A. STEPHENS DYER. A SAYING OF LIONARDO'S (cliii. 480). bottle with perforated top, for sand Lionardo may have said this, but he equivalent. certainly did not originate the saying, which was already many hundred years old. Xenophon, Memorabilia,' II. i. 20, puts in Socrates's mouth the trochaic line of Epicharmus (5th century B.C.), 207, Kingston Road, Teddington, Middx. [Several correspondents have kindly referred us back to cxlvi, 399, 422, 437, 477; cxlvii. 36, for information on blotting-paper. The third reference is the fullest.] HOSPITALITY IN POETRY AND STORY (cliii. 479). Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-1907), poet and prose-writer, of the United States, wrote a poem on Hospitality.' H. ASKEW. 6 ROCK-BORING ORGANISMS (cliii. 461; cliv. 15). will give your correspondent all the informaAny text-book on mollusca tion he requires. All the Pholadidae borethe name Pholas saxicava is significant. Fossil wood bored by the mis-named shipWorm Teredo navalis (which is a mollusc) is not uncommon. Dr. W. T. Calman, F.R.S., Keeper of Zoology at the Natural History Museum, has made a special study of these organisms. I EDWARD HERON-ALLEN. (cliii. 459). Blotting paper is mentioned, as such, in Horman's Vulgaria, in 1519, but sand is still used in offices (especially booking offices) on the continent (especially in Italy) at the present day. bought a nice little porcelain sand-castor in Italy last spring. EDWARD HERON-ALLEN. At the age of 67 early childhood's recollections call back to vivid remembrance the butcher who stooped to his sawdusted floor to sprinkle the ink-wet receipt for money taken in payment of his weekly account by my mother, and of watching the elapse of the few seconds to allow of absorption," and then the puff of breath to clear, or even the hand passed over, leaving a smear after all; a like process took place at the poulterer's, where the flour sprinkler or puff (used for "basting" the plucked poultry before sending home) answered to exactly the same operation. At this time blotting paper was obviously not in use in the shop "counting-house" of that day trader. WOLFE'S FUNERAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE': FRENCH VERSION WANTED (cliii. 404, 445).-May I correct a slip in my reply at p. 446? The Mémoire de Lally-Tollendal,' published in 1690, is a political pamphlet, written by the younger Lally, and has nothing to do with his father's campaign in India. The elder Lally published no Mémoires,' and his official reports to the French Government were never made public. See Preface to La fin d'un empire français aux Indes: Lally-Tollendal d'après des documents inédits,' by Tibulle Hamont (Paris, 1887). C. W. FIREBRACE. The Library. England and America, Rivals in the American THIS IIS is a third edition of the work first produced in 1913; produced again with additions in 1923, and now brought up to 1927, as the author says, largely in the work of an eye-witness since he has been living in Athens for the past four years. The summary in Chapt. xxii. of the history of the Greek, Turkish and Albanian republics from 1923 to 1927, sets out skilfully and authoritatively, with a wonderful amount of detail in short space, a complicated situation which has not as yet taken on any character of solid finality, and Mr. Miller closes with reasonable warning against an unjust severity towards "these races of the Balkan peninsula [who] have stepped straight out of the middle ages," and with wonder that they have achieved what they have in comparatively so short a time. As he says, it will be a happy day when for the Balkan peoples their past history counts less than their future De Quincey. Selections edited by M. R. MR. Ridley, prefixes to the Selections Leslie Printed and Published by The Bucks Free introduction stands very well beside these. Apart from his positive excellences De Quincey reveals to us, better we think than any of his contemporaries, not only the differences in ideals and methods between the writers of his day and our own, but also the often noticed difference between the public he had to appeal to and the modern public. The English Mailcoach' in the long-drawn Vision of Sudden is the most striking example of this. Milton Papers. By David H. Stevens, (University of Chicago Press. 10s. net). Death HE first of these papers discusses certain Real Estate Transactions of John Milton and his father, recorded in the Close Rolls for 1619 to 1629. These are interesting as illus- THE seventh series of these "old stories lisle retold" in the columns of the Cumberland News treats at some length of the siege of Car- found we have our versions. NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. APPROVED Queries are inserted free of charge. 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Orders for back numbers, indexes and bound volumes should be sent either to London or to Wycombe; letters for the Editor to the London Office. Memorabilia. IN the Journal of the Ministry of Agricul ture, Mr. J. R. Bond, reviewing 1927 tells us that its crop-yields have proved to be not very different from the 10-year averages-a better result than was at one time expected. Corn yields, in fact, are actually above the average. Quality, however, leaves much to be desired; profit has been curtailed by the expense of additional labour in harvesting, and the wet land has deteriorated both in cleanliness and in physical condition. It seems that deterioration of grassland where drainage is defective is occasioning many inquiries to be made concerning the practicability of mole draining. An interesting topic touched on by Mr, Bond is the increased use of tractors which he has observed, in a recent visit, in certain arable districts of Germany. These are taking the place of steam tackle. Still, an English arable farmer, who accompanied Mr. Bond, expressed the conviction that the steam tackle engine had possibilities which have not been sufficiently worked out; and that the requisite power could be concentrated in an engine of less than half the weight of the ordinary ploughing unit, and would, with adoption of the latest principles of boiler construction and engine design, furnish all that the farmer wanted whether for cable ploughing or for direct haulage work. In Germany they are showing preference for the caterpillar type of tractor, having overcome the difficulty of the expensive repairing or renewing of the track. The most interesting notes on foreign agriculture are, however, those supplied by Mr. H. V. Taylor on the fruit and vegetable growing of the Rhone valley. At Vienne the trees in the fruit plantations are set so closely that all the tillage work has to be done by hand, "necessitating a steady daily toil from sunrise to sunset for the peasant and his family.' It is mentioned that one plantation, owned by a merchant, was tilled by the paid labour of factory hands, who, to add to their earnings, after the normal eight hours in the factories, worked four more hours a day in the plantations. The growers do not sell their produce in distant markets, but turn it over to wholesale merchants, by whom it is graded, packed and exported. South of Vienne and Tain is described a valley of lucerne, wheat, and mangolds in which goats and oxen were grazing tethered. Tethering is necessary, because here are no hedges or fences and a stranger cannot discern where lie the boundaries of the respective farms. Southward again, about Avignon, there is the interesting system of irrigation, in some places conducted by water companies, but in others contrived and worked by the peasant himself. Here the north wind is so strong that plants often have to be provided with shelter, which takes the form now of long single rows of cypress trees, now of hedges of tall canes, which, for melons or tomatoes or aubergines, are raised to a height of 9ft. Thus the vegetable farms are split up by windbreaks into very tiny fields. The growers, owning the land they till-mostly through inheritance-and being thus free from rent and charges, and providing the needful labour from within their family enjoy a happy lot, carrying on the business of cultivation and marketing very much as their fathers did before them. THE January number of the Antiquaries' Journal sets off with Mr. C. Leonard Woolley's lavishly illustrated account of the Excavations at Ur during 1926-7, being the second portion of his report; the first portion appeared at p. 385 of vol. vii. His conclusions, as most of our readers probably know, point to a state of Sumerian civilization in 3500 B.C. which implies a long antecedent period of ever higher development, and, while it contrasts with the contemporary barbarism of Egypt, throws the origin of the arts centuries deeper into pre-history than we have been wont to place it, as well as removing it from the Nile Valley. A very interesting paper, lavishly illustrated also, is that by Mr. W. L. Hildburgh, entitled 'Some unusual Medieval English Alabaster Carvings.' most beautiful-to judge by the photograph→ The |