Shakspeare.
The following is inscribed on a black Tablet in Sherborne Church, Dorset:
This Monument was erected by Mr. Thomas Mansel, of this Towne, in remembrance of a great hailstorme, May 16th, 1709, between the hours of one and four in the afternoon; which stopping the course of a small river, west of this church, caused of a sudden an extraordinary flood in the Abbey Garden and Green, running with so rapid a stream, that it forced open the north door of the church, displaced and removed about 1,222 feet of the pavement, and was two feet and ten inches high as it passed out at this south door.
Sturminster.
RURIS.
ANTIQUITY AND INTEREST.
In the kitchen of a public house called the Cross in Hand, at Waldron, in Sussex, there is an ancient couple, who appear to have been companions for more than seven hundred years. These are a pair of dog, or brandirons, with the date of 1115 on each. Suppose their original cost to have been five shillings; this sum put out at simple interest, together with the principal, would now have amounted to nine pounds, twelve shillings, and sixpence; but at compound interest it would be two hundred and fifty eight billions, seven hundred and eighty four millions, two hundred and thirty thousand, six hundred and fifty six pounds sterling.
J.B.—Y.