acknowledgment
was to be paid, called _agusa dura_; in some places _agusage_, a fee for
sharpening plough-tackle, which some take to be the same with what was
otherwise called _reillage_, from the ancient French _reille_, a
_ploughshare_.

_Ancient Fete at Gorhamlury._--In the year 1577, Queen Elizabeth was
entertained at Gorhambury, by Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper, from
Saturday, May the 18th, to the Wednesday following, at the expense of
577_l_. 6_s_. 7-1/4_d_. besides fifteen bucks and two stags. Among the
dainties of the feathered kind, enumerated in this entertainment, Mr.
Nichols mentions herons, bitterns, godwites, dotterels, shovelers,
curlews, and knots. Sir Nicholas Bacon was frequently visited by the
queen, who dated many of her state papers from Gorhambury.

P.T.W.

_Adrian the Fourth._--Adrian the Fourth was the only Englishman who ever
filled the Papal chair. His name was Nicholas Breakspeare, and he was
born at Abbot's Langley, a village in Herts. Such was the unbounded
pride of this pontiff, that when the Emperor Frederick the First went to
Rome, in 1155, to receive the imperial diadem, the Pope, after many
difficulties concerning the ceremonial of investiture, insisted that the
emperor should prostrate himself before him, kiss his feet, hold his
stirrup, and lead the white palfrey on which the holy father rode.
Frederick did not submit to this humiliation without reluctance; and as
he took hold of the stirrup, he observed that "he had not yet been
taught the profession of a groom." In a letter to his old friend, John
of Salisbury, he says that St. Peter's Chair was the most uneasy seat in
the world, and that his crown seemed to be clapped burning on his head.
Yet did this haughty Pope (according to Dr. Cave) allow his mother to be
maintained by the alms of the church of Canterbury.

P.T.W.

_Quid pro quo._--A peasant of Burgundy, whom Louis XI. had taken some
notice of, while Dauphin, appeared before him when he ascended the
throne, and presented him with an extraordinary large radish; Louis
received it with much goodwill, and handsomely repaid the peasant. The
great man of the place, to whom the countryman related his good fortune,
imagined that if he were to offer Louis something, he would, at any
rate, make him a prince. Accordingly he went to court, and presented his
finest horse to the king. Louis received his present as graciously as he
had before taken the radish, and after he had suffi