W. T. M.
Hong Kong.
The Spinning-machine of the Ancients.—Can any of your readers give a satisfactory explanation of the difficult passage which occurs at the end of Catullus' Epithalamium, containing the description of the spinning-wheel of the Fates? As this has been such a perplexing subject hitherto to commentators, a solution of the terms there employed,
illustrated by a plan of the machine, would doubtless be a boon to many who have unsuccessfully tried to understand it.
Φιλομαθὴς.
View of Dumfries.—I have a modern lithographed view of the town of Dumfries, said to have been taken from an old engraving in some printed book. It represents a small chapel (the Crystal Chapel) on a height in the foreground, and the walls of the town and the old church behind. I have in vain sought for the original, and have almost come to the conclusion that the drawing is a forgery. Can any of your readers who have access to the Bodleian, inform me whether anything of the kind is to be found in Gough's Topographical Collections, which are there deposited?
Balivus.
Edinburgh.
"To pass the pikes."—What is the origin of this phrase?
G. Taylor.