(Anglice bolster)" would seem to denote. The
manner of dancing it is, the company having formed itself into a circle,
one, either male or female, goes into the centre, carrying a pillow, and
dances round the circle with a sort of shuffling quick step, while the
others sing,--

"Wha learn'd you to dance, you to dance, you to dance,
Wha learn'd you to dance, Bab in the Bowster brawly?"

To which the dancer replies:

"Mother learn'd me to dance, me to dance, me to dance,
Mother learn'd me to dance, Bab in the Bowster brawly."

He or she then lays down the pillow before one of the opposite sex, when
they both kneel on it and kiss; the person to whom the pillow has been
presented going over the above again, &c, till the company tires.

I may add that the above is a favourite dance here, particularly among
young people, and at children's parties in particular it is never omitted.
If your correspondent wishes the air to which it is danced, I shall be glad
to send it to him.

GLENIFFER.

Paisley.

_Sir Cloudesley Shovel_ (Vol. iii., p. 23.).--"H.J." will find a "Note" in
Cunningham's _Lives of Eminent Englishmen_ (vol. iv. p. 47.), of the
circumstances attendant upon Sir Cloudesley's death, as preserved in the
family of the Earl of Romney, detailing the fact of his murder, and the
mode of {46} its discovery. I shall be happy to supply your correspondent
with an extract, if he has not the above work at hand.

J.B. COLMAR.

_Noli me tangere_ (Vol. ii., p. 153.).--In addition to the painters already
enumerated as having treated this subject, the artist Le Sueur, commonly
called the Raphael of France, may be mentioned. In his picture, the figures
are somewhat above half nature.

W.J. MERCER.

_Cad_ (Vol. i., p.250.).--Jamieson derives this word, or rather its Scotch
diminutive, "cadie," from the French, _cadet_. I have heard it fancifully
traced to the Latin "cauda."

W.J. MERCER.

* * * * *

MISCELLANEOUS.

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.

Mr. Disraeli's work, entitled _Commentaries on the Life and Reign of
Charles the First_, has been pronounced by one of the great critical
authorities of our own days, "the most important work" on the subject that
modern times have produced. Those who differ from Mr. Disraeli's view of
the character of the king and the part he played in the great drama of his
age may, in some degree, dissent from this eulogy. None will, howev