ns blowing, with hounds
and _ratches_ running."

I should be glad to have the word _ratches_ satisfactorily explained.

H. W.

[From a note by Steevens on the line in _King Lear_ (Boswell's
_Shakspeare_, vol. x. p. 155.), it appears that the late Mr. Hawkins,
in his notes to _The Return from Parnassus_, p. 237., says, "That a
_rache_ is a dog that hunts by scent wild beasts, birds, and even
fishes, and that the female of it is called a _brache_:" and in
_Magnificence_, an ancient Interlude of Morality, by Skelton, printed
by Rastell, no date, is the following line:

"Here is a leyshe of ratches to renne an hare."

In a following note, Mr. Tollet, after saying "What is here said of a
_rache_, might, perhaps, be taken from Holinshed's _Description of
Scotland_, p. 14.," proceeds, "The females of all dogs were once called
_braches_; and Ulitius upon Gratius observes, 'Racha Saxonibus canem
significabat unde Scoti hodie _Rache_ pro cane foemina habent, quod Anglis
est _Brache_.'"]

_"Feast of Reason," &c._--Seeing your correspondents ask where couplets are
to be found, I venture to ask whence comes the line--

"The feast of reason and the flow of soul."

I have often heard it asked, but never answered.

H. W. D.

[It will be found in Pope's _Imitations of Horace_, Book ii. Satire i.:

"There St. John mingles with my friendly bowl
The feast of reason and the flow of soul."]

_Tu Autem._--In page 25. of "Hertfordshire," in Fuller's _Worthies_, there
is a story of one Alexander Nequam, who, wishing to become a monk of St.
Alban's, wrote thus to the abbot thereof:

"Si vis, veniam. Sin autem, tu autem."

To which the abbot replied:

"Si bonus sis, venias. Si Nequam, nequaquam."

Can any of your readers inform me of the meaning of "tu autem" in the first
line? as I have been long puzzled.

This puts me in mind of a form which there was at Ch. Ch., Oxford, on
"gaudy" days. Some junior students went to the "high table" to say a Latin
grace, and when they had finished it, they were dismissed by the Dean
saying "Tu autem;" on which, I remember, there was invariably a smile
pervading the faces of those present, even that of the Dean himself, as no
one seemed to know the meaning of the phrase. I believe that it was in my
time an enigma to all. Can any of your ingenious readers solve me this?

H. C. K.

----Rectory, Hereford.

[Pegge in his _Anony