Various

“ Whatever hope the projectors of the approaching Exhibition of Works of Ancient and Mediæval Art entertained of forming such a collection of objects as might deserve the attention of the public generally, and accomplish the great end in view, have been more than realised. ”

“ The shriek is more difficult. There could be no meeting, then, between Ezzelin and Lara, because Ezzelin is surprised by meeting him at Otho's. Whether the shriek may not be owing to a meeting between Kaled and Ezzelin, is in not so clear. From the splendid description of her looking down upon him, it is not proved that she there saw him first; and Ezzelin never sees her at all there.
Nothing is more interesting than these mysteries left in narrative fictions. The story of Gertude, in that first of romances, the Promessi Sposi, is a very great instance ”

“ How much it is to be lamented that the materials for a more complete edition are diminished by the disappearance of the Lauderdale MS., which, I believe, when Mr. Kemble wished to consult it, could not be found in the Library at Ham.
Perhaps no more important illustration of the Geography of the Middle Ages exists than Alfred's very interesting description of the Geography of Europe, and the Voyages of Othere and Wulfstan; and this portion of the Hormesta has received considerable attention from continental scholars, of which it appears Mr. Hampson is not aware. ”

“ Despite of that excellent commentator, Tom Warton, who adopted Headley's suggestion, it is to be hoped that readers will continue, though it may be in error, to understand the line as your correspondent used to do: an amatory tête-à-tête is surely better suited to "the hawthorn in the dale," than either mental arithmetic, or the study of Cocker. ”

“ If your correspondent has nothing to urge in favour of this conjecture, why disinter it? "P.," however, has it in his power to do some service to the cause: let him send you, for publication, an exact copy of the Junius' letter, following carefully the spelling, the capital letters, the instructions, and even the punctuation.
Mr. John Sudlow's conjectures are still more simple. He evidently is not aware that when a public writer assumes a character he is bound to hold to it consistently ”

“ JUNIUS.
The questions asked by your correspondent "P." (No. 18. p. 172.) perplexed by their simplicity. The answer, if answer can be seriously required, was obvious. All that was ever urged in favour of every other claimant was against the claim of Sir George Jackson. Beyond this I know not what reply could be given. Emboldened by silence, "P." now proceeds (p. 276.) to adduce certain evidence which he supposes has some bearing on the question. "I possess," he says, "an unpublished letter by Junius to Woodfall, which once belonged to Sir George Jackson. ”

“ Steevens was so obliging as to say, 'The books, from which those extracts were made, with several others lost, belonged to Secretary Pepys, and afterwards to Dr. Rawlinson, who lent them to Mr. Vertue.' When the said MSS. were consulted by the two commentators, they were, I believe, in the possession of Garrick." Chalmers adds, "Much is it to be lamented, that any MS. or book, which furnished an illustration of Shakespeare, and having once been seen, should ever disappear." Every true lover of our great poet will heartily agree with this remark. ”

“ Rask has anticipated Mr. Hampson's correction respecting the Wilti, and thus translates the passage: "men norden for Oldsakserne er Obotriternes Land, og i Nordost Vilterne, som man kalder Æfelder." The mistake of Barrington and Dr. Ingram is the more extraordinary when it is recollected that no people are so frequently mentioned in the chronicles of the Middle Ages as this Sclavonic tribe: citations might be given out of number, in which their contests with their neighbours the Obotriti, Abodriti, or Apdrede of Alfred are noticed. ”

“ It is true that "amongst the letters attributed to Junius, and, in the opinion of Dr. Good, most certainly his production, is one signed Atticus,"{323} which your correspondent proceeds to quote, adding that it is "believed to be the first which appeared signed Atticus." This is really a little "too bad." It is known, and ought to have been known to your correspondent before he intermeddled, that Good, though he wrote so confidently in public, had "most certainly" very great doubts in private; that others who have examined the question have no doubt at all ”

“ It is to be hoped that some competent northern scholar among us may still remove, what I must consider to be a national reproach—the want of a correct and well illustrated edition of the Hormesta, or at any rate of this singularly interesting and valuable portion of it. ”

“ See Ellis's Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. i. pp. 29, 30; and query whether the veneration of St. Blaise by these artizans were not peculiar to England. Blasius of Sebaste is said to have been a physician; in consequence of the persecution raised by Diocletian, he retired to a mountain named Argæus, whither all the wild beasts of the country resorted to him, and reverentially attended him. But there is a legend of another Blasius of Cæsarea in Cappadocia, who is represented as an owner of herds (βουκολος) , and remarkable for his charity to the poor. ”

“ This is quite plain from the very words of Coleridge.
The lifting her over the sill seems to be something like the same superstition that we have in Scott's Eve of St. John:—
"But I had not had pow'r to come to thy bow'r,
If Though had'st not charm'd me so."
I have no doubt that Lara is the Corsair; and Kaled Gulnare, from the Corsair: the least inspection is enough to show this. Ezzelin must also be Seyd; but that does not answer quite so well. All that there is to prepare it is, that Seyd is only left for dead, in a great hurry, and therefore might recover ”

“ In such cases I do not myself wish to know too much about the matter. Sometimes the author wishes you to have the pleasure of guessing, as I think, in Lara; sometimes he means to be more mysterious; sometimes he does not know himself. ”

“ It seems that "salting" was a sort of initiation, like that which prevails among our Teutonic brethren, where the "Fuchs" is raised to the sublime degree of a "Brandfuchs," "junge Bursch," "bemorstes Haupt," by successive promotions. Not improbably in after times, especially at the Universities, like "passing the Line," it admitted of being commuted for a money payment. The exact nature of the "salting" at Eton I cannot explain; perhaps your able correspondent, R.O., may afford information on this head. ”

“ EXTRACTS FROM OLD RECORDS.
If you think the insertion of scraps from the mutilated Exchequer records useful, I shall be most happy, from time to time, to contribute a few. The following are extracted from fragments of a book of entries, temp. Charles I.: the book appears to have been a large folio, and each leaf torn into at least four pieces. It is much to be regretted that the work of selection and mutilation was not assigned to more competent persons than the ignorant porters who I am told were entrusted with it. ”

“ Strutt, in his Sports and Pastimes, Book iii. chap. 13., speaks of Christmas Spectacles in the time of Edward III., as known by the name of Ludi; and in Warton's History of English Poetry, it is said of these representations that "by the ridiculous and exaggerated oddity of the Vizors, and by the singularity and splendour of the dresses, every thing was out of nature and propriety." In Strutt's 16th Plate, specimens will be found of the whimsical habit and attire in which the mummers were wont to appear. ”

“ Death-bed Superstition.—When a curate in Exeter I met with the following superstition, which I do not remember to have seen noticed before. I had long visited a poor man, who was dying of a very painful disease, and was daily expecting his death. ”

“ He had at first imagined that it might be successfully sought for in Fenton's admirable Epistle to William Lamborde (the Kentish antiquary) , where there is a remarkably fine passage respecting flattery and its influences; but nothing at all like the quotation cited in the letter is to be found in that poem, which (par parenthèse) seems to have met with much more neglect than it deserves. ”

“ Guildhalls.—There are in most villages in this neighbourhood houses which from time immemorial have been called Guildhalls. These are situate among such small populations that they are manifestly unconnected with trade. Will any of your correspondents tell me—
1st. Why are they called Guildhalls?
2nd. For what purpose were they anciently used?{321}
3rd. Are they common in other counties besides Suffolk?
Also: What is the origin of the Friday Streets so common in most villages in this neighbourhood? ”

“ As long since as 1815 Erasmus Rask (to whom, after Jacob Grimm, Anglo-Saxon students are most deeply indebted) published in the Journal of the Scandinavian Literary Society (ii. 106. sq.) the Anglo-Saxon Text, with a Danish translation, introduction, and notes, in which many of the errors of Barrington and Forster are pointed out and corrected. This was reprinted by Rask's son in the Collection he gave of his father's Dissertation, in 2 vols. ”

“ The suggestion of your correspondent B.H.K. (No. 18. p. 286.) has been anticipated by Mr. Warton, who, in his 1st edition of Milton's Poems, notices a similar interpretation of the passage, as the suggestion of an unknown correspondent. In the 2nd edition this correspondent is mentioned to have been Mr. Headley; and the editor discusses the point in a note of upwards of a page, illustrating it with parallel passages, and an analysis of the context. As the book is one of ready access, I need not trouble you with a quotation ”

“ There must be hundreds of volumes enriched by the notes of scholars, such as those I have had occasion to mention, which are dispersed in private libraries, and might, by means of similar announcements, be made available to the cause of literature.
J.F.M.
[We are much indebted to our valued correspondent for the offer he has so kindly made us of the MS. Notes in question, which we shall gladly receive; and also for his extremely useful suggestion of the advantage of such notifications to intending editors, as he describes.]
Milton's L'Allegro.—Your correspondent (No. 18. p. 286.) ”

“ E. VEE. "When Greeks join Greeks," &c. is a line by NAT. LEE. See No. 14. p. 211.
K.D.B. The following—"In Flesh-monger-street, Siward the moneyer (renders) to the King 15d. and to William de Chesney houseroom, salt and water"—is a literal translation. Correspondents must be careful not to omit letters or contractions in extracts from original records. It would in this case have been difficult correctly to render "monet" without a contraction; and "Flemangerstret," as our correspondent wrote it, might have been changed into "Fell-monger-," instead of "Flesh-monger-street." ”

“ Notker, in his Teutonic paraphrase of Martianus Capella, speaking of other Anthropophagi, relates that the Wilti were not ashamed to say that they had more right to eat their parents than the worms. [1] Mone wrote a Dissertation upon the Weleti, which is printed in the Anzeigen für Kunde des Mittelalters, 1834, but with very inconclusive and erroneous results; some remarks on these Sclavonic people, and a map, will be found in Count Ossolinski's Vincent Kadlubek, Warsaw, 1822; and in Count Potocki's Fragments Histor. sur la Scythie, la Sarmatie, et les Slaves, Brunsw., 1796, &c. 4 vols. ”

“ They were frequently designated by the name of Lutici,{314} as appears from Adam of Bremen, Helmond, and others, and the Sclavonic word liuti signified wild, fierce, &c. Being a wild and contentious people, not easily brought under the gentle yoke of Christianity, they figure in some of the old Russian sagas, much as the Jutes do in those of Scandinavia ”

“ Let me take this opportunity to add to my flim-flam on pet-names in your late Number, that Jack appears to have been a common term to designate a low person, as "every Jack;" "every man-jack;" "Jack-of-all-trades?" "Jackanapes;" &c.
B.H. KENNEDY.
Shrewsbury, Feb. 18.
Bishop Blaise (No. 16. p. 247.) .—Four lives of the martyr Blasius, Bishop of Sebaste in Cappadocia, are to be found in the Bollandine Acta Sanctorum, under the 3rd of February. ”

“ An Astronomer, who is seated on a Circumferenter, and by some Chymical Preparation is so Affected that in the fine Weather he faces that Quarter from whence it is about to come." The whole sign is drawn by a scale of half an inch to a food, and most of the figures are of the size of life. On both sides of the engraving, but distinct from the sign, are seven coats of arms. Those on the right hand are: 1. ”