Various

“ Now, therefore, is the time for all who are interested in Historical Truth to use their best endeavours to procure the insertion of such clauses as shall place the Wills under the same custody as the other Judicial Records of the country, namely, that of Her Majesty's Keeper of Records.
With Literature represented in the House of Lords by a Brougham and a Campbell, in the Commons by a Macaulay, a Bulwer, and a D'Israeli, let but the real state of the case be once made public, and we have no fear but that the interests of English Historical Literature will be cared for and maintained. ”

“ The Peers, on the motion of Lord Lyttleton, seconded by the Duke of Grafton, voted this book 'a false, malicious, and traitorous libel, inconsistent with the principles of the Revolution to which we owe the present happy establishment;' they ordered that it should be burned by the hands of the common hangman, and that the author should be taken into custody. The latter part of the sentence, however, no one took any pains to execute. The author was one Timothy Brecknock, a hack scribbler, who, twenty years afterwards, was hanged for being accessary to an atrocious murder in Ireland. ”

“ In all other public repositories to which in the course of our inquiries we have had occasion to apply, we have found a general and predominant feeling of the national importance of the cultivation of literature, and especially of that branch of it which relates to the past history of our own country. ”

“ No extract is allowed to be made, not even of a word or a date, except the names of the executors and the date of the will. Printed statements in historical books, which refer to wills, may not be compared with the wills as entered; even ancient copies of wills handed down for many generations in the families of the testators, may not be examined in the registered wills without paying the office for making new and entire copies.
"No such restrictions exclude literary inquirers from the British Museum, where there are papers equally valuable. ”

“ Clare in Suffolk was one of the ninety-five manors in that county bestowed by the Conqueror upon Richard Fitzgilbert, who (as well as his successor Gilbert) resided at Tunbridge, and bore the surname of De Tonebruge. His grandson Richard, the first Earl of Hertford, fixed his principal seat at Clare, and thenceforth the family took the surname of De Clare; and in the Latin documents of the time the several members of it were styled Ricardus (or Gilbertus) , Dominus Clarensis, Comes Hertfordiensis. ”

“ The effect of his sand-pictures was extraordinary. They stood out in bold relief, and with a brilliancy far surpassing any oil painting. As may be supposed, this style of painting was particularly adapted for landscapes and rocky scenery; and it enabled the artist to finish foliage with a richness which nothing could surpass. Mr. Haas' collection of his sand-paintings was a rich treat to inspect. After his death, they were sold and dispersed; but many must be found in the collections of gentlemen in Bristol and its neighbourhood. ”

“ Pliny, after giving Virgil's receipt for making bees, gives similar instances:
"Like as dead horses will breed waspes and hornets; and asses carrion, turne to be beetle-flies by a certaine metamorphosis which Nature maketh from one creature to another."—Lib. xi. c. xx.
And soon after he says of wasps:
"All the sorte of these live upon flesh, contrarie to the manner of bees, which will not touch a dead carcasse." ”

“ In all points of practice—as in the provision for the indefeasibility of policies, facility of licence for travelling or residence abroad, and of obtaining advances on the value of the policies—the regulations of the Society, as well as the administration, are as liberal as is consistent with right principle. ”

“ Senegar, that her great-grandfather Joseph, having conformed to please his rich wife, was anxious to conceal his affinity to the illustrious tinker. The registers contained in it begin with Joseph's son Thomas and Susannah his wife, and it is continued to Robert Bunyan, born 1775, and who was lately living at Lincoln. I should be most happy to show the Bible and copies of registers in my possession to any one who will undertake to form a genealogy. ”

“ Having been engaged by Miss Cotgreave, of Notherlegh House, near Chester, to inspect and arrange the title-deeds and other documents which belonged to her father, the late Sir John Cotgreave, I find a very ancient pedigree of the Cotgreaves de Hargrave in that county ”

“ According to Fitz-Stephen, "After dinner, all the youths go into the fields to play at the ball. The scholars of every school have their ball and bastion in their hands. The ancient and wealthy men of the city come forth on horseback to see the sport of the young men, and to take part of the pleasure, in beholding their agility." And till within the last few years:
"... The humble play
Of trap or football on a holiday,
In Finsbury fields,"—
was sufficiently common in the neighbourhood of London and other places. ”

“ It appears to us impossible to produce instruments of the same size possessing a richer and finer tone, more elastic touch, or more equal temperament, while the elegance of their construction renders them a handsome ornament for the library, boudoir, or drawing-room. ”

“ Previous to the publication of the second volume of the Domestic Architecture of the Middle Ages, you were kind enough to insert some Queries for me respecting existing remains of houses of the fourteenth century, which elicited some useful Notes, partly through your columns and partly from private friends who were thus reminded of my wants. I am now preparing for the press the third and concluding volume of that work, comprising the period from the reign of Richard II. to that of Henry VIII. inclusive. ”

“ Translations or abstracts of the leading articles of The Times, Morning Chronicle, Morning Post, &c., are constantly to be met with in the best foreign papers. Why should not our great London papers more frequently gratify their readers with articles from the pens of their Continental brotherhood? ”

“ This, to every one who has been upon a great Virginia plantation, bespeaks the benevolence characteristic of the proprietors of Westover. In Divinity, besides pages of orthodox divines, Bibles in various languages (several in Hebrew, one in seven vols.) , are Socinius, Bellarmine, &c. The works on Metallurgy, Natural History, Metaphysics, Military Science, Heraldry, Navigation, Music, &c., are very numerous; and either of the collections of history, or entertainment, or classics, or political science, would form no inconsiderable library of itself. ”

“ Bishop Hooper's Argument on the Vestment Controversy.—Glocester Ridley, in his Life of Bishop Ridley, p. 315., London, 1763, states, in reference to Bishop Hooper's Book to the Council against the use of those Habits which were then used by the Church of England in her sacred Ministries, written October, 1550, "Part of Hooper's book I have by me in MS." Could any one state whether that MS. is now in existence, or where it is to be found? ”

“ Pedigree to the Time of Alfred (Vol. viii., p. 586.) .—Some ten or twelve years since I was staying at the King's Head Inn, Egham, Surrey (now defunct) , when a fresh-looking, respectable man was pointed out to one as Mr. Wapshot, who had held an estate in the neighbourhood from his ancestors prior to the Conquest. He was not represented as a blacksmith, but as farming his own estate. I am not connected with Egham or the neighbourhood, or I would make farther inquiry. ”

“ J. H. A. Rudd of Bedford and Elstow has most kindly searched the registers of Elstow and Goldington, and has discovered some interesting entries; and, as his numerous engagements will permit, he will search the registry of the parish churches in Bedford and its vicinity. Information would be most acceptable relative to Bunyan's father and mother, his two wives, and his children, John, Elizabeth, and Mary, who died in his life-time; and also as to Joseph. If your correspondent Furvus would search the registers at Nottingham, he might discover some valuable records of that branch of the family. ”

“ Bunyan's Descendants.—As a recent Query respecting John Bunyan may lead to some notices of his descendants, perhaps I may be informed in what edition of his works it is stated that a branch of his family settled in Nottingham? for I find in the burgess-roll of that borough that George Bunyan was entered freeman in 1752. William Bunyan, lieutenant in the navy, 1767; Thomas Bunyan, hosier, 1776. In event of the above story being verified, a pedigree may possibly be extracted hereafter from the parish registers of the town. ”

“ Every one seems heartily willing to promote historical inquiries. The Public Record Offices are now opened to persons engaged in literary pursuits by arrangements of the most satisfactory and liberal character. His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury gives permission to literary men to search such of the early registers of his See as are in his own possession at Lambeth. ”

“ The Work will be completed in eighteen volumes, and embellished with numerous Engravings on Steel, entirely re-engraved for this Edition, comprising a selection of historical illustrations from Bowyer's History of England, and from paintings by the most eminent masters, with portraits of all the sovereigns from the Norman Conquest, according to the costume of the different ages, and authentic facsimiles of their autographs. ”

“ These registers or books of entry fall practically into two different divisions or classes. The earlier and the latter books contain information suited to the wants of totally different kinds of persons, and applicable to entirely different purposes. Their custody is also of very different importance to the office. The class which is first both in number of books and in importance contains entries of modern wills. ”

“ The President and Council of the Camden Society respectfully submit these circumstances to your Grace with a full persuasion that nothing which relates to the welfare of English historical literature can be uninteresting either to your Grace personally, or to the Church over which you preside ”

“ I possess a copy of The Case of Ireland being bound by Acts of Parliament in England stated, by William Molyneux of Dublin, Esq., which appears to have been literally "plucked as brand from the burning," as a considerable portion of it is consumed by fire. ”

“ The premiums are as low as those of the non-participating scale of the proprietary companies. They admit of being so not only with safety, but with ample reversion of profits to the policy-holders, being free from the burden of payment of dividend to shareholders. ”

“ Devoniensis is quite right in supposing that the bearing of three fleurs-de-lys alone, horizontal, in the upper part of the shield,—in other words, {226}in chief, fess-ways,—is a very rare occurrence. I know of no instance of it in English blazon. Coupled with another and principal charge, as a fess, a chevron, a lion, &c.; or in a chief, it is common enough. Nor have I ever met with an example of it in French coat-armour. An English family, named Rothfeld, but apparently of German extraction, gives: Gules, two fleurs-de-lys, in chief, ermine. ”

“ So when the ox corrupteth into bees, or the horse into hornets, they come not forth in the image of their originals. So the corrupt and excrementitious humours in man are animated into lice: and we may observe that hogs, sheep, goats, hawks, hens, and others, have one peculiar and proper kind of vermin."—Works, Bohn's edit., vol. ”

“ Another, the date of which is not given, but which is signed by the same foreman, presents "Alsoe that a ducking-stoole be made for publick use, being very much wanting for scolding women," &c. And in 1720, another grand jury, of which Benjamin Duffield was foreman, say:
"The Grand Inquest, we taking in consideration the great disorders of the turbulent and ill-behaviour of many people in this city, we present the great necessity of a ducking-stool for such people according to their deserts." ”

“ Here they raised cattle," &c. He sent his son to England to be educated under the care of a friend, Sir Robert Southwell. The son became a Fellow of the Royal Society, "was the intimate and bosom friend of the learned and illustrious Charles Boyle, Earl of Orrery," was the author of the Westover MSS. (mentioned in Oldmixon's preface, 2nd ed.) , portions of which, "Progress to the Mines," "History of the Dividing Line," &c., have been printed, others are in the library of the American Philosophical Society. ”

“ There is a curious passage in the Westover MSS. concerning William Penn, of which Mr. Macaulay should have a copy, unless one has been already sent to him.
PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.
Cyanide of Potassium.—It may be interesting to our photographic friends to know that cyanide of potassium is capable of replacing hyposulphite of soda in all collodion processes. If used of the strength of five grains to one ounce of water, no danger need be apprehended from it. Its merits are cleanliness, quickness of operation, and the minute quantity of water required for washing the picture fixed therewith. ”

“ Now, as to the expression "worthies, famous in English history." I presume I need do no more concerning its application to Lord Orrery, Sir Robert Walpole, &c., than say, it was used as signifying "men of mark," without intending to endorse their "worth" either morally, mentally, or politically; its application to Colonel Hill and Colonel Byrd, as meaning "men of worth," might, did your limits permit, be defended on high grounds.
Then as to the possibility of Vandyke's having painted the portraits. If C. will have the kindness to look at C. Campbell's History of Virginia, he will find,—
"1654. ”