P.

_Lord Chancellor Steele._--Is any pedigree of William Steele, Esq., Lord
Chancellor of Ireland temp. Commonwealth, extant; and do any of his
descendants exist?

It is believed he was nearly related to Captain Steel, governor of Beeston
Castle, who suffered death by military execution in 1643 on a charge of
cowardice.

STATFOLD.

_"A Tub to the Whale."_--What is the origin of this phrase?

PIMLICO.

_Legitimation_ (_Scotland_).--Perhaps some of your Scotch readers "learned
in the law" would obligingly answer the subjoined Queries, referring to
some decisions.

1. Will entail property go to a _bastard_, _legitimated before the Union_
under the great seal (by the law of Scotland)?

2. Will titles and dignities descend?

3. Will armorial bearings?

M. M.

Inner Temple.

_"Vaut mieux," &c._--The proverb "Vaut mieux avoir affaire a Dieu qu'a ses
saints" has a Latin origin. What is it?

M.

_Shakspeare First Folio._--Is there any _obtainable_ edition of Shakspeare
which follows, or fully contains, the first folio?

M.

_The Staffordshire Knot._--Can any of your readers give the history of the
Staffordshire knot, traced on the carriages and trucks of the North
Staffordshire Railway Company?

T. P.

_Sir Thomas Elyot._--I shall be extremely obliged by a reference to any
sources of information respecting Sir Thomas Elyot, Knight, living in the
time of Henry VIII., son of Sir Richard Elyot, Knight, of Suffolk.

I shall be glad also to know whether a short work (among others of his in
my possession) entitled _The Defence of good Women_, printed in London by
Thomas Berthelet, 1545, is at all a rare book?

H. C. K.

_"Celsior exsurgens pluviis," &c._--

"Celsior exsurgens pluviis, nimbosque cadentes,
Sub pedibus cernens, et caeca tonitrua calcans."

Can you oblige me by stating where the above lines are to be found? They
appear to me to form an appropriate motto for a balloon.

J. P. A.

_The Bargain Cup._--Can the old English custom of drinking together upon
the completion of a bargain, be traced back farther than the Norman era?
Did a similar custom exist in the earlier ages? Danl. Dyke, in his
_Mysteries_ (London, 1634), says:

"The Jews being forbidden to make couenants with the Gentiles, they
also abstained from drinking with them; because that was a ceremonie
vsed in striking of couenants."

This is the only notice I can find among old writers touching this custom,
wh