[An information brought against the Mayor and citizens of London was "for usurping of divers franchises and liberties within the said city, and for assuming to themselves an unlawful power to levy several great sums of money, as well upon the said citizens of London as strangers; and in particular upon those which come to the markets of the said city, by colour of the laws and ordinances in their Common Council by them in fact ordained and established, without any other right or authority." The circumstance which gave occasion for this quo warranto to be brought against the City charter, was a petition the Court of Aldermen and City made to the King, upon his prorogation of Parliament, when they were going to try several noblemen concerned in the Popish plot; but especially for their printing and publishing the petition, which was considered seditious. For particulars relating to this celebrated trial, we must refer our correspondent to the following tracts:—The Case of the Charter of London Stated, fol. 1683. This is an ingenious treatise against the charter. A Defence of the Charter and Municipal Rights of the City of London, by Thomas Hunt, 4to.; The Lawyer Outlawed; or a Brief Answer to Mr. Hunt's Defence of the Charter, 4to. 1683; The Forfeitures of London's Charter, or an Impartial Account of the several Seisures of the City Charter, 4to. 1682; Reflections on the City Charter, and Writ of Quo Warranto, 4to. 1682; The City of London's Plea to the Quo Warranto, (an information) brought against their Charter in Michaelmas Term, 1681, fol. 1682. A summary account of the whole proceedings will be found in Maitland's History of London, vol. i. pp. 473-484.]

St. Alkald.

—Upon looking over a sheet of the Ordnance Map lately published, on which part of the parish of Giggleswick is laid down, I find that the patron saint, to whom the church is dedicated, is St. Alkald. No calendar that I have access to mentions any such saint. I shall be obliged by any of your correspondents giving me some account of him, or referring me to any book where I may read his history.

F. W. J.

[In The Calendar of the Anglican Church Illustrated, published by Parker of Oxford, p. 181., our querist will find

"S. Alkald or Alkilda was commemorated March 28. The church of Giggleswick, Yorkshire, is named in honour of this saint, and the Collegiate Church of Middleham in the same county in the joint names of SS. Mary and Alkald.">[

Replies.

PLAIDS AND TARTANS.
(Vol. iv., p. 107.)

I am not going to enter into the controversy respecting the antiquity of the Highland kilt and tartans, nor when and where they were invented. But in reference to these questions, I beg leave to cite a passage, which may be found in the second book of the History of Tacitus, in which is designated a garb having a very distinct analogy to the trews and tartans of the Highland chiefs.

In lib. ii. sec. xx. the return of Cæcina from Germany into Italy is thus described:—