The Young Pretender (Vol. ix., p. 177.).—Will Ceyrep, or any other correspondent, furnish me with particulars of the Young Pretender's marriage with a daughter of the House of Stolberg; her name, place of burial, &c.? She was descended maternally from the noble House of Bruce, through the marriage of Thomas, second Earl of Aylesbury and third Earl of Elgin, with Charlotte (his second wife) Countess of Sannu, or Sannau, of the House of Argenteau. They had a daughter, Charlotte Maria, I suppose an only child, who was married in the year 1722 to the Prince of Horn. These had issue Mary and Elizabeth, whom also I suppose
to have been only children. One of them married the Prince of Stolberg, and the other the Prince of Salm. One of the descendants of this family was an annuitant on the estate of the Marquis of Aylesbury, as recently as twelve or fourteen years ago. Information on any part of this descent would confer an obligation on
Patonce.
A Legend of the Hive (Vol. ix., p. 167.).—With every feeling of gratitude to Eirionnach, I cannot receive praise for false metre and erroneous grammar. In the fifth line of the first stanza of the quoted verse, the first of the above legend, "are" is redundant: and in the first line of the next stanza, "bore" should be "bare." I remember that in more cases than one the printer of my published rhymes has perpetrated this latter mistake.
Suffer me to reply to a question of the same courteous critic Eirionnach, in Vol. ix., p. 162., about a "Christ-cross-row." This name for the alphabet obtained in the good old Cornish dame-schools when I was a boy. In a book that I have seen, there is a vignette of a monk teaching a little boy to read, and beneath
"A Christ-Cross Rhyme.
I.
"Christ his cross shall be my speed!
Teach me, Father John, to read:
That in church, on holy-day,