Various

“ Until within the last few years he resided at Hill End, a small estate left him by an uncle when he was about twenty-six years old; but both his surviving daughters being married, and himself growing feeble, and his sight failing him, he left the land and went to reside with his eldest daughter, Margaret, and his son-in-law, John Haslam, at a place called "The Nook," near the Britannia, in Harwood. Here we found the old man, surrounded with every comfort which easy circumstances and affectionate friends can afford, and, to use his own language, "neither tired of living, nor yet afraid to die." ”

“ Undoubtedly, in the third of these lines, "menes" seems to have a perfectly good meaning in the sense of instrument, or means to destroy. But, in the last line, the same sense is not so obvious—"means to destroy" must necessarily be destructive, and Chaucer would never be guilty of the unmeaning truism of repeating—"means which do no good but ever annoy." ”

“ Let us now examine whether the Armorican sense is capable of giving a perfect meaning to both lines? That sense is, a rocky ridge or emerging summit. Let us substitute the word rockēs for menēz, and then try what meaning the passage receives.
"If, quoth Dorigene, ye love mankind so well ——
—— —— —— how then may it be
That ye such rockēs make, it to destroyen,
Which rockēs don no good but ever anoyen?" ”

“ Having heard of the extraordinary circumstance of an old man named James Horrocks, in his hundredth year, living in Harwood, about three miles from Bolton, whose father lived in the time of Oliver Cromwell, we took an opportunity, a few days ago, of visiting this venerable descendant of a sire who was contemporary with the renowned Protector. ”

“ He is a remarkably good-looking old man, with long, silvery locks, and a countenance beaming with benevolence and good nature. He has nearly lost the use of his eye-sight, and is a little dull of hearing, yet he is enabled to walk about. The loss of his sight he regrets most of all, as it prevents him from spending his time in reading, to which he was before accustomed; and, as he remarked, also denies him the pleasure of looking upon his children and his old friends. He converses with remarkable cheerfulness for one of his years. ”

“ Thus, we say, we give our hearts to our pursuits: we "love God with all our hearts," pray to Him "with the spirit, and with the understanding," and "with the heart believe unto righteousness:" we "ponder in our hearts," "muse in our hearts," and "keep things in our hearts," i. e. "learn by heart."
J. E.
Auriga (Vol. iii., p. 188.) .
—Claudius Minois, in his Commentaries on the Emblemata of Alciatus, gives the following etymology of "Auriga:"—
"Auriga non dicitur ab auro, sed ab aureis: sunt enim aureæ lora sive fræni, qui equis ad aures alligantur ”

“ His son-in-law is an old grey-headed man, much harder of hearing than himself; and it frequently happens, that when any of the family are endeavouring to explain anything to him, old James will say, "Stop, and I'll insense him;" and his lungs seldom fail in the undertaking.
From this interesting family we learn, that William Horrocks, the father of the present James, of whom we have been speaking, was born in 1657, four years after Oliver Cromwell was declared protector, and one year before his death. ”

“ The structure of the oratorio, which was evidently a very hurried composition, gives a strong air of probability to the anecdote. Evidently no libretto was written for it; the words tell no tale, are totally unconnected, and not even always tolerable English, a fine chorus (p. 39. Arnold) going to the words "Him or his God we no fear." It is rather a collection of sacred pieces, strung together literally without rhyme or reason in the oratorio form, than one oratorio. ”

“ When the witches in this country were very numerous, Satan for convenience divided them into companies of thirteen (one reason why thirteen has always been considered an unlucky number) , and called each company a covine. Is that the etymology of the word covey, as applied to birds? ”

“ In Kersey's Dictionarium Anglo-Britannicum, 1708, it is thus noticed—
"Umbrella, or Umbrello, a kind of broad Fan or Skreen, commonly us'd by women to shelter them from Rain: also a Wooden Frame cover'd with cloth to keep off the sun from a window."
"Parasol (F.) , a small sort of canopy or umbrello, which women carry over their heads." ”

“ There is a foolish tradition that the Devil was obliged, by one of the saints, to make a road for his Reverence across an extensive bog in the neighbourhood, and so taking a piece of the mountain in his mouth, he strode over the bog and deposited a road behind him!
SING.
Corpse passing makes a Right of Way.
—What is the origin of the supposed custom of land becoming public property, after a funeral has passed over it? ”

“ Book wanted to purchase.
—Can any one help me to find a little book on "Speculative Difficulties in the Christian Religion?" I read such a book about four years ago, and have quite forgotten its title and its author. The last chapter in the book was on the "Origin of Evil." There is a little book called Speculative Difficulties, but that is not the one I mean.
L. M. M. R.
The Devil's Bit.
—In the Barnane Mountains, near Templemore, Ireland, there is a large dent or hollow, visible at the distance of twenty miles, and known by the name of the "Devil's Bit." ”

“ I have no recollection of having met with similar entries in any other Parish Register.
C. H. COOPER.
Redwing's Nest (Vol. iii., p. 408.) .
—I think that upon further consideration C. J. A. will find his egg to be merely that of a blackbird. While the eggs of some birds are so constant in their markings that to see one is to know all, others—at the head of which we may place the sparrow, the gull tribe, the thrush, and the blackbird—are as remarkable for the curious variety of their markings, and even of the shades of their colouring. ”

“ If a sailor is killed in a sea-skirmish, or falls overboard and is drowned, or any other fatality occurs which necessitates the consignment of his remains to the "great deep," his surviving messmates speak of him as one who has been sent to "Davy Jones's Locker." Who was the important individual whose name has become so powerful a myth? ”

“ There has been a vain attempt to make pilcher signify a leathern sheath, because a pilch was a garment of leather or pelt. To me it is quite evident that pilcher is a mere typographical error for pitcher, which, in this jocose, bantering speech, Mercutio substitutes for scabbard, else why are the ears mentioned? The poet was familiar with the proverb "Pitchers have ears," of which he has elsewhere twice availed himself. The ears, as every one knows, are the handles, which have since been called the lugs. Shakspeare would hardly have substituted a word of his own creation for scabbard ”

“ I find the following passage in the fourth edition of Blount's Glossographia, published as far back as 1674.
"Umbrello (Ital. Ombrella) , a fashion of round and broad Fans, wherewith the Indians (and from them our great ones) preserve themselves from the heat of the sun or fire; and hence any little shadow, Fan, or other thing, wherewith the women guard their faces from the sun." ”

“ If folk lore be worthy of a place in your columns, folk talk should not be shut out, and that the etymological solutions, gathered from this source, which I have previously forwarded, have not appeared, is doubtless attributable to some other cause than indifferentism to the authority. ”

“ Dorigene, inconsolable at his loss, sits upon the sea-shore, and views with horror the "grisly, fendly, rockes," with which the coast is studded, in every one of which she sees certain destruction to her husband in his return. She accuses the gods of injustice in forming these rocks for the sole apparent purpose of destroying man, so favoured [474] in other respects, and she concludes her apostrophe in these words,—
"Than, semeth it, ye had a gret chertee
Toward mankind ”

“ The exact period of his first marriage we have not been able to ascertain; but it is certain that his bride was employed as nurse in the well-known family of the Chethams, either at Turton Tower, or at Castleton Hall, near Rochdale. By this marriage he had four children, as appears from the following memorandums, written in an excellent hand in the back of an old black-letter Bible, printed in 1583:
"Mary, the daughter of William and Elizabeth Horrocks, was born the 15th day of September, and baptised the 23d day of the same month, Anno Dom. 1683." ”

“ I need not say that your correspondent is quite right in referring the words first moved to the primum mobile.
Again, balance in Milton never weighs. Scale is his word (iv. 997. x. 676.) for a weighing apparatus. Where he says of Satan's army (i. 349.) ,
"In even balance down they light
On the firm brimstone,"
he appears to mean that they were in regular order, with a right wing to balance the left wing. The direct motion of the crystal heaven, following and compensating the retrograde one, is the "balance" which "was the trepidation called;" ”

“ It bears, however, a close resemblance to another word of different meaning, which different meaning happens also to afford a plausible sense to the same passage.
The question then is, in case this latter meaning should not appear to be better, nor even so good, as that afforded by the word of which we are in search, shall we not give that word the preference, and thereby render it doubly blessed, giving and receiving light?
In coming to a decision, it is necessary to take in the whole context. Arviragus and Dorigene live in wedded happiness, until the former, leaving his wife, takes shipping ”

“ He then went to the house of the steward, and found he was not at home; he, however, left a message, desiring that the steward would send him word if there was any probability of his being able to purchase the portraits. Accordingly, the steward sent him word that they had been removed, with the family portraits, to the residence of a lady near Manchester, where he might have the satisfaction of seeing them. The old man cannot remember either the name or the address of the lady. ”

“ These portraits are well executed; and, of course, appear rather like those of a grandfather and his grandchild than of husband and wife, although he appears more like sixty than eighty-six. In front of each painting is prominently inscribed the age of each of the parties, and the date when the portrait was taken. Upon that of the husband the inscription is, "ÆTA: 86—1743." And upon that of the wife, "ÆTA: 28—1743." These, it appears, were taken two years after their marriage, [476] and preserved in the Chetham family, at Castleton Hall, as great curiosities. ”

“ Besides the copy of the above work mentioned by your correspondent J. H. T., several others are known to exist in this country. Among them I may mention one in the library of the Baptist College, Bristol. My own copy was supplied by a London bookseller, who has likewise imported several other copies from Holland, where it is by no means a scarce work.
The second illustrated edition was published twenty years after the decease of Van Braght. The first edition, without engravings, now before me, appeared in 1660, which was the edition used by Danvers. ”

“ The working people in Shropshire and Staffordshire still speak of tining a fire (pronounced teening) . This is but a slight change in the Anglo-Saxon word tynan, to light a fire.
S. S. S.
Arches of Pelaga.
—A young sailor, in his passage from Alexandria to Trinadas, mentions a place under this designation. Query, Is there a place correctly so called, or is this one of the misnomers not unfrequent among seamen? ”

“ King Philip took such delight in his company that at his departure he recommended him to King Henry VII. as a person of spirit "fit to stand before princes, and not before mean men." He died in 1554, and was the ancestor of the Bedford family. Sir Thomas Trenchard probably had the ceiling. See Fuller's Worthies (Dorsetshire) , vol. i. p. 313.
A. HOLT WHITE.
The house of which your correspondent has heard his tradition is certainly Woolverton House, in the parish of Charminster, near this town.
It was built by Sir Thomas Trenchard, who died 20 Hen. VIII. ”

“ The passage cited by C. H. P. as assigned to Plautus, and which he says he cannot find in that author, occurs in one of the interpolated scenes in the Mercator, which are placed in some of the old editions between the 5th and 6th Scenes of Act IV. In the edition by Pareus, printed at Neustadt (Neapolis Nemetum) in 1619, 4to., it stands thus:
"Verum id dictum est: Feliciter is sapit, qui periculo alieno sapit." ”

“ Works, ed. 1807. In speaking of it, he says:
"The strong aromatic scent of the gold-coloured Champac is thought offensive to the bees, who are never seen on its blossoms; but their elegant appearance on the black hair of the Indian women is mentioned by Rumphius; and both facts have supplied the Sanscrit poets with elegant allusions."
D. C. [487]
Miscellaneous. NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.
The first volume issued to the members of the Camden Society in return for the present year's subscription affords in more than one way evidence of the utility of that Society. ”

“ As its title is brief, I will give it from the copy in my library:
"Martelaers Spiegel der Werelose Christenen t' zedert A. D. 1524. Joan, xv. 20. Matt. x. 28. Esai, li. 7. Joan xvi. 2. 1 Pet. iv. 19. [All quoted at length.] Gedrukt tot Haarlem Bij Hans Passchiers van Wesbusch. In't Jaer onses Heeren, 1631."
This edition is in small folio. The title-page is from a copperplate, and is adorned with eight small engravings, representing scenes of suffering and persecution from scripture. The narratives of martyrs extends from 1524 to 1624. ”