h called
North _Meols_ (the favourite watering-place of Southport being within it)
in the sandy district to the south of the estuary of the Ribble, in
Lancashire.

PRESTONIENSIS.

_Polygamy_ (Vol. ix., p. 246.).--The practice of monogamy had been
established among the Jews before the Christian era, as is shown by various
expressions in the New Testament; but their law (like that of other
oriental nations) still permitted polygamy, and they were expressly
prohibited by an enactment of the Emperor Theodosius, of the year 393, from
marrying several wives at the same time (Cod. 1. 9. 7.); so that the
practice was not then extinct among them. Monogamy was the law and practice
of all the Greek and Italian communities, so far back as our accounts
reach. There is no trace of polygamy in Homer. Even in the incestuous
marriages supposed by him in the mythical family of Aeolus, the monogamic
rule is observed, _Odyssey_, x. 7. The Roman law recognised monogamy alone,
and hence polygamy was prohibited in the entire Roman empire. It thus
became practically the rule of Christians, and was engrafted into the canon
law of the Eastern and Western Churches.

L.

_Wafers_ (Vol. ix., p. 376.).--I have in my possession a volume of original
Italian letters, addressed to a Venetian physician (who appears to have
been eminent in his profession), Michael Angelo Rota, written during the
early part of the seventeenth century. Many of these letters have been
sealed with red wafers, still adhering to the {410} paper, and precisely
similar to those now in use. The earliest of the letters which I have found
sealed is dated April, 1607, which is seventeen years earlier than the
earliest known instance, mentioned by Beckmann (_History of Inventions_,
Bohn's edit., vol. i. p. 146.), of a letter sealed with a wafer.

WALTER SNEYD.

Denton.

I have before me a reprieve from the Council, dated in 1599, sealed with a
wafer, and am certain that I have earlier instances, had I time at this
moment to look them up.

L. B. L.

* * * * *

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.

The Northern Antiquaries set their brethren in this country a noble
example. Every year sees one or more of them engaged in the production of
carefully-edited volumes of early Scandinavian history. We have now to
record the publication, by Professor Munch, of the old Norse text of _Kong
Olaf Tryggvesoen's Saga_ from a MS. in the Library at Sto