U. U. Club.
"Meols" (Vol. vii., pp. 208. 298.).—There is an extensive parish called North Meols (the favourite watering-place of Southport being within it) in the sandy district to the south of the estuary of the Ribble, in Lancashire.
Prestoniensis.
Polygamy (Vol. ix., p. 246.).—The practice of monogamy had been established among the Jews before the Christian era, as is shown by various expressions in the New Testament; but their law (like that of other oriental nations) still permitted polygamy, and they were expressly prohibited by an enactment of the Emperor Theodosius, of the year 393, from marrying several wives at the same time (Cod. 1. 9. 7.); so that the practice was not then extinct among them. Monogamy was the law and practice of all the Greek and Italian communities, so far back as our accounts reach. There is no trace of polygamy in Homer. Even in the incestuous marriages supposed by him in the mythical family of Æolus, the monogamic rule is observed, Odyssey, x. 7. The Roman law recognised monogamy alone, and hence polygamy was prohibited in the entire Roman empire. It thus became practically the rule of Christians, and was engrafted into the canon law of the Eastern and Western Churches.
L.
Wafers (Vol. ix., p. 376.).—I have in my possession a volume of original Italian letters, addressed to a Venetian physician (who appears to have been eminent in his profession), Michael Angelo Rota, written during the early part of the seventeenth century. Many of these letters have been sealed with red wafers, still adhering to the
paper, and precisely similar to those now in use. The earliest of the letters which I have found sealed is dated April, 1607, which is seventeen years earlier than the earliest known instance, mentioned by Beckmann (History of Inventions, Bohn's edit., vol. i. p. 146.), of a letter sealed with a wafer.
Walter Sneyd.
Denton.
I have before me a reprieve from the Council, dated in 1599, sealed with a wafer, and am certain that I have earlier instances, had I time at this moment to look them up.