VERSIFIED WILL.

The following is a copy of the will of John Baxter, of Conderton, Overbury, as proved in the Consistory Court of Worcester, in 1724:

"July the 25 Anno 1723;—
With God's good leave this is my last will
Which to deceive is past man's skill
I do bequeath unto his hill. My soul for to abide
My body to be turned to dust nere to my wives yt my sonnes nurst
To meete my soul againe I trust; when it is glorifide
For this world's good as God did lend it
If I heve not for to spend it; after this manner I commend it
As hereafter is directed
My goodes and cattle greate and small, to my son John I give them all
And unto him my land doth fall. Hes my executor
And though to my wife I little give. I mean with John that she to live
And boath my sonns her to releive, and not to let her want
I leand som pounds to my sonn Thomas
Thirty of which by bond and promis
He must pay back at the next lamas after my decease
Nine thereof I bequeath unto his seede, three a piece I have decreed
Which being paid his bonde is freede I meane the thirty pounds
I give and bequeath tenn pounds to my sonn in law John Jones
And three pounds a piece to his 3 youngest ones, Samuel, Jone, and Marey Jones
I give and bequeath to my sisters three children John
Moses and Ann one pound nobles a peece. A slender fee
I give and bequeath to my sonn in lawe William Withorn
And to his wife Elizabeth and to his sonne William and to his daughter Sarie five shillings a peece
Last of all if my daughter Jones do out live her husband
I desire she may have free abiding at Conderton or
At Kinsham."

BLOODY POND.

In some of our old histories occasional mention is made of pools suddenly changing from water to blood, or putting on a sanguine aspect, which in those "muddy-evil" times was considered a prodigy portending wars and direful slaughter. A similar appearance was presented a short time ago in a pool at Snead's Green, Mathon, in this county, the surface of which was so closely covered with a film of crimson and vermilion as to present a most extraordinary appearance. The gentleman who first observed this sanguine aspect of the pond, not thinking much of portents or omens, thought that the rural wheelwright had been emptying some refuse red paint in the water, which had got dispersed over the pond. But on inquiry this was not the case, and botanical science was then called in to solve the mystery. In the mean time, more than a week having elapsed, the curious appearance was almost gone when the spot was visited by some members of the Malvern Club; but the clay on the margin of the pool displayed several patches of what looked very much like clotted blood, evidently the relics of what had been previously seen. On these being examined by Mr. E. Lees, who noticed the subject at a recent meeting of the Worcestershire Naturalists' Club, they were found to consist of innumerable minute globules containing a coloured fluid that oozed forth into a gelatinous mass, leaving the globules empty like small beads of glass; but so numerous and minute were they, that 6000 were contained within the superficial space of half a square inch. The bloody appearance was thus occasioned by the sudden fructification of an algoid plant, belonging probably to the genus Hæmatococcus, and allied to the singular production called Red Snow, though appearing in a different medium and under altered circumstances.

CROMWELL'S PROPERTY AND INCOME-TAX.

In 1656, Oliver Cromwell and his Parliament laid on a tax very much like the present property and income-tax, and its machinery of commissioners, assessors, &c., was also very similar. The commissioners for the county of Worcester were—"Sir Thomas Rous, Baronet, John Wilde, sergeant-at-law, Major-General James Berrey, Wil. Lygon, John Egiocke, Edw. Pit, Hen. Bromley of Holt, Rich. Grevis, Nicholas Lechmere, Gervase Buck, Wil. Geffreys, Joh. Corbet, Henry Bromley of Upton, Edw. Dingley, Charles Cornwallis, Nich. Acton, Rich. Foley, Walter Savage of Broadway, John Bridges, Richard Vernon, Thomas Foley, Thomas Milward, Talbot Badger, Thomas Tolley, John Latham, John Fownes, Theophilus Andrews, William Collins, Esquires; Thomas Young, Edmund Gyles, Edw. Moore, Nicholas Harris, Nicholas Blick, John Corbyn, John Baker, Gentn.; the Mayor of Evesham, Bayliff of Bewdley, and Bayliff of Kidderminster, for the time being; Edmund Gyles, one of the Masters of the Chancery, Walter Gyles, Thomas Symonds of Peershore, Gentlemen; John Nanfan, Edward Salwey, Esquires. For the city of Worcester—Major-General James Berry, Edmund Pit, John Nash, Edward Elvins, Henry Ford, Francis Frank, Aldermen; Gervase Buck, Thomas Hall, Esquires; Capt. Thomas Wells; Richard Henning, Anthony Careless, John Higgins, William Cheatle, Arthur Lloid, Thomas Harrison, John Philips, Thomas Baker the Elder, Foulk Estop, Richard Ince, Robert Gorl, Gentn.; Edmund Gyles, one of the Masters of the Chancery; Wil. Collins, Esq.; Tho. Hackett, Alderman." To this tax the county of Worcester was to contribute £1013. 6s. 8d. per month, and the city of Worcester £53. 6s. 8d. per month, the value of the money in each case being then about ten times as much as it is now, as farms which were then let for £100 a year are now let for nearly £1000. The ordinance by which this tax was imposed is the ordinance of the Parliament, chapter 12, of the year 1656.

GRAVEYARD PUNNING.

Specimens of punning are sometimes to be met with in our churches, and they will be found chiefly to belong to the seventeenth century, when all kinds of odd conceits and frippery in language abounded. In Eldersfield church, the widow of "William Helme, gentleman," thus laments his loss:

"My ship, long on the seas of this world tost,
Of helme bereav'd, lo here is sunk at last."