"Talked of Malone--a dull man--his whitewashing the statue of
Shakspeare, at Leamington or Stratford (?), and General Fitzpatrick's
(Lord L.'s uncle) epigram on the subject--very good--

'And smears his statue as he mars his lays.'"

I cannot but observe that the doubt expressed in the Diary of
Moore--whether Shakspeare's monument is "at Leamington or Stratford
(?)"--is curious, and I conceive my version of the last line, besides being
more correct, is also more pithy. It is incorrect, moreover, to call it a
_statue_, as it is a three-quarters bust in a niche in the wall.

The extract from _Moore's Diary_, however, satisfactorily explains the
initials "R. F.," which have hitherto puzzled me.

SENEX.

_Archbishop Leighton and Pope: Curious Coincidence of Thought and
Expression._--

"Were the true visage of sin seen at a full light, undressed and
unpainted, it were impossible, while it so appeared, that any one soul
could be in love with it, but would rather flee from it as hideous and
abominable."--Leighton's _Works_, vol. i. p. 121.

Vice is a monster of such hideous mien,
As to be hated, needs but to be seen."--_Pope._

JAMES CORNISH.

_Grant of Slaves._--I send you a copy of a grant of a slave with his
children, by William, the Lion King of Scotland, to the monks of
Dunfermline, taken from the _Cart. de Dunfermline_, fol. 13., printed by
the Bannatyne Club from a MS. in the Advocates' Library here, which you
may, perhaps, think curious enough to insert in "N. & Q."

"De Servis.

"Willielmus Dei gracia Rex Scottorum. Omnibus probis hominibus tocius
terre me, clericis et laicis, salutem: Sciant presentis et futuri me
dedisse et concessisse et hac carta mea confirmasse, Deo et ecclesie
Sancte Trinitatis de Dunfermlene et Abbati et Monachis ibidem, Deo
servientibus in liberam et perpetuam elemosinam, Gillandream Macsuthen
et ejus liberos et illos eis quietos clamasse, de me, et heredibus
meis, in perpetuum. Testibus Waltero de Bid, Cancellario; Willielmo
filio Alani, Dapifero; Roberto Aveneli Gillexio Rennerio, Willielmo
Thoraldo, apud Strivelin."

G. H. S.

Edinburgh.

_Sealing-wax._--The most careful persons will occasionally drop melting
sealing-wax on their fingers. The first impulse of every one is to pull it
off, which is followed by a blister. The proper course is to let the wax
cool on the finger; the pain is much les