re still in preservation by the curious. The following couplet, composed
by the late Mr. W. Craig, surgeon, is inscribed on one of these ladles,
which has seen no little service:

"Near Cruikston Castle's stately tower,
For many a year I stood;
My shade was of the hallow'd bower;
Where Scotland's queen was woo'd."

Another medal of Queen Mary's, of considerable size, of which I have seen a
cast many years since, contained the following inscriptions:

"O God graunt patience in that I suffer vrang."

The reverse has in the centre:

"Quho can compare with me in grief,
I die and dar nocht seek relief."

With this legend around:

"Hourt not the [heart symbol] quhais [heart whose] joy thou art."

"They all appear [says Mr. Pinkerton] to have been done in France by
Mary's directions, who was fond of devices. Her cruel captivity could
not debar her from intercourse with her friends in France; who must
with pleasure have executed her orders as affording her a little
consolation."

G. N.

MR. FRASER'S supposed medal is a ryal (or possibly a 3/4 ryal) of Mary and
Henry, commonly known as a Cruickstown dollar; from the idea that the tree
upon them is a representation of the famous yew-tree at Cruickstown Castle.
It appears, however, from the ordinance for coining these pieces, that the
tree is a "palm-tree crowned with a shell paddock (lizard) creeping up the
stem of the same." The motto across the tree is "DAT GLORIA VIRES." (See
Lindsay's _Scotch Coinage_, p. 51.)

JOHN EVANS.

* * * * *

EARLY USE OF TIN.--DERIVATION OF THE NAME OF BRITAIN.

(Vol. viii., p. 344.)

The reply of Dr. Hincks appears to require the following. While seeking
information upon the first of these matters, I took up one of my old
school-books, and at the foot of a page found the following note:
"Britannia is from _Barat-anac_, the land of tin." I do not recollect to
have seen it elsewhere; but it appeared to me so apt and correct that I
adopted it at once.

That the Shirutana of the Egyptian inscriptions, {446} or Shairetana, will
be found to be the same people as the Ciratas of the Hindu Puranas, I have
little doubt.

Ciratas is there applied as a name to the people who were afterwards known
to us as the Phoenicians; but that either the Shirutana or the Ciratas will
be found to have discovered Britain, though they may have given it a name,
I do not expect. The Cirat