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NOTES AND QUERIES. [0 th s. xn. DEC. 19, 1903.

of the boys' school. That is close upon half a century ago, and, moreover, they were in use on the pulpit, reading-desk, and clerks rostrum. The Rev. Samuel Smith, M.A., was then the vicar, he having gone there in 1832, and remained in charge of that parish for fifty-three years, going to Kingsdown, near Farningham, Kent, in 1885. Cushions were, until its restoration in 1878, in use at JSt. Margaret's, Westminster, after which time they were banished, a great gain to cleanliness being the result when the late Dr. Farrar decided against their continuance. When he advocated the restoration of the church, I remember distinctly that among the illustrations he used to advance and emphasize his arguments was the dirty state of the pulpit cushion.

W. E. HARLAND-OXLEY. C2, The Almshouses, Rochester Row, S.W.

I perfectly understand MR. ANGUS. He says : " I prefer a book-rest, as the cushion is too low, and the book has a tendency to slip from the soft cushion."

I submit that "lowriess" and "softness" are not essential characteristics of " a padded support" i.e., of a cushion; and that the "book-rest," padded with its veil, which he prefers, is a "cushion" (within the meaning of the word) equally with the bulging and flabby naccidities which he contemns.

FREDERICK WILLIAM ROLFE.

In * The Deformation and the Reformation,' a series of ten plates with explanatory letter- press, published by A. R. Mowbray, Oxford, and at 65, Farringdon Street, London, E.G., there is distinctly seen at plate viii., 'Con- firmation the Deformation,' a cushion with a book on it at the south end of the altar ; the north end of the table is hidden by the figure of the bishop, who is in the act of administering the rite.

F. E. R. POLLARD-URQUHART.

Castle Pollard, Westtneath.

NUMERALS (9 th S. xii. 387). In Archceologia, vol. x. p. 360, there is a paper on Arabic numerals by the Rev. George North, which contains references to various treatises on the subject, one of which may possibly con- tain the information of which COL. RIVETT- CARNAC is in search. MATILDA POLLARD.

Belle Vue, Bengeo.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, 1640 (9 th S. xii. 408). An engraving of the Houses of Lords and Commons as they appeared at about the time indicated fronts the title-page of

"An Exact Collection of all Remonstrances,

Declarations, Votes, Orders beginning: at his

Majesties return from Scotland, being in December

1641 and continued untill March the 21, 1643

London, Printed for Edward Husbands, T. Warren, R. Best, and are to be sold at^ the Middle Temple, Grays Inne Gate, and the White Horse in Pauls Churchyard. 1643."

EDWARD PEACOCK.

" HARK ! HARK ! THE DOGS DO BARK " (9 th S.- xii. 387). This jingle is enshrined under the heading 'Relics' in Halliwell's 4 Nursery Rhymes of England,' p. 306 ; but there the beggars are coming, " Some in jags and some in rags," as I fancy they did in a collection of verses which amused me when I was small, and which disappeared from human ken after it had solaced me in so-called scarlatina. I used to be troubled by the word "jags," and do not recollect that its mean- ing was ever satisfactorily explained to the inquiring infant. From present consultation of the 'H.E.D.' I conclude that 4l jags" is indicative of the antiquity of the lines to which our attention is called. ST. SWITHIN.

Has MR. LANG forgotten that so recently as 9 th S. v. 216, MR. KING reported that in 'Aunt Judy's May-Day Volume for Young People,' by Mrs. Alfred Gatty, London, 1869, there were fourteen pages of letterpress on this nursery rime ? EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

Popular Ballads of the Olden Time. Selected and

edited by Frank Sidgwick. (Bullen.) WE have here the first series, consisting of ' Ballads of Romance and Chivalry,' of what bids fair to be a representative and satisfactory collection of old ballads. Such is sure of a welcome. The student counts among his most precious possessions ' The English and Scottish Ballads' or Francis James- Child, and has probably on his shelves the reprints of the Bagford, the Roxburgh, and other series executed for the Ballad Society by Chappell and Ebsworth, together with, presumably, the ' Percy MSS.,' edited by Hales and Furnivall, or at least the ' Reliques.' There is room, however, for a popu- lar collection edited with taste and making some approach to completeness. Of such the first volume is issued, under the editorship of Mr. Sidgwick, and directed by the fine taste of Mr. Bullen. In how many volumes this will be we know not pro- bably some half-dozen. It will certainly, if carried out as it is begun, constitute a boon to the lover of poetry. Some forty ballads of romance and chivalry, including ' (Tlasgerion,' ' Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard,' ' Child Waters,' ' Lord Lovel,' ' The Nut-brown Maid,' ' The Boy and the Mantle/ ' Barbara Allan,' ' The Twa Sisters o' Binnorie/ &c., are given in a text which is at once accurate and readable, and is, moreover, free from any species of bowdlerization. That the book is pub- lished by Mr. Bullen is a guarantee for the last- named requisite. A serviceable and illuminatory introduction, a table of first lines, and glossarial