en several days upon the road. Can any one
give me any information upon this question? I may just say that, of course,
no reliance can be placed on the fact of the "very identical tower" in
which the deposed king died being shown at Pontefract.

H. A. B.

_Sir W. Herschel's Observations and Writings._--Will you permit me to
propose the following Queries in your excellent paper.

1. I have a note to the following effect, but it is without date or
reference. The late Sir W. Herschel, during an examination of the heavens
in which he was observing stars that have a proper motion, saw one of the
7.8 magnitude near the 17th star 12 hour of Piazzi's Catalogue, and noted
the approximate distance between them; on the third night after, he saw it
again, when it had advanced a good deal, having gone farther to the
eastward, and towards the equator. Bad weather, and the advancing twilight,
prevented Sir William's getting another observation. Meantime the estimated
movement in three days was 10" in right ascension, and about a minute, or
rather less, towards the north. "So slow a motion," he says, {392} "would
make me suspect the situation to be beyond Uranus." What I wish to inquire
is this: has it been established by calculation whether the new planet
discovered by Adams and Le Verrier was or was not the star observed at the
time and in the place specified by Sir William Herschel?

2. Have Sir W. Herschel's contributions to the _Philosophical Transactions_
ever been published in a separate form? and if so, where they can be
obtained?

H. C. K.

_Swearing by Swans._--

"At the banquet held on this occasion, he vowed before God and the
_swans_, which according to usage were placed on the table, to punish
the Scottish rebels."--Keightley's _History of England_, vol. i. p.
249. ed. 1839.

What authority is there for this statement respecting the swans? What was
the origin and significance of the usage to which allusion is here made?

R. V.

Winchester.

_Automachia._--I am the possessor of a little book, some 21/2 inches long by
11/2 wide, bound in green velvet, entitled _Automachia, or the Self-conflict
of a Christian_, and dedicated

"To the most noble, vertuous, and learned lady, the Lady Mary Nevil,
one of the daughters of the Right Honourable the Earl of Dorcet, Lord
High Treasurer of England."

The book commences with an anagram on the lady's name:

"Add but an A to Romanize your na