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no hing ; America, nothing. Or to state the ve; diet supplied by the list in another way, sin ;e the earliest mentioned of the English au hors is Shakespeare, we have in three hu id red years produced nearly twice as many bo* >ks of super-eminent merit as all the other na 1 ions of the world (Palestine excepted) since th( time when Homer sung the wrath of Ac lilies and the wanderings of Odysseus. Fo ir of these books are * Ivanhoe,' the * Pil- grim's Progress,' 'Robinson Crusoe/ and Car- lyla's 'French Revolution.' Plato, Horace, Petrarch, Tasso, Cervantes, and Victor Hugo find no place upon the list. And only a short time ago a noble marquis was complaining that there was never anything funny in the English newspapers. T. P. ARMSTRONG. Putney.

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- 'niation on family matters of only private interest jto affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct. _

LETTER OF KING JAMES VI. In that curious and interesting volume ' The Revenue of the Scottish Crown,' edited by D. Murray Rose (Blackwood), is printed (among other things relating to the poverty of King James) an [extraordinary letter from the king to the Clerk Register, wherein his Majesty pas- sionately remonstrates with his officials for neglect of duty and failure to keep appoint- ments. As there are no references in the 'volume, I would be obliged if any of your readers could help me as to the whereabouts of the original of this curious letter.

T. G.

I "SHAVING HAT." In 'The Case of Eliza- beth Canning ' (Fielding's ' Miscellanies ') that injured innocent is said to have had taken from her "one shaving hat, one stuff gown, and one linen apron which she had on." What is meant by the adjective applied to he first article ? HIPPOCLIDES.

OLD REGISTERS : How TO READ THEM. Is here any guide published which would help a. novice in deciphering old registers t Any nformation on this matter would be much

ppreciated. CONAN.

PORTRAIT OP LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR WALTER GILBERT, BART., G.C.B. Information is wanted of the whereabouts of an oil painting Lieut.-General Sir Walter Gilbert, Bart., j.C.B., painted by Capt. Atkinson, of the Bengal Engineers, dedicated to the H.E.I. Company. It was engraved by Lupton, and

published by Messrs. Atkinson, I believe, of Bond Street, between 1849 and 1853. It is not at the India Office, the National Portrait Gallery, Oriental Club, East India United Service Club, Government House, Calcutta, or in the Bengal Asiatic Society's collection. R. SHUBRICK.

DE CREON FAMILY. Could any of your readers favour me with the arms of the ancient family of De Creon or Credonia, and any account of the family itself ?

A. CRANE.

PEAT ON THE SOUTH DOWNS. What does the presence of peat betoken under the fol- lowing conditions? On the South Downs, about ten miles from the sea, on a hillside with a slope of about 75 to the south, in the midst of clay and sand land, there is an out- crop of peat about ten acres or so in extent. The peat is mixed with sand. The informa- tion is wanted for the purpose of deciding whether the presence of peat means a fault in the strata below, and coal at a less depth in consequence than at Dover.

R. SHUBRICK.

JOHN SHOVEL. Can any of your readers kindly give me information respecting John Shovel, mentioned by Charnock in his ' Biographia Navalis ' as captain of the Smyrna Factor in 1692, of the Duke in the following year, and of the Expedition in 1695? He died 1697. How is he supposed to be re- lated to Sir Cloudesley Shovel ; and what were his parents' Christian names ? A.

on the track of a little story bearing this name, which I read in an old scrap-book, and which must have appeared in a magazine about sixty years ago? It described the social misery caused by an excellent mistress who imagined that her personal intervention was necessary in all the details of the affairs of her household, and would not leave her servants to do their work on their own re- sponsibility. I remember that her grand dinner-party was a terrible fiasco. M. R.
 * MRS. NEWINGTON.' Can any one put me

THE MAGNETIC POLE. Where is it ? What is it ? When was it discovered, and by whom ? The Golden Penny of 10 Sept., 1898, contains an article headed ' The Discovery of a Mag- netic Pole,' commencing :

"The magnetic pole of the earth has long been

an object of ardent search Nansen made a bold

dash for it, but missed it by a goodly number of miles. But while explorers like Parry 'seek the Polar ridge,' the magnetic pole, and while its dis- covery remains in the, possibly, far distance, a magnetic pole has really been discovered Prof.