Various

“ The geometrical labours of these men would have gladdened the hearts of Euclid, Apollonius and Archimedes, and would have been chronicled by Pappus with his usual truthfulness and judicious commendation; had they only but so laboured in Greece, antecedently to, or cotemporarily with, those "fathers of geometry," instead of in modern England, cotemporarily with the Hargreaves, the Peels, and the Arkwrights. Yet not one in a thousand of your readers, perhaps, has ever heard of these men; and the visible traces of their existence and labours are very few, scarce, and scattered. ”

“ In the more amplified editions of Erasmus's Adages, after the publication of the Apophthegmata, he repeats the story in illustration of a Latin proverb (probably only a version of the Greek) , "Vir fugiens et denuo pugnabitur;" and I find in some collections of the sixteenth century both the Latin and Greek given upon the authority of Plutarch! Langius, in his Polyanthea (a copious common-place book which would outweigh twenty of our late Laureate's) has given the apophthegm verbatim from Erasmus, and has boldly appended Plutarch's name. ”

“ Cure for Fits.—If a young woman has fits, she applies to ten or a dozen unmarried men (if the sufferer be a man, he applies to as many maidens) and obtains from each of them a small piece of silver of any kind, as a piece of a broken spoon, or ring, or brooch, buckle, and even sometimes a small coin, and a penny; the twelve pieces of silver are taken to a silversmith or other worker in metal, who forms therefrom a ring, which is to be worn by the person afflicted. ”

“ Suffolk Folk Lore.—I send you a few articles on "Folk Lore", now, or not long ago, current in the county of Suffolk, in addition to what is to be found in the latter part of the second volume of Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia.
1. To ascertain whether her pretended lovers really love her or not, the maiden takes an apple-pip, and naming one of her followers, puts the pip in the fire. If it makes a noise in bursting from the heat, it is a proof of love; but if it is consumed without a crack, she is fully satisfied that there is no real regard towards her in the person named. ”

“ Judging from the astonishment with which I learned from an eye-witness the circumstance, I think that some of your readers will be surprised to learn that, within the memory of witnesses still alive, a woman was burnt to death under sentence of the judge of assize, for the murder of her husband. ”

“ No man, much less the minister of a parish, who has abundant calls upon his time, can be expected to sit down to the task of transcribing his registers through many consecutive hours; but there are few who could not give occasionally one or two hours to the work. In this way I effected my transcripts; the work of 195 hours being distributed through nearly five months—no great labour after all.
On an average, twelve words, with the figures, may be calculated for each entry, which will give for this parish about 500 folios. ”

“ As soon as King Charles was murther'd, the Jews petitioned the Council of War to endeavour a repeal of that act of parliament which had been made against them; promising, in return, to make them a present of five hundred thousand pounds: Provided that they could likewise procure the cathedral of St. Paul to be procured them for a synagogue, and the Bodleian Library at Oxford to begin their traffic with, which piece of service it seems was undertaken by those honest men, at the solicitation of Hugh Peters and Henry Masters, whom the Jews employed as their brokers but without any success. ”

“ Lord John Townshend's Poetical Works.—Can any of your readers inform me whether the poetical works of Lord John Townshend, M.P., were ever collected and published, and, if so, when, and by whom? His lordship, who, it will be remembered, successively represented Cambridge University, Westminster, and Knaresborough, was considered to be the principal contributor to the Rolliad, and the author of many odes, sonnets, and other political effusions which circulated during, the eventful period 1780-1810. ”

“ It is in the life of Demosthenes that the story of his flight is told, but briefly; and for that part which relates to the inscription on the shield of Demosthenes, he says, 'ως ελεγε Πυθεας. The other life among those of the Ten Orators, the best critics think not to be Plutarch's; and the relation in it is too ridiculous for credit; yet it is repeated by Photius.
The first writer in which the story takes something of the form in which Erasmus gives it is Aulus Gellius (Noct. Att. l. xvii. c. 21.) ”

“ Exhumation of a Body ominous to Family of the Deceased.—In the counties of Leicester and Northampton, and I doubt not in other parts of England, there is a superstitious idea that the removal or exhumation of a body after interment bodes death or some terrible calamity to the surviving members of the deceased's family. ”

“ In this book, the whole of the twenty-three apophthegms of Erasmus which relate to Demosthenes are given, and two more added at the end. It appears that Philelphus, and after him Raphael Regius, had printed, in the fifteenth century, Latin collections under the title of Plutarch's Apophthegms, and, according to Erasmus, had both taken liberties with their original. I have not seen either of these Latin versions, of which there were several editions. As far as regards Demosthenes, I think we may fairly conclude that the story is apocryphal. ”

“ Who was this great nobleman, and where may I find the fullest particulars of the whole transaction?
H.C.
When does Easter end?—An enactment of the legislature directs a certain act to be done "within two months after Easter" in 1850, under a penalty for non-performance. I have no difficulty in finding that two calendar months are meant, but am puzzled how to compute when they should commence. I should be much obliged by being informed when Easter ends? that question set at rest, the other part is easily understood and obeyed. ”

“ He is convinced that the want of specific acknowledgment will only be felt by those who have no idea of the labour and difficulty attendant on the hurried management of such a work, and of the impossibility of sometimes giving an explanation, when there really is one which would quite satisfy the writer, for the delay or non-insertion of his communication. Correspondents in such cases have no reason, and if they understood an editor's position they would feel that they have no right, to consider themselves undervalued ”

“ To each county there should also be appointed one or more competent persons as collators, to correct the errors of the transcribers.
I throw out these rough hints in the hope that some of your correspondents will furnish their ideas on the subject, till we at last arrive at a fully practicable plan of carrying out Mr. Wyatt Edgell's suggestions, and, at all events, obtain transcripts, if not printed copies, of every register in the kingdom. ”

“ The little band of kind friends who first rallied round us has been reinforced by a host of earnest men, who, at once recognising the utility of our purpose, and seeing in our growing prosperity how much love of letters existed among us, have joined us heart and hand in the great object we proposed to ourselves in our Prospectus ”

“ In my register, the name of "Caiser" appears under more than twenty varieties of form. I enter them all under "Cayser". In the margin, opposite the first of these entries, I write consecutively the different modes of spelling the name—"Caisar", "Caiser", "Casiar", "Kayser", &c. &c. &c. In the table itself, I write,
Cayser, John. ”

“ If any of the silver remains after the ring is made, the workman has it as his perquisite; and the twelve pennies also are intended as the wages for his work, and he must charge no more.
In 1830 I went into a gunsmith's shop in the village where I then resided, and seeing some fragments of silver in a saucer, I had the curiosity to inquire about them, when I was informed that they were the remains of the contributions for a ring for the above purpose which he had lately been employed to make.
D.
Bible and Key.—Mr. Stevens's note on divination (Vol. i. p. 413.) ”

“ In the Théâtre de la Noblesse de Brabant, I find that "François Godin, Secrétaire ordinaire du Roy Philippe II., en grand conseil séant à Malines," was ennobled by letters patent, dated Madrid, 7th January, 1589, and "port les armoiries suivantes, qui sont, un escu de sinople à une coupe lasalade, ou couverture ouverte d'or; ledit escu sommé d'un heaume d'argent grillé et liséré d'or; aux bourlet et hachements d'or et de sinople: cimier une coupe de l'escu."
This blazoning is corrected in the index, where the arms are stated to be "un escu de sinople à la coupe couverte d'or." ”

“ If the key retain its position during the repetition, the person whose name has been mentioned is considered to be rejected and so another name is tried until the book turns round and falls through the fingers, which is said to be a sure token that the name just mentioned is that of an individual who will certainly marry her. ”

“ Without going beyond feast and fast, I see nothing in C.B.'s suggestion better than the old derivations of the words feast from festus -um, and fast from the Anglo-Saxon; nor indeed anything half so good. Feast and fast are opposed in meaning: our word fast has a meaning which neither fas, fari, nor fastus, nor all three together, will explain.
CH.
Replies to Minor Queries.
The Badger's Legs (Vol. i., p. 381.) .—In answer to one of your correspondents, who inquires whether there is any allusion to the inequalities of the badger's legs previous to that made by Sir T. Browne ”

“ The efficacy of peascods in the concerns of sweethearts is not yet forgotten among our rustic vulgar. The kitchen-maid, when she shells green peas, never omits, when she finds one having nine peas, to lay it on the lintel of the kitchen door ”

“ It is not sufficient to say that the body of a human being was buried like that of a beast, for then the term would be general and not particular; neither can I imagine that Christian writers used the phrase for the purpose of repudiating the accusation preferred against them by Pagans, of worshipping an ass. ”

“ NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.
The matter is so generally understood with regard to the management of periodical works, that it is hardly necessary for the Editor to say that HE CANNOT UNDERTAKE TO RETURN MANUSCRIPTS; but on one point he wishes to offer a few words of explanation to his correspondents in general, and particularly to those who do not enable him to communicate with them except in print. They will see, on a very little reflection, that it is plainly his interest to take all he can get, and make the most, and the best of everything ”

“ When some choice specimen of the "Lancashire Witches" thinks it necessary to decide upon selecting a suitor from among the number of her admirers, she not unfrequently calls in the aid of these auxiliaries to assist in determining her choice. Having opened the Bible at the passage in Ruth which states, "whither thou goest I will go," &c., and having carefully placed the wards of the key upon the verses, she ties the book firmly with a piece of cord ”

“ Martin's days, Whitsuntide and Easter, as times, above all other periods of the year, when we should eat, drink, and be merry. St. Burchard's day, on account of the fermentation of the new must. St. Martin's, probably on account of the fermentation of the new wine: then we roast fat geese, and all the world enjoy themselves. At Easter we bake pancakes (fladen) ; at Whitsuntide we make bowers of green boughs, and keep the feast of the tabernacle in Saxony and Thuringia; and we drink, Whitsun-beer for eight days. In Saxony, we also keep the feast of St. ”

“ She was condemned to be burnt at the stake; and a marine, her paramour and an accomplice in the murder, was condemned to be hanged.
A gentleman lately deceased told me the circumstances minutely. I think that he had been at the trial, but I know that he was at the execution, and saw the wretched woman fixed to the stake, fire put to the faggots, and her body burnt. ”

“ In a very curious little book, entitled Kronÿcke van Alemaer, and published in that town anno 1645, I read the following particulars about Cornelis Drebbel, a native of the same city.
Being justly renowned as a natural philosopher, and having made great progress in mechanics,{7} our Drebbel was named tutor of the young Prince of Austria, by the emperor Ferdinandus II.; an office which he fulfilled so well, that he was afterwards chosen councillor to his Majesty, and honoured with a rich pension for past services. But, alas! ”

“ Cotterick, and his wife, each of them 10s., and 6s. to the child, and I gave Mr. Carleton a pair of buckskin gloves, and then they all went away."
In another entry the Countess records the gift to a Mrs. Winch of Settra Park of "four pair of buckskin gloves that came from Kendall."
It does not appear that any present was made to the Countess in return. As in the case of Archbishop Laud and Master Prynne (Vol. i. p. 405.) , these gifts were evidently expressions of condescension and good will by one in a high position to another in a somewhat lower station. ”

“ It is taken from Michelet's History of France, an easily accessible work.
"Charlemagne is usually considered as the translation of Carolus Magnus. 'Challemaines si vaut autant comme grant challes.' (Chro. de St. Denis, 1. i. c. 4.) Charlemagne is merely a corruption of Carloman, Karlmann, the strong man. ”