Epitaph from Stalbridge.—The following epitaph from the churchyard of Stalbridge, Dorsetshire, may perhaps be thought worthy of preservation, if it be not a hackneyed one:

C. W. B.

Curious Extracts.—Dean Nowell—Bottled Beer.—I was somewhat hasty in assuming (see Vol. vii., p. 135.) that bottled beer was an unknown department in early times, as the following extract will show. It is from Fuller's Worthies of England, under "Lancashire," the subject of the notice being no less a person than the grave divine Alexander Nowell, dean of St. Paul's, author of the Catechism, whose fondness for angling is also commemorated by Izaak Walton. Fuller, having noticed the narrow escape which Nowell had from arrest by some of Bishop Bonner's emissaries in Queen Mary's reign, having had a hint to fly whilst fishing in the Thames, "whilst Nowell was catching of fishes, Bonner was catching of Nowell," proceeds to say,—

"Without offence it may be remembered that, leaving a bottle of ale, when fishing, in the grass, he found it some days after no bottle, but a gun, such the sound at the opening thereof: and this is believed (casualty is the mother of more inventions than industry^[1]) the original of bottled ale in England."—Nuttall's edit., vol. ii. p. 205.

Balliolensis.

A Collection of Sentences out of some of the Writings of the Lord Bacon (i. 422. edit. Montagu), with the ensuing exceptions, is taken out of the Essays, and in regular order:

No. 1. p. 33. of the same volume.
No. 2. p. 21.
No. 3. p. 5.
No. 4. p. 8.
No. 51. My reference is illegible: the words are,—"Men seem neither well to understand their riches nor their strength: of the former they believe greater things than they should; and of the latter, much less. And from hence, certain fatal pillars have bounded the progress of learning."
No. 68. pp. 173. 272. 321.
No. 69. p. 185.
No. 70. p. 176.
No. 71. Vol. vi., p. 172. The Charge of Owen, &c.
Nos. 72, 73. Vol. vii., p. 261. The Speech before the Summer Circuits, 1617.

S. Z. Z. S.

Law and Usage.—In The Times of September 1, the Turkish correspondent writes as follows:

"Mahmoud Pasha declared in the Divan of the 17th that 'he would divorce his wife, but would not advise a dishonourable peace with Russia.' This is an expression of the strongest kind in use amongst the Turks."

It is worth a Note that, in spite of polygamy and divorce, a common proverb is monogamic, and divorce is spoken of as the greatest of unlikelihoods.

M.

ManichÆan Games.—Take any game played by two persons, such as draughts, and let the play be as follows: each plays his best for himself, and follows it by playing the worst he can for the other. Thus, when it is the turn of the white to play, he first plays the white as well as he can; and then the black as badly (for the other player) as he can. The black then does the best he can with the black, and follows it by the worst he can do for the white. Of course, by separating the good and evil principles, four persons might play.

M.

Bohn's Hoveden.—By way of expressing my sense of obligation to Mr. Bohn and his editors for the Antiquarian Library, perhaps you will suffer me to point out what appears to be an inaccuracy in the translation of Roger de Hoveden's Annals? At p. 123. of vol. ii., the word Suuelle (as it appears to stand in the original text) is translated into Swale: but surely no other place is here meant than the church of St. Mary's at Southwell^[2] (or Suthwell, Sudwell, Suwell, or Suell, as variously spelt, but never Swale), in Nottinghamshire.

I would also notice a trifling error (perhaps only a misprint) at p. 125.; where we are informed in a note, that the Galilee of Durham Cathedral is at the east end, whereas its real position is at the west.

J. Sansom.

Oxford.

Milton at Eyford House, Gloster.—In the British Museum (says Wilson in his description of Christ's College, Cambridge) is the original proclamation for Milton's appearance after the Restoration. Where was he secreted? I find this note in my book:—At Eyford House, Gloucestershire, within two miles of Stow-on-the-Wold, on the road to Cheltenham, a spring of beautiful water is called "Milton's Well," running into a tributary of the Thames. The old house, &c., at the time would be out of the way of common information.

P. J.