A Beginner.
Replies to Minor Queries.
Mitigation of Capital Punishment to a Forger (Vol. vii., p. 573.).—If your correspondent H. B. C. really wishes to be released from his hard work in hunting up the truth of my and other narratives of the mitigation of capital punishment to forgers, I shall be happy to receive a note from him with his name and address, when I will give him the name and address of my informant in return. By this means I may be able to relieve his shoulder from a portion of its burden, and myself from any farther imputations of "mythic accompaniments," &c., which are unpalatable phrases even when coming from a gentleman who only discloses his initials.
Alfred Gatty.
Ecclesfield.
Chronograms (Vol. v., p. 585.) and Anagrams (Vol. iv., p. 226).—Though we have ceased to practise these "literary follies," they are not without interest; and you will perhaps think it worth while to add the following to your list:
"Hugo Grotius, his Sophompaneas.
By FranCIs GoLDsMIth."
has no date on the title-page, the real date of 1652 being supplied by the chronogram, which is a better one than most of those quoted in "N. & Q.," inasmuch as all the numerical letters are employed, and it is consequently not dependent on the typography.