Notices to Correspondents.
J. S. S. (Leicester). The Chaucer Monument. It will require about 100l. to make a complete restoration. Not one-half that amount has yet been subscribed.
X. Y. Z. The custom of "Swearing on the Horns at Highgate" is very ably treated by Hone, Every-Day Book, vol. ii. p. 79 et seq. It probably arose from the graziers who put up at the Gate-house on their way to Smithfield, and were accustomed, as a means of keeping strangers out of their company, to bring an ox to the door as a test: those who did not like to be sworn of their fraternity, and kiss its horns, not being deemed fit members of their society.
W. R. M. Will this correspondent favour us with another copy of his Queries, which were received and intended for insertion, but have apparently been omitted by some accident?
A. W. H. Our correspondent will find that his Query had been anticipated in Vol. i., p. 336. Its appearance then brought it a mass of Replies, mostly of a very unsatisfactory kind. We delayed repeating the Query until we could find leisure to condense those replies, so as to prevent our correspondents furnishing us with information already in our possession. We hope to do this next week.
Sing. Bryan Waller Procter, Esq., one of the Commissioners of Lunacy.
Replies Received.—Nettle in—San Graal—Duchess of Buckingham—Newburgh Hamilton—Ex Pede Herculeum—Knebsend—Derivation of Yankee—Passage in Virgil—Bacon and Fagan—Solid-hoofed Pigs—Under the Rose—Stick at Nothing—Ejusdem Farinæ—Meaning of Rack—Meaning of Tye—The Tanthony—Dog's Head in the Pot—Baron Munchausen—Shakspeare's Seamanship—Criston—Bigod de Loges—God's Acre—Joseph Nicolson—Britt. Rex—Tradescant—Moore's Almanack—The Mistletoe—St John's Bridge Fair—Curious Fact in Natural History—Pursuits of Literature—Burton's Birthplace—Engelbert of Treves—God takes those soonest—Tandem D. O. M. &c.—Bartolomeo's Pictures—Herstmonceaux, &c.
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