Passage in Bacon.—What is the meaning of this saying of Bacon "Poetry doth raise and erect the mind by submitting the shows of things to the desires of the mind?"

Recnac.

Lamech killing Cain.—In the church of St. Neot, Cornwall, are some very interesting ancient painted windows, representing various legendary and scriptural subjects. In one of them, descriptive of antediluvial history, is a painting of Lamech shooting Cain with a bow and arrow. Are any of your readers acquainted with a similar subject? Is there any tradition to this effect? and does it throw any light on that difficult passage, Gen. iv. 23, 24.?

"And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice: ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.

"If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold."

J. W. M.

Hordley Ellesmere.

Lord Chief Justice Popham.—C. Gonville says (Vol. vii., p. 259.) that Raleigh Gilbert "emigrated with Lord Chief Justice Popham in 1606" to Plymouth in Virginia. As this is a fact in the history of that learned judge with which I am unacquainted, I shall be obliged to your correspondent to favour me with some particulars. According to Anthony Wood he died on June 10, 1607, and was buried at Wellington in Somersetshire; and Sir Edward Coke (6 Reports, p. 75.) notices the last judgment he pronounced in the previous Easter Term.

Edward Foss.

"Her face was like the milky way," &c.—Where is the subjoined quotation taken from, and what is the context? I cannot be quite certain as to its verbal accuracy.

Via Lactea.

Nelson Rings.—I am in possession of a ring, which in place of a stone has a metal basso-relievo representation of Nelson (half-bust). The inscription inside the ring is as follows:

The late Mr. Thomas Moon was an eminent merchant of Leeds, Yorkshire, and the writer has always understood that the ring referred to is one of three or half-a-dozen, which were made subsequently to Nelson's death, the metal (blackish in appearance) forming the basso-relievo set in them, being in reality portions of the ball which gave the late lamented and immortal admiral his fatal wound at Trafalgar.

Can any of your readers furnish me with the means of authenticating this supposition? likewise I should be glad to know if other similar rings are at present in existence, and by whom owned.

R. Nichols.

Pelsall, Staffordshire.

Books Wanted.—

Life of Thomas Bonnell, Mayor of Norwich, published by Curl.

Samuel Hayne, Abstract of the Statutes relating to Aliens trading, 1690.^[1]

Lalley's Churches and Chapels in London.

Can any of your readers tell me where I shall find these books? I do not see them in the British Museum.

J. S. B.

Mr. Cromlin.—In Smith's History of Waterford (1746) are noticed "the thanks of the House of Commons given to Mr. Cromlin, a French gentleman naturalised in the kingdom, then actually sitting in the house," and the present to him of 10,000l. for establishing a linen manufactory at Waterford. Where shall I find the particulars of this grant recorded?

J. S. B.

Dr. Fletcher and Lady Baker.—Dr. Fletcher, Bishop of London, married a handsome widow, the Lady Baker, sister of George Gifford the Pensioner, at which marriage Queen Elizabeth being much displeased, the bishop is said to have died "discontentedly by immoderate taking of tobacco." (AthenÆ.) Who was the Lady Baker's first husband? Who was George Gifford? Was she a Roman Catholic previous to her second marriage?

W. S.

Jeremy Taylor and Christopher Lord Hatton.—Bishop Jeremy Taylor, in his dedication of the Great Exemplar to Christopher Lord Hatton, entreats his lordship to "account him in the number of his relatives." Was Jeremy Taylor in any way connected with Lord Hatton by marriage? His first wife was a Mrs. Joanna Bridges of Mandinam, in the parish of Languedor, co. Carmarthen, and supposed to be a natural daughter of Charles I., to whom she bore a striking resemblance. Do any of your readers know of any relationship between this lady and Lord Hatton, or any other circumstance likely to account for the passage above mentioned?

Clarence Hopper.

"Pylades and Corinna."—Can anybody tell who was the author? Could it be De Foe?

P. R.

The Left Hand; its Etymology.—I have read with much pleasure Trench's Study of Words. The following passage occurs at p. 185:

"The 'left' hand, as distinguished from the right, is the hand which we 'leave,' inasmuch as for twenty times we use the right hand, we do not once employ it; and it obtains its name from being 'left' unused so often."

Now I should certainly be sorry to appear

I am not the person to aim a word at Mr. Trench's eye. Although I am Boeotian enough to ask, I am not too far Boeotian to feel no shame in asking, whether it is quite impossible that "left" should be corruption of lÆvus, ?a???. We have, at all events, adopted dexter, the "right" hand, and the rest of its family.

Boeoticus.

Edgmond, Salop.

The Parthenon.—M. de Chateaubriand says that the Greek, Theodore Zygomalas, who wrote in 1575, is the first among modern writers to have made known the existence of the Temple of Minerva or Parthenon, which was believed to have been totally destroyed. The Messager des Sciences et des Arts de la Belgique, vol. iv. p. 24., corrects Chateaubriand, and says that Ciriaco d'Ancona had, in the year 1436, described this celebrated monument, together with other ancient buildings of Athens. I am desirous of verifying this statement, and for this purpose beg the assistance of some of your learned correspondents, who may probably be able to inform me what is the title and date of the work of Ciriaco in which this description of the Parthenon occurs.

W. M. R. E.