riosity being
roused, I inquired into the origin of these circumstances, and learnt
that during the reign of Catherine, every courtier who had hopes of
being honoured by a visit from the Empress, was expected to have a
library, the greater or smaller extent of which was to be regulated by
the fortune of its possessor, and that, after Voltaire had won the
favour of the Autocrat by his servile flattery, one or two copies of his
works were considered indispensable. Every courtier was thus forced to
have rooms filled with books, by far the greater number of which he
never read or even opened. A bookseller of the name of Klostermann, who,
being of an athletic stature, was one of the innumerable favourites of
the lady, "who loved all things save her lord," was usually employed,
not to select a library, but to fill a certain given space of so many
yards with books, at so much per volume, and Mr. Klostermann, the
"Libraire de la Cour Imperiale," died worth a plum, having sold many
thousand yards of books (among which I understood there were several
hundred copies of Voltaire), at from 50 to 100 roubles a yard,
"according to the binding."

A. ASHER. Berlin. Dec. 1849.

_Thistle of Scotland_.--R.L. will find the thistle first introduced on
coins during the reign of James V., although the motto "Nemo me impune
lacessit" was not adopted until two reigns later.--See Lindsay's
_Coinage of Scotland_, Longman, 1845.

B.N.

_Miry-Land Town_. In the _Athenaeum_, in an article on the tradition
respecting Sir Hugh of Lincoln, the Bishop of Dromore's version of the
affair is thus given:--

"The rain rins doun through Mirry-land toune,
Sae dois it doune the Pa';
Sae dois the lads of Mirry-land toune.
Quhan they play at the Ba'."

In explanation of part of this stanza, Dr. Percy is stated to have
considered "Mirry-land toune" to be "_probably_ a corruption of Milan
(called by the Dutch Meylandt) town," and that the Pa' was "_evidently_
the River Po, though the Adige, not the Po, runs through Milan;" and it
is observed that it could not have occasioned Dr. Jamieson _much
trouble_ to conjecture as he did that "Mirry-land toune" was a
corruption of "Merry Lincolne," and that, in fact, in 1783, Pinkerton
commenced his version of the ballad thus--

"The bonnie boys o' merry Lincoln;"

and it is added, very truly, that with all his haste and petulance,
Pinkerton's critical acumen was far from inconsiderable. Now, there
ap