Jeddart-Staves.-P. 368, 1. 8, (bottom).

The old-fashioned weapon called the Jeddart staff was a species of battle-axe. Of a very great tempest, it is said in the south of Scotland, that it rains Jeddart staffs, as in England the common people talk of its raining cats and dogs.

LADY LAKE. P. 369, l. 11.

Whether out of a meddling propensity common to all who have a gossiping disposition, or from the love of justice, which ought to make part of a prince's character, James was very fond of enquiring personally into the causes célébres which occurred during his reign. In the imposture of the Boy of Bilson, who pretended to be possessed, and of one Richard Haydock, a poor scholar, who pretended to preach during his sleep, the King, to use the historian Wilson's expression, took delight in sounding with the line of his understanding the depth of these brutish impositions, and in doing so showed the acuteness with which he was endowed by Nature. Lady Lake's story consisted in a clamorous complaint against the Countess of Exeter, whom she accused of a purpose to put to death Lady Lake herself, and her daughter, Lady Ross, the wife of the Countess's own son-in-law, Lord Ross; and a forged letter was produced, in which Lady Exeter was made to acknowledge such a purpose. account given of the occasion of obtaining this letter was, that it had been written by the Countess at Wimbledon, in presence of Lady Lake and her daughter, Lady Ross, being designed to procure their forgiveness for her mischievous intention. The King remained still

The

unsatisfied, the writing, in his opinion, bearing strong marks of forgery. Lady Lake and her daughter then alleged, that, besides their own attestation, and that of a confidential domestic, named Diego, in whose presence Lady Exeter had written the confession, their story might also be supported by the oath of their waiting-maid, who had been placed behind the hangings at the time the letter was written, and heard the Countess of Exeter read over the confession after she had signed it. Determined to be at the bottom of this accusation, James, while hunting one day near Wimbledon, the scene of the alleged confession, suddenly left his sport, and galloping hastily to Wimbledon, in order to examine personally the room, discovered, from the size of the apartment, that the alleged conversation could not have taken place in the manner sworn to; and that the tapestry of the chamber, which had remained in the same state for thirty years, was too short by two feet, and, therefore, could not have concealed any one behind it. This matter was accounted an exclusive discovery of the King by his own spirit of shrewd investigation. The parties were punished in the Star Chamber by fine and imprisonment.

NOVELS AND ROMANCES. VOL. V.

THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL.

MILITARY EXERCISE.-P. 13, 1. 9.

Clarendon remarks, that the importance of the military exercise of the citizens was severely felt by the cavaliers during the civil war, notwithstanding the ridicule that had been showered upon it by the dramatic poets of the day. Nothing less than habitual practice could, at the battle of Newbury and elsewhere, have enabled the Londoners to keep their ranks as pikemen, in spite of the repeated charge of the fiery Prince Rupert and his gallant cavaliers.

THE DUKE OF EXETER'S DAUGHTER.-P. 14, 1. 19. A particular species of rack, used at the Tower of London, was so called.

"THE MAN SITS FULL STILL THAT HAS A RENT IN HIS BREEKS."-P. 18, 1. 12.

This elegant speech was made by the Earl of Douglau, called Tineman, after being wounded and made prisoner at the battle of Shrewsbury, where

"His well labouring sword

Had three times slain the semblance of the King."

PENNY-WEDDING.-P. 44, 1. 22.

The penny-wedding of the Scots, now disused even among the lowest ranks, was a peculiar species of merrymaking, at which, if the wedded pair were popular, the guests who convened, contributed considerable sums under pretence of paying for the bridal festivity, but in reality to set the married folk afloat in the world.