not, of course, the first to perceive the value necessarily protracted, and therefore less of the collection of these statistics. Writers popular than those giving more rapid on the scarcity and high price of provisions results. Again, the farmer is occupied had been making the suggestion for nearly with his farm, and is living in comparative a hundred years before he wrote, and at isolation, although in a locality with the the date of his essay efforts were being made features of which he is only too familiar. to formulate a system. But seventy years He certainly gets about more to-day than had passed since England had become a corn he did seventy years ago, but he did not importing country, and it was becoming then, nor before that time, figure much as rapidly more imperative that we should a traveller, nor did he achieve the mental know just how our land was employed and agility of the spick and spry townsman. what was the aggregate of our production His mind developed along quite other and of foodstuffs. The inclosure movement was quite possibly more valuable lines, although almost complete, and there was a constant it did not readily accept unorthodox suggesinfringement upon the margin of cultiva- tion. The mere etymology of the words tion, around which, of course, there was urbanity and rusticity seems to convey the constant change dictated by fluctuations of whole argument." price and so on. Hoskyns suggests that it was more imperative than ever that statistics should be collected. It being no longer possible to inclose waste lands and cultivate them, improvements in cultivation must of necessity be made, if the output were to be increased. He regrets that the Royal Agricultural Society had not made the collection of agricultural statistics one of its first preoccupations. It would, in his opinion, have been a most appropriate activity for that body, and it would have been a comparatively simple task for it, since its members were numerous, of high estimation in the farming world, and living in places scattered throughout the country. As an example of the necessity for accurate knowledge of agricultural production Hoskyns cites some of the widely diverse estimates of the eighteenth century, upon which were based some of the most optimistic and some of the most pessimistic speculations of the time. The collection of statistics would not only have been of service to the Government in solving some of its most difficult problems, but would also have placed in the hands of traders information of the greatest value to them, and, last, but not least, it would have enabled the farmers themselves to judge the probability of events, and future fluctuations of markets and prices, so that they might have had some reliable guide to direct their activities. And doubtless the use of this information would have given an impetus to the spread of agricultural knowledge, which could be derived from no other source. As Hoskyns repeatedly says agricultural knowledge is very slowly accumulated. For one thing experiments in agriculture are Something of this sort was the attitude of mind of Hoskyns's neighbours when he came amongst them with his devastating new ideas. He endeavoured to meet humorous contempt with equal good humour, and how he succeeded is told in Talpa and others of his writings. A particularly interesting part of his work is the description of how, when he had, to some extent, overborne opposition by the force of the success which attended his methods, he tried to get a neighbour to understand his theories of rotary cultivation as the proper application of power to agricultural operations. His theories were evidently received with some respect, as Dan. Pigeon, writing on The Evolution of Agricultural Implements' in the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal for 1892, condemns them as having been a drag on the introduction of steam ploughing. This writer cites the efforts of Romaine, Usher, Boydell and others to prove that steam tillage should be carried out by selfmoving engines, drawing either ploughs or rotary tillers behind them. He says also that large sums of money were spent on experiments to prove that this system was not practicable, before haulage by cable was finally adopted as the true type of steam cultivation. Steam digging machines had long been seen at the agricultural shows, but had not then achieved any great popularity. The theory, which Pigeon considered so great a drawback is, however, likely to come into its own now that the tractor driven by internal combustion has become so universal, and if Hoskyns could have foreseen the invention of this engine he would, no doubt, have confirmed himself in his theories. Those writers who supported the self-moving engines, and who are said to have been influenced by his clever writings, have certainly been justified. Perhaps it is only a question of time before Hoskyns's theories of rotary cultivation also shall be justified. It is clear that there are practical machines now on the market, which will do this work, although some objections against them are still advanced. The essence of Hoskyns's theory was that it was not at all essential for the cultivation of the soil to use draught, that the traction of the implements was not necessary. Indeed he felt that the idea of the plough was antagonistic to the application of steam power to the operations of tillage. The principle of the flail was abandoned when the threshing-machine was invented, because the inventor found that the use of a number of flails on a wheel only broke the flails, and exerted too much force for the necessities of the case. The extension of the area cultivated by an individual and the taming of the horse were the causes of the invention of the plough. In essence its design is founded upon the necessities of animal draught, just as the design of the spade is involved in the most forcible power that can be exerted manually. Design of implements always should depend upon the power which is to move them. Consequently man, whose greatest force can be exerted vertically on account of the angle of his backbone, uses a spade. A horse or an ox, whose backbone is horizontal, can exert greater force in draught: it cannot work vertically. Thus the spade was abandoned for the plough in the broader areas of tillage, which it became possible to cultivate with the employment of animal power. The steam engine has no backbone, and its greatest power is exerted in a rotary movement. If it is to be applied to cultivation, it should therefore dig by a revolving implement, and should not be adapted to the implement which was designed to meet the exigencies of animal draught: those who use it in this way are as usefully employed as they would be in trying to make a horse use a spade, and, moreover turning a furrow is only a preliminary to the real work of cultivation, which is done by the "ancient tribe of harrows, scufflers, rollers and clodcrushers." All the work of all these implements can, Hoskyns maintains, be done at one operation by means of revolving toothed digger, working on the principal of the circular saw, and reducing the soil to a tilth fine as sawdust, if necessary. Such implements are now on the market, only sixty or seventy years after he wrote, and are to be used with a traction such as he did not know, and could perhaps hardly visualise. There are objections to their use for some purposes, but these will probably be overcome, as such difficulties are usually surmounted. Here again, as in other directions, Hoskyns, in spite of Pigeon's discontent, may be finally justified, and it is perhaps not inappropriate at this time to make a small tribute to the foresight and charity with which he sustained his theories against opposition of the most stubborn kind. The following is a short bibliography of Hoskyns's writings : Annual Addresses delivered before the Warwickshire Natural History and Archaeological Society.' 1848. A short enquiry into the History of Agriculture in Ancient and modern times.' 1849. 1852. Talpa, or the chronicles of a clay farm.' 'Agricultural Statistics.' R. A.S. E. Journal 1st Series xvi. 1857. Reprinted separately. On ridge and furrow land and a method of levelling it.' R.A.S.E. Journal 1st Series xvii. 1858. 'Report on the exhibition and trial of implements at the Salisbury meeting.' R.A.S.E. Journal 1st Series xviii. 1859. The Battle Line of History.' Lecture at Leominster. 1864. CARLYLE AND DICKENS.-In Memorials of Albert Venn Dicey,' 1925, p. 213, Mr. Dicey, in a letter dated Sept. 21, 1911, wrote:: One thing very much impressed me in Gissing's quotation from Carlyle-" The good, the gentle, highly gifted, ever-friendly Dickensevery inch of him an honest man. Where do they occur? They are the finest I ever read. Allow that Carlyle may have been biased by friendship, still they are tremenknown him well. It is a happiness to believe dously strong words. Carlyle must have that the words are true. sinister gauntlets or [Fane or Vane]. Impaling Az., on a cross between four eagles displayed arg., a cross-pattée gu Crests: 1, A Dolphin haurient arg. 2, A griffin's head erased arg., ducally gorged or. Motto: Esto quod esse videris. are By whom was this shield borne, and by what particular alliances was the complete coat effected? The 1st and 6th quarterings appertain to Smyth of Upton, Essex, Bt., whose crest, however, is an ostrich's head, the dolphin crest being borne by quite a different family-that of Smythe of Braco and Methuen Castle, Scotland. The 2nd quartering, second crest and motto Watson of Rockingham and of Fulmer (Bt.); the 3rd quartering would appear to be of other branches of Fane or Vañe than that of Westmorland, which bore the gauntlets dexter. Regarding the impalement: Papworth gives these arms (without the cross pattée) as borne by Ward or Warde of Gorleston and Homesfield, Suffolk, granted 1593,, and by Fennor. Burke's General Armory.' (1842) assigns the same to Fenner and gives also" Fenner (Middlesex), Vert, a cross arg. charged with a cross formée gu. betw. four eagles displ. of the second. Crest-an eagle displ. arg. membered or." (Formée " of course = "" pattée or formée pattée "). R. BINGHAM ADAMS. DEAF AND DUMB MARRIAGES.—The marriage registers of St. Martin's, Leicester, contains the record of the marriage, in 1576, of Thomas Tilsey and Ursula Russell the first of whom was described as "deafe and also dumbe." By arrangement with the bishops, mayor, and others certain signs and actions by the bridegroom were allowed instead of the usual words of the marriage ceremony. The nuptials were celebrated thus: First he embraced her with his armes, and took her by the hande, put a ringe upon her finger, and laid his hande upon his harte, and upon her harte, and held his handes towards heaven; and to show his continuance to dwell with her to his lyves end, he did it by closing of his eyes with his handes, and diggine out the earthe with his fete, and pullinge as though he would ringe a bell, with divers other signes approved. Was a ceremony of this kind carried out. elsewhere? H. ASKEW. SWORD A CENTURY AGO.-The Evening Standard of July 6, 1827, describes how George Warner, for colouring base coin, was executed that morning in front of Debtor's Door, Newgate. It states that he was drawn on a hurdle from the entrance door of the prison to the scaffold, the executioner sitting before him with a drawn sword, and the Warner was after THE EXECUTIONER'S clergyman beside him. man wards hung, together with another guilty of burglary. What was the meaning of the presence of the sword in Warner's case, and when did this custom cease? J. LANDFEAR LUCAS. 101, Piccadilly.. on the Grin DEDICATIONS OF SUSSEX CHURCHES I should be glad if some Sussex archaeologist could throw light reasons for the dedication of the following churches in Sussex under the invocations of their respective saints:-Arlington and Kingston of St. Pancras; East stead, St. Swithun; Hangleton, St. Helen; Hastings, St. Clement; Keymer, SS. Cosmas and Damian; Ovingdean, St. Wulfran; and Rotherfield, St. Denys. For a somewhat large proportion of churches in this county no dedication seems to be known. PEREGRINUS. ARCHIBALD BRUCE, fl. 1727 (see 11 S. ii. 227; x. 9).-Concerning Archibald Bruce, surgeon, R. N., whose will was proved in 1729, in the Consistory Court of Rochester, Kent (giving all to wife Jane; no other H. F. THE DEATH OF GENERAL WOLFE.' -In Professor Firth's American Garland' one of the best items is a ballad with the above title beginning "Bold General Wolfe to his men did say.' It contains the curious line I see them falling like moths in the sun on which the editor observes that "moths", must be a misprint for motes, a mistake which occurs in all versions known to him. He prints Pitt's version, and mentions one printed by Disley. What others are known? Has any reader heard this ballad sung? I should be glad to know of any one who now sings it. F. E. R. BUSHER (BOSHERS, i.e., LE BUSSCHER FAMILY).-John Busher was appointed locksmith on the Crown Estate at Windsor by H.R.H. Prince Consort in 1844, and buried at Old Windsor May 6, 1882. A John Busher who appears in the Poll list of 1837 as holding property at Herne was probably his father. Can any reader give birth date of the locksmith or any early particulars of this family? Replies. PUBLIC WAY THROUGH OR UNDER CHURCHES. (clii. 352, 394, 413, 429, 447, 466; cliii. 30.) I HAVE just come back from the fêtes in celebration of the 900th anniversary of the birth of William the Conqueror. When visiting the church at Falaise, I noticed a public passage under the choir, which the Frenchman with me thought to be very unusual if not unique. CLOUDESLEY BRERETON. The following statements in Icelandic literature have a material bearing on this question: 1. Asmund dwelt in Langholt, at Thoratofts; he had for wife Thora, of Langholt. Then Asmund as he grew old dwelt at Oxl, but Thora dwelt thereafter [at Langholt] and had her hall [skáli] built right across the high road, and there she sat upon a stool, and invited as guests there whoever would eat meat. Asmund was buried in Asmunds-how, and laid in his ship, and his slave was laid beside him.". Landnama-bóc,' ii. 6. 2. There was a man named Thorbrand Orrek who settled land up from Bolstead river all Silversteadslope and all Northriver-dale on the northern side, and dwelt at Thorbrandstead, and there he caused to be made so great a hall (eld-hús) that all men who passed on that side of the river might take through it their horses with their loads, and there should meat be welcome to all men."-op. cit. iii. 8. She 3. "In the spring Geirrod gave his sister a homestead at Borgdale, when Thorolf [her son] went abroad upon a plundering expedition. Geirrid spared not meat to men. caused them to make her hall (skáli) right across the high road, and she sat upon a stool and invited guests in, and within a table stood ready, and meat upon it "-op. cit. ii. 13. A slightly different account is given in Eyrbyggja Saga,' c. viii. thus: In those days came out [to Iceland] Geirrid the sister of Geirrod of Ere, and he gave her an abode in Burgdale up from Swanfirth. She caused her hall (skáli) to be built across the high road, so that all men should ride through it who passed by. Therein stood a table with meat for anybody who desired it." Now we are told (clii. 466) that "at |