of these articles I retain for my own use. Of the
third I send you half-a-dozen bottles by way of sample: a judicious
imbibition of the contents will be found to be a sovereign remedy
for the Pip and other kindred disorders that owe their origin to a
melancholy frame of mind. The fourth article on my list I send you
bodily. It has been lent to me by a friend of mine who states that
he found it in his muniment chest among a lot of old title deeds,
leases, etc., the first time he waded through them after coming
into possession of his property. Neither he nor any friend to whom
he has shown it can make out its meaning, and I must confess to
being myself one of the puzzled. My friend is very anxious to have
it deciphered, as he thinks it may in some way relate to his
property, or to some secret bit of family history with which it
would be advisable that he should become acquainted. Anyhow, he
gave it to me to bring to town, with a request that I should seek
out someone clever in such things, and try to get it interpreted
for him. Now I know of no one except yourself who is at all expert
in such matters. You, I remember, used to take a delight that to me
was inexplicable in deciphering those strange advertisements which
now and again appear in the newspapers. Let me therefore ask of you
to bring your old skill to bear in the present case, and if you can
make me anything like a presentable translation to send back to my
friend the laird, you will greatly oblige

"Your friend,

"E. DUCIE."

The MS. consisted of three or four sheets of deed-paper fastened
together at one corner with silk. The prefatory note was on the first
sheet. This first sheet Ducie cut away with his penknife and locked up
in his desk. The remaining sheets he sent to his friend Bexell, together
with the note which he had written.

Three days later Mr. Bexell returned the sheets with his reply. In order
properly to understand this reply it will be necessary to offer to the
reader's notice a specimen of the MS. The conclusion arrived at by Mr.
Bexell, and the mode by which he reached them, will then be more clearly
comprehensible.

The following is a counterpart of the first few lines of the MS.:

253.12 59.25 14.5 96.14 158.49 1.29 465.1 28.53

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