a portion of the verse on
which the key is placed, commencing, "Whither thou goest, I will go,"
&c. When the name of the guilty party is pronounced, the key turns off
the fingers, the Bible falls to the ground, and the guilt of the party
is determined. The belief of some of the more ignorant of the lower
orders in this charm is unbounded. I have seen it practiced in other
counties, the key being laid over the 5th verse of the 19th chapter of
Proverbs, instead of the 1st chapter of Ruth.--Godalming, April,
1850.--_Notes and Queries._

* * * * *

SIR THOMAS MORE'S HOUSEHOLD.--The conduct of this great man's house was
a model to all, and as near an approach to his own Utopia as might well
be. Erasmus says, "I should rather call his house a school or university
of Christian religion, for there is none therein but readeth or studieth
the liberal sciences; their special care is piety and virtue; there is
no quarreling or intemperate words heard; none are seen idle; which
household that worthy gentleman doth not govern, but with all courteous
benevolence." The servant men abode on one side of the house, the women
on the other, and met at prayer time or on Church festivals, when More
would read and expound to them. He suffered no cards or dice, but gave
each one his garden-plot for relaxation, or set them to sing or "play
music." He had an affection for all who truly served him, and his
daughters' nurse is as affectionately mentioned in his letters when from
home as they are themselves. "Thomas More sendeth greeting to his most
dear daughters Margaret, Elizabeth and Cecily; and to Margaret Giggs as
dear to him as if she were his own," are his words in one letter; and
his valued and trustworthy domestics appear in the family pictures of
the family by Holbein. They requited his attachment by truest fidelity
and love; and his daughter Margaret, in her last passionate interview
with her father on his way to the Tower, was succeeded by Margaret Giggs
and a maid-servant, who embraced and kissed their condemned master, "of
whom he said after, it was homely but very lovingly done." Of these and
other of his servants, Erasmus remarks, "after Sir Thomas More's death,
none ever was touched with the least suspicion of any evil fame."--_Mrs.
Hall, in the Art Journal._

* * * * *

THE "PASSION PLAY" IN BAVARIA.--This year, the foreign journals state,
is the year of the passion