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Durham, did love, for it can only be he who bestowed upon him the three carucates of land in Biscepethorp, of which the Testa de Nevill (p. 338) makes mention.

This Walter Bek of Luceby married I know not whom, but she bore him six children, three sons and three daughters. The three daughters were Alice, Margaret, and Johanna, and if any one wants to know more about them I can furnish him with their birthdays. The sons were John, born on August 18, 1278; Antony, born on August 4, 1279; and Thomas, born on February 22, 1282. John succeeded his father as constable of Lincoln, and moreover became also constable of Bristol. Antony became Bishop of Norwich in March, 1337. Thomas became Bishop of Lincoln (to which see his elder brother was elected in 1320, but was not allowed to be consecrated) in July,

1342.

But Walter Bek of Luceby died on August 25, 1291, leaving all his six children under age; the eldest was only just thirteen. It is difficult to believe that there is nothing to be found about the guardianship of so important a family, and I shall be grateful indeed if any one can give me additional information upon the early career of the brothers Antony and Thomas of Luceby, who may have been, and probably were, the wards of Antony and Thomas of Eresby. It will make a pretty little story if it can be proved that Antony, Bishop of Durham, managed so well for Antony the second as to bring him in eventually Bishop of Norwich; and if Thomas, Bishop of St. David's, put his little ward, Thomas the second, in the way of becoming at last Bishop of Lincoln.

AUGUSTUS JESSOPP.

A SERIES OF EIGHT ANONYMOUS AND CON-
FIDENTIAL LETTERS TO JAMES II. AND HIS
QUEEN ABOUT THE STATE OF IRELAND.
(Continued from 6th S. v. 485.)

The Copie of a Letter sent the King the 14th of
August, 1686.

land so irreconcileable to Popery woud consent to take off the penal Laws by a Parleament if not awd by a more faythful armie than you have at present & now that a needfull alteration is begun in Ireland it shud be carried al the Sectaries in your dominions are so gal'd at some of on speedily for your own & Catholic Subjects security, for the Fanatics being discarded in Ireland that they joyn heads, conceyt counsels, swear & contrive vengeance agst all papists who must expect no quarters, but dureing your Males reign but al good men have reason to hope that God who deliverd you from the manyfold dangers of your Life and made your Enemies your footstool, will spare your precious life til you accomplish the glorious work reservd for you by that providence which is your best life guard; And tis the great comfort of al good subjects that besides your being of al sides descended from healthy parents you have (I thank God) at present al the symptoms of a vigorous long livd man, nay that your haveing been suckled by a very healthy long livd woman must in reason contribut much to the length of your life. Therefore putt your trust in that God that never fayld any good Man that plac'd his hopes with confidence in him & consider the proverb that he that begins wel has in a manner half don his work, which canot be more aptly applyd than to the auspicious begining of your reign for God has so dash'd the interprizes and hopes of your Enemies that the terror of yr name and their experience of your good fortune is with the help of the Army they gave you way to raise, sufficient if not to change their hearts at least to curb their insolence; Therefore listen not to Triming Counsell" whose aversion is your religion and cunning design of spining out your life with their Pian Piano may putt them upon carried on otherwise than by slow and imperceptible urgeing to you that great alterations are dangerous when degrees which is true where matters are not so orderd in point of powr as not to need fear a perturbation in the state, but otherwise Celerity and resolution ads life and vigor to al actions especialy such as relate to a change, partie feareing an alteration is always (as haveing more which is often prevented by tedious deliberations, for the reason) more jealous and vigilant than he from whom it is feard, and therefore leaves no stone unturn'd to hinder the accomplishmt of designs that might take effect if not marr'd for not being vigorously pushd on as soon as resolvd upon; And as precipitation is an error so is irresolution which is never to be practisd by any especialy a wise known and resolut Prince, but when the issue of interprizes depends more upon chance than a prudent managemt of causes and rational foresight of events; But nothing causes irresolution more than a medley of Counsellors of a different religion with their Prince who wil be on al occasions as industrious to prevent, as he can be to carry on any design for reestablishing religion and in as much as authority courage and prudence are the three most necessary qualifications in a Prince, that conduce most of al ordinary meanes to the replantation of a Religion, and that al three meet to y highest degree in your Majestie no protestant Coun cell" will advise any alteration in the government that may directly or indirectly tend to a change in religion. Nay they lye under such Jealousie & prejudice as may induce them to magnifie dangers where there is none at

May it pleas your Male,-I humbly beg of you for God's sake and your own to read what I here presume to write, not but that I know it may wel be thought an inexcusable piece of presumption in any subject to say or write anything that may look like prescribeing to a King especialy a King that from his own knowlege and the best mother of it, long experience, must with universal consent be allowd the most competent Judge in his dominions of what ought or ought not to be done. Yet in as much as your present counsellors are for the most part divided from you by the unhappy difference in Religion I hope your Ma wil pardon a loyal plain-dealer for pre-al & take no notice of it where it really is, a devise much suming to offer his wel meaning opinion of the present posture of affayrs. S'as I am one that make it my business to study your interest I took the liberty of telling you in former letters that in order to replant religion in your dominions, you ought to begin with Ireland where the work is more than half don to your hand & where yr prerogative allows you to do with that Kingdom as you please, for it was not to be expected yt England & Scot

practis'd in England of late yeares. Hence in the late Kings time no danger thretned his Majestie but from the Catholic quarters while the greatest of dangers hover'd over his & your sacred heads wrap'd up in the dark cloud of Fanatick treachery & dissimulation. Sr it is plain that the reality of the danger lyes in the delay of makeing your Cath: subjects considerable. For Gods sake consider that yours and their sworn enemies threaten above board

that Popery or Protestantism must and shal be for ever extirpated in these Kingdoms and that al papists must inevitably splitt upon a rock in that haven where they had reason to hope for safety, if not secur'd against the threatning storm dureing your Matles life, whereof the days and hours are precious considering the important game you have to play and the indispensable obligation you lye under (before that God who has so wonderfully declar'd himself for you) of settling your religion by al lawful meanes whereof one of the chiefest and most infallible human ones is that of preferring your capable Catholic subjects to the places of highest trust and greatest profit which in Kingdoms for the most part governd by interest will intice men that have little or no religion to make choyce of yt which may consist most with their ambition, and tho som of them may at first com over rather for their temporal than spiritual advantage yet they may with God's Grace becom sincere converts, and Contribut as much from the helm to the conversion of soules as the best of preachers from pulpits; For words do but move but examples and especialy those of great Men have more resistles charms and a more than ordinary ascendant over the minds of the comon people which consideration shad prevayle with your Male to prefer without delay Couragious wise and zealous Catholics to the most eminent and profitable stations especialy in your houshold where you are King by a twofold title, by which meanes you wou'd in a short time be stock'd in the faythful Consell all of a piece that would joyn heads hearts and hands & Contribut unanimously to the forwarding your greate and good design speedily and vigorously whereas the very best of your protestant Counsell" Ministers and Servants are no better than so many Spies upon your Actions and intentions which by al possible methods they will endeavour to obstruct, which is plain from their firm & joynt resolution of admitting no Catholics into the Civil employs at their disposal for they see as far as the Prince of Orange and look with different respects upon the King and the Papist and as your royal fathers enemies framd a fond distinction twixt his politic & natural Capacity, fighting against the one in defence of the other, it is to be feard the protestants of your English Army would in case of a rebellion be too inclind to fight for the King, parleament & Protestant religion against the King as papist his popish Cabals and Popery, to prevent which as matters now stand there is but one sure and safe expedient that is to purge without delay the rest of your Irish Army. Increase and make it wholly Catholic rayse & train a Catholic Militia there, place Catholics at the helm of that Kingdom, issue out quo warrantos against al the Corporations in it put al the employs civil as wel as Military into Catholic hands This don cal a parleament of loyal Catholics that may outvote the Fanatics and be allow'd by their Consciences to rayse you Men and Mony and do what you please; It may be here objected that the Protestant Lords spiritual and temporal of that Kingdom are far more numerous than the Catholic peers which is soon answer'd it being in your power to cal up the Catholic Bishops and as many Knights and gent of good estates by writt to parleament as may overballance the contrary partie, and if Catholics be admitted free of Corporations the greater number of Electors wil soon be of their side and as to an other objection that may be rays'd that the present revenues of that Kingdom canot answer other state contingencies and maintaine a greater army than is already on foot especialy when the revenues rather fal than rise there, the solution to this objection is to be expected also from your Ma in whose brest it lyes to take of by a law the restraint that Country is under as to trade & traffic for which it lyes much more convenient than any of your Kingdoms when this is don

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the Irish Merchants wil like the soldiers flock home from al parts of the world but with this difference that as the soldiers com to get your mony the merchants wil bring al their effects into that Country where you wil soon find the benefit of it by a vast encrease of your customs; for let the discontented Whiggs give out what they list that trade is dead your revenues lessened and the country in danger of being dispeopled since the late alteration in your army and consternation it has putt your protestant Subjects into, and that your Hectoring Tyrconnell or Turk-conel as they cal him has ruind al that Nation, these are but such obloquies & murmurings as are never wanting in any of your Kingdoms where your fanatic subjects do not rule the roast; and the real truth is that there are few or no protestants in that country & such as are joyn with the Whiggs against the Comon Enemie and as to your revenues you are cheated of them by the mismanagemt and sinistrous practices of your commissioners, whereof the major part are in their hearts rank Whiggs and of a Whiggish race & thence it is that they employ no officers but men of their own Kidney that swallow the oathes and your revenues to boot; And tho no King can wel avoyd being impos'd on by his servants I believe it in my Conscience that the present managers of your revenues in Ireland think it no sin to rob a Popish King of his due; Hence it is that there is an universal correspondence & combination twixt them & al the Whiggish Merchants in that Country Nay Cap Bridges one of your Comiss" keeps an exchange in Dub. and ships at sea that go in his brothers name contrary to the law that inhibits all men concernd in the managemt of your revenues to trade by Sea or Land; and yet they are so nice observers of the law in other points where yr Malle allows of a dispensation that they canot affoard any Catholic a collectors place tho never so wel recomended by your special orders unles he takes the oaths; as who shud say let the King dispose of the military Employs as he thinks fitt we wil by way of retaliation take care that no Catholic be admitted into the Civil; This combination makes your letters for Civil places the reversion of out-lawyeries and for Catholics being admitted free into Corporations so little regarded in Ireland by those that passd for Tories here & yet publickly espouse the Whiggish quarrel the other side the water. I beseech you Sr consider that however your Kingly prudence may prevayle with you to dissemble your resentments of the non-complyance and disobedience of your stiff-necked English protestant Subjects, you ought to exert your regal authority in Ireland as a Kingdom more peculiarly your own where the best and most numerous of yr Subjects are so far from imagining your royal power limitted or shackled by laws that they long to see you as absolut a monarch as your heart can wish; And they are hated and detested by the comon Enemies of Monarchie and poperie for being thus affected especially my La Tyrconel who by his not triming but dealing plainly and above board with a pack of formerly stiff opposers of a popish successor has created himself so many Enemies that he has reason to pray as it is sayd he often does that he may either dye a month before or at least not outlive your Majestie a month, for if that poor nation be not made considerable dureing your reign his Lop must not hope for the favour my Lord Strafford had of being legally murther'd by a formal tryal but may wel expect all formality layd aside to be sacrificed to the unbridled fury of the lawles rabble and dissected into little morsels as y Dewitz were in Holland, and truely the Fanatics threaten no less and it were to be wish'd they cryd out upon more of your Ministers than they do at present for you may take it for granted they never will speak wel of your real friends nor il of your foes Sr with a great deal of sub

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mission to yr princely Wisdom no Trimmer is fitt to be your servant for he that is not with you is against you, And as it is impossible a Carpenter shud build a house without proper tooles it is not to be expected you can possibly have the glory of rebuilding the Church of God in Ireland or els where without fitt instruments. the priests and the armie wil not do the work, the Ministers & Councell" at the helm must each of them bring a stone to the building otherwise what the one makes the other wil endeavour to marr and the work wil go on like that of Babel confusedly for want of good intelligence among the workmen; Sr you are under God the great Architect that wil with the blessing of Jesus live to see the glorious structure fully finishd in order to which it is requisit you loos no time in makeing Ireland entirely your own that England and Scotland may follow. you are gon too far if you do not go further. not to advance is to loos ground. Delays are dangerous; And al the world allow expedition and resolution to be your province; The Eyes of the whole christian world are upon you and you are lookd upon as a prince chosen by heaven to repayr the breach made by your predecessors in these Kingdoms so unhappily rent and distracted by Schism and heresie since the reformation; It is your temporal as wel as spiritual advantage to rejoyn and cement them with the bond of an entire unitie in religion that your subjects might move as if they were but one body and one soul & joyn hearts and hands to make you the most glorious and invincible Monarch upon Earth If this were once compass'd France cud no more hope upon a falling out with England to take advantage of the diversity of Sects and what may spring thence domestic Jarrs and divisions. S notwithstanding the doubts and feares of trimming Courtiers and som Cowhearted Catholics yu may live long enuff to undertake and Crown the great work with the grace and assistance of the same Almighty God that defeated the Rebels in the west and made them instruments in settling you in your throne and that permitted this Country to be lately sprinkled with the blood of martyrs which must infallibly contribute to the conversion of soules in this Kingdom, for the blood of martyrs is & ever was the fruit full seed of the Church: The seed is sown in several parts of England and the harvest wil without doubt be great and plentiful but the workmen too too few: If you do not provide yourself with Catholic privie Councils Ministers Judges officers Civil and Military as to the choice of which I wil mind your Mae of the advice given Moses by Jethro his father in law in the following words "Provide out of all the people able men such as fear God men of truth hateing Covetousnes" when your Counsell" and Ministers are thus qualified and not til then you may hope to do what becomes a James the Second And to furnish yourself with able men you must follow your royal fathers advice to the Prince of Wales, that is wth an equal Eye and impartial hand distribut favors and rewards to al men as you find them for their real goodnes both in ability and fidelity worthy and capable of them. such as fear God as the truely wisest wil advise you to the best measures for promoteing Gods Glory Men of truth wil like Tyrconel serve you faythfully without trimming tho with never so apparent hazard to their fortunes and Lives And men hateing Covetousnes wil not betray your interest, be corrupted nor sel places to such undermanagers of your revenue as buying them for a spil in gros wil be sure to retayle them at your Cost A practice much in use here and in Ireland at present where few or no places can be had without bribes by which meanes you are cheated in both Kingdoms of a hundred thousand pounds a year in the opinion of understanding and indifferent judges for no man wil give a shilling surreptitiously for an office but

with design to cheat you of twenty shillings to prevent which there is no remedie but that employing smart men of known integritie to be chosen without favour or affection that wil be content with their respective salaries and employ their uttmost industry to improve not imbezil your revenues the ornamt of peace and sinews of war.

S These Kingdoms are of opinion Popery will break in upon them and it were a pitty to disappoint em and when you take effectual measures your trimming Courtiers wil unmask & com over Nay half the Kingdom wil be converted of itself. What I have here presum'd to write is the effect of my unfeigned zeal for the good of Religion and your Maties interest which I hope will induce you to pardon a plain-dealing and loveing subject that daylie beseeches God to bless your Majestie and these Kingdoms with a long & prosperous reign, and with numerous longlivd Male issues and to inspire you to the performance of such heroic actions as may give you imortal fame in this world and Eternal glorie in the next. W. FRAZER, F.R.C.S.I., M.R.I.A. (To be continued.)

SHAKSPEARIANA.

"ALL'S WELL,” I. ii.—

"Within ten yeare it will make it selfe two." This calculation has evidently been wrongly set down. Hanmer would alter the final two into ten, but there are three, if not four, objections to this. It is not like Parolles to look so far ahead. It is too much repetition, even verbally, of "Virginitie by beeing once lost may be ten times found," for Shakespeare never so repeats himself. That & woman should bring forth ten children within ten years is sufficiently rare to forbid its being quoted as an argument as to what generally occurs. Had he said may this objection would not have held, but he says "will." Lastly, Grant White's argument to the effect that no one, least of all Parolles, could have added, "and the principall it selfe not much the worse," is in itself fatal. Thinking that the error lay in the prior ten, the last-named gentleman altered it to one, whereby Hanmer's increase of cent. per cent. is retained.

Accepting this I had thought that the text misprint might have occurred thus. Suppose the MS. to have had "1 yeare," the transcriber, &c., may have misread or mis-remembered the top of the Writing to 9, or reduplicated it, to " 10 yeare." one printer, he thought the conjecture a probable one. Writing, however, to another, of more practical experience, he did not think so. "But," said he, "my experience, and also that of the readers' of [two literary journals], is that the word the is often composed as ten, more especially in the case of the handwriting of a contributor to -." I regret that my correspondent wishes me to withhold his name, but on his authority and that of the two readers," and because "within yeare" is so much more natural and colloquial and more rhythmical, I suggest that this variant

the

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reading be adopted. The sense is the same as
with Grant White's emendation, the change is con-
sequent on his; but any change, however slight, is
to be welcomed if it. seem to bring us nearer to
the verbum ipsissimum of Shakespeare.
BR. NICHOLSON.

"HENRY V.," I. ii.-In the description of hivebees given by the Archbishop of Canterbury occurs a word which blemishes that splendid picture :

"Where some, like magistrates, correct at home;
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad;
Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,
Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds;
Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent royal of their Emperor:
Who, busied in his majesty, surveys

The singing masons building roofs of gold;

The civil citizens kneading up the honey; The poor mechanic porters crowding in Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate." The line

"The civil citizens kneading up the honey,"

registers. This will be a step towards an enlarged and continued Athena Oxonienses. Another step would be the collection of notes relating to the names already recorded in Wood. I hope to send contributions from time to time, beginning with vol. iv. ed. Bliss.

44;

Richard Adams of Brasenose.-Calamy, Account, Bliss, iv. 603. Continuation, 63, 66 (his son Thomas). WoodColl. Oxon., incorporatus Cantabrigia 1631" (Baker's "Quidam Ric. Adams, A.M. Nov. MS. note: this is, of course, an older man). His grandfather Richard Adams was rector and patron of Woodchurch, in Wirral; his father Charles, his uncle Randal, and his brothers Peter, Thomas, and Charles were all clergymen. He was tutor of John Moore (Calamy, Contin., 412). John Howe preached his funeral sermon in 1698.

Robert Wright, Bishop of Bristol.-Wood-Bliss, Athena Oxon., iv. 800-802; Fasti, index. Improves the revenues of his see (Heylyn, Life of Laud, 214); proceedings in his diocese, 1636 (ibid. 271); his infirmities (ibid. 461).

"From Coventry it is informed that some of their had long besieged Eccleshall Castle, in the County of "Forces, together with helpé of some Staffordshire men, Stafford (which belonged to Doctor Wright, Byshop of Coventry and Lychfield, and where he lately died, during the Siege).-Certain Informations, No. 34, Sept. 4-11, 1643, p. 265."

gives us a false and even ridiculous image, which Johnson justifies, though "not physically true," by supposing Shakespeare to have been ignorant that bees knead the wax rather than the honey. The word kneading is, however, an amendment made by the first folio, and adopted by all the folios and all subsequent editors and critics to this day, of the word "lading up," which is given in all the quartos. "Lading up the honey" is certainly an error, but the folio amendment is as clearly wrong. Shakespeare wrote, most justifiably:

"The civil citizens laying up the honey."
"Laying up" is the Shakespearean word for "storing
for future use." Thus in the Comedy of Errors
(II. ii.):-

"The gold I gave to Dromio is laid up
Safe at the Centaur."

Again, in 2 Henry IV. (V. ii.), "Oh, you shall see
him laugh till his face be like a wet cloak ill laid
up." Again in this play (V. ii.), "My comfort is
that old age, that ill layer-up of beauty, can do no
more spoil upon my face." Again, in Henry VIII.
(V. iv.):-

"All comfort, joy, in this most gracious lady, Heaven ever laid up to make parents happy, May hourly fall upon ye."

The mere mistake of a single letter, y for d, in some process of the scribe's, or the printer's, manipulation, made a very serious blunder, which the change of a single letter again completely rectifies, to the great improvement of this magnificent description.

HENRY HALFORD VAUGHAN.

WOOD'S "ATHENE OXONIENSES."-The University of Oxford proposes to print its matriculation

See also Prynne's Antipathie, ii. 292, and his Canterburie's Doome, 90, 91 (the second page so numbered by mistake), 353, 372. He improved the living of Towcester, Northants. Pref. to Spelman On Tithes, signature C 4b. Robert Wright, Speech spoken in the House of Commons, being brought to the Barre to Answer for Himself, 1641, 4to. One Rob. Wright, D.D., incumbent of Dennington, where (Nov. 30, 1621) he placed a tablet to the memory of his predecessor, William Fulke.

Cambridge.

JOHN E. B. MAYOR.

OLIVER CROMWELL.-Every scrap of information as to the career of Oliver Cromwell is important. It may, therefore, not be out of place to draw attention to the following. In Carlyle's Cromwell, ed. 1857, vol. i. p. 139, is a letter dated Sept. 28, 1643, which the editor conjectures was written in "Holland, Lincolnshire." This is correct as far as it goes, but I think we may identify the exact place, which seems to have been Boston. Among the papers belonging to G. A. Lowndes, Esq., which are calendared in the Seventh Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, is a letter from William Harlakenden to Sir Thomas Barrington, dated September 30, in which he says:

"Col. Cromwell writes to us that he is very safely returned to Boston, for which he desireth us to give God the praise of such a mercy; for divers troops of Lord Willowby of Parham had an alarum from the enemy, Lord Newcastle's forces, that were and are returned into Lincolnshire, and all those troops did run away, and

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There is another letter of October 2, in which we
are informed that "Col. Cromwell tells me he
wept when he came to Boston and found no
moneys for him from Essex and other counties"
(pp. 564, 565).
EDWARD PEACOCK.

BOOKS GONE ASTRAY (see "N. & Q.," 6th S. v. 427, 466).-If the courtesy of the Editor be extended to all who, like MR. THOмS and MR. PEACOCK, are mourners over "broken sets" and favourite volumes missing from their shelves through their own (readers may fill up the blank with "folly" or "good nature" at pleasure), then methinks the boundaries of our pleasant neutral ground must needs be enlarged, for the present space will not suffice for a tithe of the appeals. May I venture to hint at an old Derbyshire saying which advises those who have sustained injury for which they have no one to blame but themselves, to "grin and bear it"? As a sad sufferer myself, the story of Guibert de Pixéricourt (it will be found on pp. 44-5 of Mr. Lang's The Library) has fortified me with courage. If a friend should desire to "borrow" a book, and you are prepared to do him a service, give it to him and have done with it. In this case both your friend and your peace of mind will be preserved to you. ALFRED WALLIS.

be no full stop from "Straight mine eye" (69) to "neighbouring eyes" (80).

In Prof. Masson's admirable edition (1874) none of these faults of punctuation occur, nor in the earlier edition of Cleveland (1853). J. DIXON.

BOSTON CHURCH AND STEEPLE IN LINCOLNSHIRE. The following memorandum is written on the fly-leaf of my copy of Philips's New World of Words, folio, 1678 :—

"Boston Church and Steeple in Lincolnshire. "Anno 1309 in the 3a year of Edward ye 24 On the Monday after Palm Sunday in y Same year, The Miners began to break ground for ye Foundaton of Boston Steeple continuing till Midsumer following at and there they found a bed of Stone, upon a Spring of which time they were deeper then the Haven by 5 foot, Sand, and that Laid upon a Bed of Clay, whose thickness could not be known.

"Upon the Monday next after the Feast of St John Baptist was laid the first stone by Dame Margery Tilney, upon which she Laid 51 and St John Fruesdall (then Parson of Boston) gaue also 5', and Richard Stephenson a Merchant of Boston gaue 5 more, these were all the guifts given at that time. The Altitude of the Steeple, and lenght of y Church are equal, vizt each 94 yards, the Steps of ye Steeple are 365, Windows 52, Pillars 12, as equall to the daies, weekes, and months in ye year. "Collected p' MATT. HUMBERSTONE. "Taken 10th April 1699."

Newark-upon-Trent.

CHARLES JNO. RIDGE.

A WELSH CURE FOR THE AGUE.-Being in the new church of Aber, Carnarvonshire, lately, I was MR. THOMS's and MR. PEACOCK's notes on looking at the old font, brought from the ancient the above subject remind me that I have one church there when it was demolished to make such on which I was wont to set great store, in-room for the present new edifice, and noticing four asmuch as I had at odd moments amused myself by colouring all the illustrations therein contained, and correcting and adding to the index, which is very imperfect. The book is Boutell's Heraldry, 1863 edition, published by Winsor & Newton, in a blue-coloured binding, which had my bookplate pasted in it. I have missed it for the last five or six years, and should be much obliged to whoever has borrowed it to return it.

9, The Crescent, Bedford.

the words

D. G. CARY ELWES.

"L'ALLEGRO" MISPOINTED. One looks for extreme accuracy in works printed at the Clarendon Press, and I have therefore been surprised to find in the Oxford edition of Milton's Poems (2 vols. 1876) such punctuation in L'Allegro as defies all grammatical construction. A full stop is put after " eglantine," "shrill," and dight," whereas there should be none till we come to "dale" (1. 68). From "Come and trip it" (33) to "dale" is one long sentence. Another full stop is placed after rivers wide" (76), and Towers" being thus made to begin a new sentence, "it sees can refer to nothing; whereas "it sees really refers to "mine eye" (69). There ought to

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circular hollows on the rim, suggested that the ancient cover or canopy of the font probably sprang from them or fitted into them. "Nay," said the venerable rector; "my people say that they were caused by scraping away the stone; dust from the church font mixed in water and drunk early in the morning being considered a cure for the ague."

Llanfairfechan.

THOMAS NORTH, F.S.A.

A CURE FOR THE KING'S EVIL.-I was ferried across the Dart on June 17 last by a man about sixty years of age, who had always lived in the same village, on the right bank of the river. He told me that in his childhood he had the "king's evil"; and his parents, having tried all the doctors in the district, but without the least advantage, were at length prevailed on to place a dead toad in a silk case, and to cover that with broad tape. "This," said my informant, "I put on when I was nine, and I wore it on the pit of my stomach, round my neck, for ten years; and it made a perfect cure. I've to bless the day when I first wore that toad."

Torquay.

WM. PENGELLY.

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