348 norns AND Qunluns. _[9"*8.VLNov.3,lHlL V rounded by fleurs-de-lis: another . ieco has the emblem of Louis XII., the ehog, bearin on its back a crown, also with fleurs- de-lis ghout it; a third Execs has two shields with arms unknown to t e writer, and aboys a coronet. Is it likely that if the royal go or silver plate were pledged either for a ransom or (as in the time of Louis XIV.) offered to replenish an exchequer drained by war, pewter plate should have been _sub- stituted for it? Or was such plate highly esteemed in the reigns of those kings w_1ose badges appear upon some of that in question? Finally, is it not very unusual to find in good preservation pewter plate of the dates of these kings; and are not therefore the pieces mentioned of proportionate mterest and value? e C. Corruoas. The Lodge, Yarpole, Leominster. 50%For "Pewter and its Marks] see 9* S. iv. 458, , 526; V. 1l4.] . Moms Canto AND Rounsrrn-Wanted a list of books, En lish or French, on the game of roulette as riayed at Monte Carlo- A._ G, P. [In the ‘ English Catalogue of Books’ (1890-7), and the same record for 1898 (Sampson Loy). YOU will find some books indexed nnder Monte Carlo. ‘The Gambling World’ SHutc'h son, 1898), by Rouge et Nair, is one of the atest.] ~ . ` ‘In ME¥0BIAM.'- ~ < Forgive these weak and wandering cries, Confusions of a wasted youth, &c. Will any _one at home in ‘In Memoriam’ kindly "give me his interpretation of the line in italics? _ Z. Y. X. [gt must not be forgotten that, though only pub- lis ed in l&50, ‘In Memoriam’ ranges in its com- position over some seventeenyears which to the world might well seem wasted in elaborating one elegy. A End commentary on a_poet’s Eout-h is the avowal of eats in the introduction to ‘ ndymon’: “The imagination of a boy is healthy, and the mature imsfination of a man is_healthy; but there is a space o i-life between, in which the soul is in a ferment, the character undecided, the way of hfe uncertain, the ambition thick-sighted.” Poems like ‘-The Two Voices’ show Tennyson’s _youth to have been stormy, and his deep depression at times is well known.] ' CRAC_K-NUT SUNDAY.-T-TDC following ap- pearedin the East Anglzan Star on '22 Sept. : “To-morrow, being the Sunday next before St. Michael’s Day, is what down to a hundred years ago in some parts was called ‘ Crack-nut’ Sunday. Antiquarians appear to be ,unable to show the onginof a practice which used to be carried on in churches-the strange and irreverent custom of cracking the shells and catinghthe kernels of nuts saying any divine service eld shortly before Mjchaehnas Uliver Goldsmith makes his Vicar of Wakeueld say, in the fourth chapter, ‘ They religiously cracked nutson Miehaelmas Eve( and it wou d have added much to theinterest of the incident had the authorgtoldus why they did it.” ~ Further information will he of service. A., s. T. Halesworth. Drrro 0R_ DITTY.-Cant any reader of ‘N. & Q.’ kindly tell me the ori in of the North of Ireland family name og Dittu or Ditty? Is it of Huguenot extraction, and could it have been Ditteaux? ' Wu. J season Prcorr. Dundrum, eo. Down. M SHAKF.8PEARE'8 ‘ SoNNs'rs,’ Pamr 1609.- Mr. Lee calls this book “pirated”; see the index to his comprehensive biogiaphy of the poet, p. 447, and at p. 361 of the rge reprint. s not this verdict a little “previous”‘¢ In this connexion it seems, therefore, desirable to call special attention to Sonnet cxxvi., which concludes the so-called ,male series, describing the hero as a “lovely bo ” who has “by waning grown.” It is .clearly of a supplementary c aracter, pointing to the ravages of time, so I venture to call it a, valedictory envoi, written specially te authenticate the poems as “ Shake-Speere’s” Sonnets. We see that the Adonis, or “sweet boy,” of Sonnet cviii. is no lon er young; then say 1609- 1593=16+19, so ahout thirty- five years of age, or the half of our allotted term of threescore fyears and ten. How otherwise can this orm of expression he ex§lained'l ` A. Ham. ishbury. N. “ Psarnor,” “ Pnarrsnf’ on “ Pn.n>on,° chrysolite, a precious stone, but not one of the first class. I remember seein quoted in the Saturday/ Magagine when lg 'was a boy the couplet i Who two Peridots doth own ` More than needful hath by one. Can any one give 'me the original reference and that to the magazine? J ._ T. F. Winterton, Doncaster. _ ` “Casrar LIONTISEMI.”-I have a circular bronze seal, the device in centre of which is a castle with three lofty towers. The inscrip- tion round the seal is in Gothic letters and reads “ S. 'Comunis Castri Montisemi.” I should be very glad to know what place this is. W. H. Parrnasox. Belfast. M .mann Sowlsas AND Msnsmxnssa Mozrn. May_I ask for an explanation of the frequent entries under this head in parish and church- wardens’ accounts tmnizz. Charles 11,1 an
