ight help to get rid of the principle, as one may call
it. For the same superstition prevailed in Scotland as to marriage
(Dalyell, p. 302.). Witches cast knots on a cord; and in a parish in
Perthshire both parties, just before marriage, had every knot or tie
about them loosened, though they immediately proceeded, in private,
severally to tie them up again. And as to the period of childbirth,
see the grand and interesting ballad in Walter Scott's _Border Poems_,
vol. ii. p. 27., "Willye's Lady."

C.B.

* * * * *

NOTE ON HERODOTUS BY DEAN SWIFT.

The inclosed unpublished note of Dean Swift will, I hope, be deemed
worthy of a place in your columns. It was written by him in his
Herodotus, which is now in the library of Winchester College,
having been presented to it in 1766, by John Smyth de Burgh, Earl
of Clanricarde. The genuineness of the handwriting is attested by a
certificate of George Faulkner, who, it appears, was well qualified
to decide upon it. The edition is Jungerman's, folio, printed by Paul
Stephens, in 1718.

W.H. GUNNER.

"_Judicium de Herodoto post longum tempus relicto_:--

"Ctesias mendacissimus Herodotum mendaciorum arguit, exceptis
paucissimis (ut mea fert sententia) omnimodo excusandum.
Caeterum diverticulis abundans, hic pater Historicorum, filum
narrationis ad taedium abrumpit; unde oritur (ut par est)
legentibus confusio, et exinde oblivio. Quin et forsan ipsae
narrationes circumstantiis nimium pro re scatent. Quod ad
caetera, hunc scriptorem inter apprime laudandos censeo, neque
Graecis, neque barbaris plus aequo faventem, aut iniquum: in
orationibus fere brevem, simplicem, nec nimis frequentem:
Neque absunt dogmata, e quibus eruditus lector prudentiam,
tam moralem, quam civilem, haurire poterit.

"Julii 6: 1720. J. SWIFT"

"I do hereby certify that the above is the handwriting of the
late Dr. Jonathan Swift, D.S.P.D., from whom I have had many
letters and printed several pieces from his original MS.

"Dublin, Aug. 21. 1762. GEORGE FAULKNER."

* * * * *

HERRICK'S HESPERIDES.

There can be few among your subscribers who are unacquainted with
the sweet lyric effusion of Herrick "to the Virgins, to make much
of Time," beginning--

"Gather you rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower, that smiles to-day,
T