ther fragile ornaments
for the head and neck?

"Sometimes her head she fondly would aguize
With gaudy girlonds, or fresh flowrets dight
About her necke, or rings of rushes plight."
_F. Q._ lib. ii. canto vi. st. 7.

ACHE.

_The Nine of Diamonds, called the Curse of Scotland_ (Vol. i., pp. 61.,
90.).--The following explanation is given in a _Classical Dictionary of the
Vulgar Tongue_, 1785; an ignoble authority, it must be admitted:--

"Diamonds imply royalty, being ornaments to the imperial crown, and
every ninth King of Scotland has been observed for many ages to be a
tyrant, and a curse to that country."

J. H. M.

"_Cum Grano Salis_" (Vol. iii., pp. 88. 153.).--I venture to suggest, that
in this phrase the allusion is to a rich and unctuous morsel, which, when
assisted _by a little salt_, will be tolerated by the stomach, otherwise
will be rejected. In the same way an extravagant statement, when taken with
a slight qualification (_cum grano salis_) will be tolerated by the mind. I
should wish to be informed what writer first uses this phrase in a
metaphorical sense--not, I conceive, any classical author.

X. Z.

* * * * *

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.

Mr. Rees of Llandovery announces for publication by subscription (under the
auspices of the Welsh MSS. Society), a new edition of _The Myvyrian
Archaeology of Wales_, with English translations and notes, {254} nearly the
whole of the historical portions of which, consisting of revised copies of
Achan y Saint, historical triads, chronicles, &c. are ready for the press,
having been prepared for the late Record Commission, by Aneurin Owen, Esq.,
and since placed by the Right Hon. the Master of the Rolls at the disposal
of the Welsh MSS. Society for publication. As the first volume consists of
ancient poetry from the sixth to the fourteenth centuries, much of which,
from its present imperfect state, requires to be collated with ancient MS.
copies of the poems, not accessible to the former editors; in order to
afford more time for that most essential object, it is proposed to commence
with the publication of the historical matter: while the laws of Howel Dda,
having been recently published by the Record Commission, will not be
included; by which means it is expected the original Welsh text and English
translations of the rest of the work can be comprised in four or five