as the like
hath not hetherto beene published in English_. _Wherevnto_ is added a
third Booke, entituled _Musa Mercatorum_: comprehending all the most
necessarie and profitable Rules _vsed in the trade of Merchandise_. In
all which three Bookes, the Rules, Precepts, and Maxims are _onely
composed in meeter for the better retaining of them in memorie_, but
also the operations, examples, demonstrations, and questions, _are in
most easie wise expounded and explaned, in the forme_ of a dialogue,
for the reader's more cleere vnderstanding. _A knowledge pleasant for
Gentlemen, commendable for Capteines_ and Soldiers, profitable for
Merchants, and generally _necessarie for all estates and degrees_.
Newly collected, digested, and in some part deuised by a _welwiller to
the Mathematicals_."

"_Ecclesiasticus_, cap. 19.

"Learning unto fooles is as fetters on their feete and manicles vpon
their right hand; but to the wise it is a Iewell of golde, and like a
Bracelet vpon his right arme.

"_Boetius_. I. _Arith_. cap. 2.

"_Omnia quaecunque a primaeua natura constructa sunt, Numerorum
videntur racione formata. Hoc enim fuit principale in animo conditoris
exemplar_. Imprinted at London by _Gabriel Simson_, dwelling in Fleete
Lane, 1600."

The volume (which is a small quarto of 270 folios) is dedicated "To the
Right Honorable sir Thomas Sackuill, Knight, Baron of Buckhurst, Lord
Treasurer of England," &c. &c., by Thomas Hylles.

Perhaps one or other of your correspondents will kindly inform me whether
this volume is a rarity, and also oblige me with some information regarding
Thomas Hylles, its author.

SN. DAVIE, Jun.

[Professor De Morgan, in his "_Arithmetical Books from the Invention of
printing to the present Time_," describes Hylles' work "as a big book,
heavy with mercantile lore;" and the author as being, "in spite of all
his trifling, a man of learning." A list of the author's other works
will be found in Watt's _Bibliotheca Britannica_, and Lowndes's
_Bibliographer's Manual of English Literature_, under the word _Hills_
(Thomas). See also Ames's _Typographical Antiquities_.]

* * * * *

Replies.

VILLENAGE.

(Vol. iii., p. 327.)

Your correspondent H. C. wishes to know whether bondage was a reality in
the time of Philip and Mary; and, if so, when it became extinct.