e purpose for which they were collected, during a
period of thirty years; and it is much to be regretted they were never
published. His own opinion was, that the publication, during his life
would injure his practice as a physician. It would be impossible without
the aid of diagrams, and I do not remember sufficient, to explain his
mechanical contrivances; but the general principle was, to suspend the
man under a kind of flat parachute of extremely thin _feather-edge_
boards, with a power of adjusting the angle at which it was placed, and
allowing the man the full use of his arms and legs to work any machinery
placed beneath; the area of the parachute being proportioned, as in
birds to the weight of the man, who was to start from the top of a high
tower, or some elevated position, flying against the wind.

HENRY WILKINSON.

Brompton.

* * * * *

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.

_Long Lonkin_ (Vol. ii., p. 168.).--If SELEUCUS will refer to Mr.
Chamber's _Collection of Scottish Ballads_, he will find there the whole
story under the name of Lammilsin, of which Lonkin appears to me to be a
corruption. In the 6th verse it is rendered:

"He said to his ladye fair,
Before he gaed abuird,
Beware, beware o, Lammilsin!
For he lyeth in the wudde."

Then the story goes on to state that Lammilsin crept in at a little shot
window, and after some conversation with the "fause nourrice" they
decide to

"Stab the babe, and make it cry,
And that will bring her down."

Which being done, they murder the unhappy lady. Shortly after, Lord
Weirie comes home, and has the "fause nourrice" burnt at the stake. From
the circumstance that the name of the husband of the murdered lady was
Weirie, it is conjectured that this tragedy took place at Balwearie
Castle, in Fife, and the old people about there constantly affirm that
it really occurred. I am not aware that there exists any connection
between the hero of this story and the _nursery rhyme_; for, as I before
stated, I think Lonkin a corruption of Lammilsin.

H.H.C.

_Rowley Powley_ (Vol. ii., p. 74.).--Andre Valladier, who died about the
middle of the sixteenth century, was a popular preacher and the king's
almoner. He gained great applause for his funeral oration on Henry IV.
In his sermon for the second Sunday in Lent (Rouen, 1628), he says;--

"Le paon est gentil et miste, bien que par la parfaite beaute de
sa houppe, par la rare