Various

Ravilliac.—I have read that a pyramid was erected at Paris upon the murder of Henry IV. by Ravilliac, and that the inscription represented the Jesuits as men—

"MaleficÆ superstitonis, quorum instinctu peculiaris adolescens (Ravilliac) dirum facinus instituerat."—Thesaur. Hist., tom. iv. lib. 95, ad ann. 1598.

We are also informed that he confessed that it was the book of Mariana the Jesuit, and the traitorous positions maintained in it, which induced him to murder the king, for which cause the book (condemned by the parliament and the Sorbonne) was publicly burnt in Paris. Is the pyramid still remaining? If not, when was it taken down or destroyed, and by whom or by whose authority?

Clericus (D).

Emblem on a Chimney-piece.—In the committee room of the Church Missionary Society, Nos. 16. and 17. Upper Sackville Street, Dublin, a curious emblem-picture is carved on the centre of the white marble chimney-piece. An angel or winged youth is sleeping in a recumbent posture; one arm embraces a sleeping lion, in the other hand he holds a number of bell flowers. In the opposite angle the sun shines brightly; a lizard is biting the heel of the sleeping youth. I shall not offer my own conjectures in explanation of this allegorical sculpture, unless your correspondents fail to give a more satisfactory solution.

Ath Celiath.

"To know ourselves diseased," &c.—

"To know ourselves diseased, is half the cure."

Whence?

C. Mansfield Ingleby.

Birmingham.

"PÆtus and Arria."—Can you inform me who is the author of PÆtus and Arria, a Tragedy, 8vo., 1809?

In Genest's Account of the English Stage, this play is said to be written by a gentleman of the University of Cambridge. Can you tell me whether this is likely to be W. Smyth, the late Professor of Modern History in that university, who died in June, 1849?

Gw.

Heraldic Query.—A. was killed in open rebellion. His son B. lived in retirement under a fictitious name. The grandson C. retained the assumed name, and obtained new arms. Query, Can the descendants of C. resume the arms of A.? If so, must they substitute them for the arms of C., or bear them quarterly, and in which quarters?

Francis P.

Lord Chancellor Steele.—Is any pedigree of William Steele, Esq., Lord Chancellor of Ireland temp. Commonwealth, extant; and do any of his descendants exist?

It is believed he was nearly related to Captain Steel, governor of Beeston Castle, who suffered death by military execution in 1643 on a charge of cowardice.

Statfold.

"A Tub to the Whale."—What is the origin of this phrase?

Pimlico.

Legitimation (Scotland).—Perhaps some of your Scotch readers "learned in the law" would obligingly answer the subjoined Queries, referring to some decisions.

1. Will entail property go to a bastard, legitimated before the Union under the great seal (by the law of Scotland)?

2. Will titles and dignities descend?

3. Will armorial bearings?

M. M.

"Vaut mieux," &c.—The proverb "Vaut mieux avoir affaire À Dieu qu'À ses saints" has a Latin origin. What is it?

M.

Shakspeare First Folio.—Is there any obtainable edition of Shakspeare which follows, or fully contains, the first folio?

M.

The Staffordshire Knot.—Can any of your readers give the history of the Staffordshire knot, traced on the carriages and trucks of the North Staffordshire Railway Company?

T. P.

Sir Thomas Elyot.—I shall be extremely obliged by a reference to any sources of information respecting Sir Thomas Elyot, Knight, living in the time of Henry VIII., son of Sir Richard Elyot, Knight, of Suffolk.

I shall be glad also to know whether a short work (among others of his in my possession) entitled The Defence of good Women, printed in London by Thomas Berthelet, 1545, is at all a rare book?

H. C. K.

"Celsior exsurgens pluviis," &c.—

Can you oblige me by stating where the above lines are to be found? They appear to me to form an appropriate motto for a balloon.

J. P. A.

The Bargain Cup.—Can the old English custom of drinking together upon the completion of a bargain, be traced back farther than the Norman era? Did a similar custom exist in the earlier ages? Danl. Dyke, in his Mysteries (London, 1634), says:

"The Jews being forbidden to make couenants with the Gentiles, they also abstained from drinking with them; because that was a ceremonie vsed in striking of couenants."

This is the only notice I can find among old writers touching this custom, which is certainly one of considerable antiquity: though I should like confirmation of Dyke's words, before I can recognise an ancestry so remote.

R. C. Warde.

School-Libraries.—I am desirous of ascertaining whether any of our public schools possess any libraries for the general reading of the scholars, in which I do not include mere school-books of Latin, Greek, &c., which, I presume, they all possess, but such as travels, biographies, &c.

Boys fresh from these schools appear generally to know nothing of general reading, and from the slight information I have, I fear there is nothing in the way of a library in any of them. If not, it is, I should think, a very melancholy fact, and one that deserves a little attention: but if any of your obliging correspondents can tell me what public school possesses such a thing, and the facilities allowed for reading in the school, I shall take it as a favour.

Weld Taylor.

Queen Elizabeth and her "true" Looking-glass.—An anecdote is current of Queen Elizabeth having in her later days, if not during her last illness, called for a true looking-glass, having for a long time previously made use of one that was in some manner purposely falsified.

What is the original source of the story? or at least what is the authority to which its circulation is mainly due? An answer from some of your correspondents to one or other of these questions would greatly oblige

Veronica.

Bishop Thomas Wilson.—In Thoresby's Diary, A.D. 1720, April 17 (vol. ii. p. 289.), is the following entry:

"Easter Sunday ... after evening prayers supped at cousin Wilson's with the Bishop of Man's son."

Was there any relationship, and what, between this "cousin Wilson," and the bishop's son, Dr. Thomas Wilson? I should be glad of any information bearing on any or on all these subjects.

William Denton.

Bishop Wilson's Works.—The Rev. John Keble, Hursley, near Winchester, being engaged in writing the life and editing the works of Bishop Wilson (Sodor and Man), would feel obliged by the communication of any letters, sermons, or other writings of the bishop, or by reference to any incidents not to be found in printed accounts of his life.

Hobbes, Portrait of.—In the Memoirs of T. Hobbes, it is stated that a portrait of him was painted in 1669 for Cosmo de Medici.

I have a fine half-length portrait of him, on the back of which is the following inscription:

Is this painter the same as John Wycke, who died in 1702, but who is not, I think, known as a portrait painter?

Can any of your readers inform me whether a portrait of Hobbes is now in the galleries at Florence, and, if so, by whom it was painted? It is possible that mine is a duplicate of the picture which was painted for the Grand Duke.

W. C. Trevelyan.