P. J. F. Gantillon, B.A.
Mayors and Sheriffs.—Can you or any of your readers inform me which ought to be considered the principal officer, or which is the most important, and which ought to have precedence of the other, the mayor of a town or borough, or the sheriff of a town or borough? and is the mayor merely the representative of the town, and the sheriff of the Queen; and if so, ought not the representative of majesty to be considered more honourable than the representative of merely a borough; and can a sheriff of a borough claim to have a grant of arms, if he has not any previous?
A Subscriber.
Nottingham.
The Beauty of Buttermere.—In an article contributed by Coleridge to the Morning Post (vid. Essays on his own Times, vol. ii. p. 591.), he says:
"It seems that there are some circumstances attending her birth and true parentage, which would account for her striking superiority in mind and manners, in a way extremely flattering to the prejudices of rank and birth."
What are the circumstances alluded to?
R. W. Elliot.
Clifton.
Sheer Hulk.—Living in a maritime town, and hearing nautical terms frequently used, I had always supposed this term to mean an old vessel,