of the variation in the number of acres
represented by the carucate. I have generally found that the nearest
approximation to correctness, where no other evidence is at hand, is to
consider the carucate as designating about 100 acres.

L. B. L.

_Carucate of Land._--A case in point is given in the 33rd vol. of the
_Archaeologia_, p. 271. The {76} carucate frequently consisted of eight
bovatae of arable land; but the number of acres appears to have varied not
only according to the quality of the soil, but according to the custom of
husbandry of the shire: for where a two-years' course, or crop and fallow,
was adopted, more land was adjudged to the carucate than where a
three-years' course obtained, the land lying fallow not being reckoned or
rateable. The object would appear to have been to obtain a carucate of
equal value throughout the kingdom.

B. W.

_Golden Frog and Sir John Poley_ (Vol. i., p. 214. and 372.).--Your
correspondent GASTROS suggests that "to the Low Countries, the land of
frogs, we must turn for the solution of this enigma," (Vol. i., p. 372.);
accordingly, it appears from the treatise of Bircherodius on the Knights of
the Elephant, an order of knighthood in Denmark, conferred upon none but
persons of the first quality and merit, that a frog is among the devices
adopted by them; and we need not further seek for a reason why this
_Symbolum Heroicum_ was worn by Sir John Poley, who served much under
Christian, king of Denmark (Vol. i., p. 214.), and distinguished himself
much by his military achievements in the Low Countries (p. 372.).

T. J.

_The Poley Frog._--More than half a century ago, I was present when this
singular appendage was the subject of conversation in a large literary
party, but being then a schoolboy I made "no note of it." My recollection
now is, that after some jokes on the name of Poley as that of a frog,
allusion was made to an old court story of King James II. throwing a frog
into the neck of William, third Earl of Pembroke. The story, with its
consequences, may be found in the _Tixall Letters_, vol. i. p. 5.; Wood's
_Athenae Ox._, vol. i. p. 546.; Park's _Royal and Noble Authors_, vol. ii.
p. 249.

[Old English G].

I have never seen a head of any engraving of the portrait of Sir John
Poley, of Boxsted Hall, not Bexstead. I believe there is none.

D.

_Bands_ (Vol. ii., p. 23.) are the descendants of the ruff a portion of the
ordinary civil costume of the sixteenth c