e cruel superstitious practice is sometimes
inflicted on the little animal; for it is not many years since I
accidentally entered the kitchen in time to save a poor little mouse
from being hung up by the tail and roasted alive, as the means of
expelling the others of its race from the house. I trust that this
barbarous practice will soon be forgotten.

R.G.P.M.

_The Story of Mr. Fox._--Your correspondent F.L., who has related the
story of Sir Richard, surnamed Bloody, Baker, is, doubtless, aware of a
similar tale with which Mr. Blakeway furnished my late friend James
Boswell, and which the latter observed "is perhaps one of the most happy
illustrations of Shakspeare that has appeared."--(Malone's _Shakspeare_,
vol. vii. pp. 20. 163.)

The two narratives of Bloody Baker and Mr. Fox are substantially the
same. Variations will naturally creep in when a story is related by word
of mouth; for instance, the admonition over the chamber in Mr. Fox's
house--

"Be bold, be bold! but not too bold
Lest that your heart's blood should run cold."

is altogether of a more dignified character than the similar warning
given by the parrot, at p. 68. Each of these worthies, Baker and Fox, is
seen bringing into his house the corpse of a murdered lady, whose hand
falls into the lap of the concealed visitor; but in Fox's story the
ornament on the hand is a rich bracelet, in Baker's a ring. The
assassins are, in both stories, invited to the visitor's house, and upon
Fox _summary_ justice is inflicted.

It may be asked, if Baker was burned, how came he to have a tomb with
gloves, helmet, &c., suspended over it in Cranbrook Church? Such honour
was not paid to a man of higher rank in Salisbury Cathedral, a murderer
also, who was hung, viz., Lord Stourton. Dodsworth tells us that till
about 1775, no chivalrous emblems were suspended over the latter, but
only a twisted wire, with a noose, emblematic of the halter. Allow me to
ask, What instances have we of tombs or gravestones, as memorials of
individuals who have suffered at the _stake_, exclusive of those
monuments which in after times may have been raised in honour of
distinguished martyrs at the Reformation?

J.H.M.

Bath.

_Baptismal Superstition._--In the north of England, when several
children are brought to be baptized at the same time, great anxiety is
shown by the people lest the girls should take the precedence of the
boys; in which case it is believed the latter, when