The author naively adds
"But whether the man used any spell, or said any words while he
drove the nail, I know not; only I saw done all that is said
above. This is used by severall certain persons."

Amongst other "choice and experimental receipts" and "curiosities" which
in this little tome are recommended for the cure of some of the "ills
which flesh is heir to," one directs the patient to

"Take two parts of the moss growing on the skull of a dead man
(pulled as small as you can with the fingers)."

Another enlarges on the virtue of

"A little bag containing some powder of toads calcined, so that
the bag lay always upon the pit of the stomach next the skin,
and presently it took away all pain as long as it hung there but
if you left off the bag the pain returned. A bag continueth in
force but a month after so long time you must wear a fresh one."

This, he says, a "person of credit" told him.

HENRY CAMPKIN.

Reform Club, June 21. 1850.

_Cure for Ague._--One of my parishioners, suffering from ague, was
advised to catch a large spider and shut him up in a box. As he pines
away, the disease is supposed to wear itself out.

B.

L---- Rectory, Somerset, July 8. 1850.

_Eating Snakes a Charm for growing young._--I send you the following
illustrations of this curious receipt for growing young. Perhaps some of
your correspondents will furnish me with some others, and some
additional light on the subject. Fuller says,--

"A gentlewoman told an ancient batchelour, who looked _very
young_, that she thought _he had eaten a snake_: 'No, mistris,'
(said he), 'it is because I never {131} meddled with any snakes
which maketh me look so young.'"--_Holy State_, 1642, p. 36.

He hath left off o' late to _feed on snakes_;
His beard's turned white again.

_Massinger, Old Law_, Act v. Sc. 1.

"He is your loving brother, sir, and will tell nobody
But all he meets, that you have eat a _snake_,
And are grown young, gamesome, and rampant."

_Ibid, Elder Brother_, Act iv. Sc. 4.

JARLTZBERG.

* * * * *

LONG MEG OF WESTMINSTER.

Mr. Cunningham, in his _Handbook of London_ (2nd edition, p. 540.), has
the following passage, under the head of "Westminster Abbey:"

"_Observe._--Effigies in south cloister of several of the early
abbots; large blue stone, uninscribed, (south cloister)