry; there's no occasion for disgracing ourselves by using a soldier's weapon in taking a whale. Starn off, sir, starn off! the creater's in his flurry!”
The warning of the prudent cockswain was promptly obeyed, and the boat cautiously drew off to a distance, leaving to the animal a clear space, while under its dying agonies. ”

“ With savage oaths the captain urged his crew to fresh exertions, for just then he saw the mate go for'ard in his boat and plunge his keen lance of shining steel into his prize, then back his boat off as the agonised whale again sounded into the blue depths below, with his life-blood pouring from him in a bubbling stream. ”

“ I like not the course he is steering, as he tows us from the schooner.”
“'Tis the creatur's way, sir,” said the cockswain; “you know they need the air in their nostrils, when they run, the same as a man; but lay hold, boys, and let's haul up to him.”
The seamen now seized the whale-line, and slowly drew their boat to within a few feet of the tail of the fish, whose progress became sensibly less rapid, as he grew weak with the loss of blood. In a few minutes he stopped running, and appeared to roll uneasily on the water, as if suffering the agony of death. ”

“ He descended cheerfully, reappeared to pass up a plate, and descended again. I gobbled down enough to stay my appetite, crammed my pocket full of ship biscuit, and, after listening for a moment at the hatchway, tiptoed forward and climbed out upon the bowsprit. Then, having unloosed the cockboat's painter, I lowered and let myself drop into her, and, slipping a paddle into the stern-notch, sculled gently for shore. ”

“ The Coquette has never got a chase under her lee, that she did not speak.”
“I disparage no ship, sir, for character is character, and none should speak lightly of their fellow-creatures, and, least of all, of anything which follows the sea. I allow the Coquette to be a lively boat on a wind, and a real scudder going large; but one should know the wright that fashioned yonder brigantine, before he ventures to say that any vessel in Her Majesty’s fleet can hold way with her, when she is driven hard.” ”

“ CHAPTER II ——“A horseman's coat shall hide thy taper shape and comeliness of side: And with a bolder stride and looser air, Mingled with men, a man thou must appear.” Prior.
When the whale-boat obtained the position we have described, the young lieutenant, who, in consequence of commanding a schooner, was usually addressed by the title of captain, stepped on the rocks, followed by the youthful midshipman, who had quitted the barge to aid in the hazardous duty of their expedition. ”

“ I felt at the time she was asking me to be a good bird; but now that I have known you, sir, so long, and am better acquainted with the English language, I know she told me how much happier I should be if I were good. 'Oh fie, Cockatoo,' I think I hear her saying, 'how naughty of you to bite the captain's finger; you ought to be a good bird, sir,—and he is [Pg 54] so kind to you, and all the birds aboard.' It was all very well for Miss Maud to speak of the captain being good ”

“ When we hauled it in each hook was burdened with a magnificent cod, and a scene of wild excitement ensued. All the watch improvised tackle of some kind—a piece of hambro’ line, a marlinespike for sinker, and one hook was the usual outfit—and in a couple of hours the deck was like Billingsgate. All sorts and conditions of fish apparently lived down there, and all most accommodating in their appetite. ”

“ We are no dealers in dumb show, in the Coquette, Captain Ludlow.”
“I would not injure the vessel, even should it prove a buccaneer. Be careful, that nothing strikes her, without an order.”
“Aye, ’twill be well to take the beauty alive, sir; so pretty a boat should not be broken up, like an old hulk. Ha! there goes his bunting, at last! He shows a white field—can the fellow be a Frenchman, after all?” ”

“ When I tell you that an old cockatoo dropped down from the tropic sky on to a blue gum twig overhead and surveyed me with a sideways melancholy eye as I sat alone by my camp fire, be quite sure that that cockatoo lived and breathed, took stock of me and flew away into the sunset, and has doubtlessly dropped into the scrub, a small bunch of dead feather and bone, years ago.
At school I read more from the pages of romance than from school-books. ”

“ The sides of the boat cannot be seen for the multitudes of cockatoos, parrots, parrakeets, and birds of all sorts, fastened on little perches, with very short strings attached to them. The decks are covered with sandal-wood. The holds are full of spice, shells, feathers, and South Sea pearl shells. With this cargo they creep from island to island, and from creek to creek, before the monsoon, till they reach their destination. They stay a month or six weeks, change their goods for iron, nails, a certain amount of pale green or Indian red thread for weaving, and some pieces of Manchester cotton. ”