nd, and the
guilt of the party is determined. The belief of some the more ignorant
of the lower orders in this charm is unbounded. I have seen it practiced
in other counties, the key being laid over the 5th verse of the 19th
chap. of Proverbs, instead of the 1st chap. of Ruth.

David Stevens.
Godalming, April 11. 1850.

[In Brand's _Popular Antiquities_ (ed. Ellis). vol. iii. 188-9,
it is stated that the key is placed upon the 50th Psalm.]

_Weather Proverb._--Weather proverbs are among the most curious portions
of popular literature. That foul or fair weather is betokened according
as the rainbow is seen in the morning or evening, is recorded in the
following German "saw," which is nearly identical with our well-known
English Proverb:

Regenbogen am Morgen
Macht dem Schaefer sorgen;
Regenbogen am Abend
Ist dem Schaefer labend.

In Mr. Akerman's recently published volume called _Spring Tide_, a
pleasant intermixture of fly-fishing and philology, we have a Wiltshire
version of this proverb, curious for its old Saxon language and its
comparatively modern allusion to a "great coat" in the third and sixth
lines, which must be interpolations.

"The Rainbow in th' marnin'
Gies the Shepherd warning'
To car' his girt cwoat on his back
The Rainbow at night
Is the Shepherd's delight,
For then no girt cwoat he lack."

No one, we believe, has yet remarked the philosophy of this saying;
namely that in the morning the rainbow is seen in the clouds in the
west, the quarter from which we get most rain, and of course, in the
evening, in the opposite quarter of the heavens.

William J. Thoms.

* * * * *

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES.

1. A pleasant Dialogue between a Soldier of Barwicke and an English
Chaplain; wherein are largely handed such reasons as are brought in for
maintenance of Popish traditions in our English Church. 8vo. _circa_
1581.

This work is frequently attributed to Barnaby Rich; but from Bancroft's
_Dangerous Positions_, p. 42, the author is ascertained to have been
Anthony Gilby.

2. The Trumpet of Fame; or Sir Francis Drake's and Sir John Hawkin's
Farewell: with an encouragement to all Sailors and Souldiers that are
minded to go in this worthie enterprise, &c. 12mo. London, by T. Creede,
1595.

This poetical tract is of the greatest rarity, and was unknown to Ames,
Herbert, Warton and Ritson. A MS. note, in a contemporary hand, says the
a