sense of the ridiculous, is generally considered to be the property of man, though Le Cat states that he has seen a chimpanzee laugh.

The notion with regard to a child crying at baptism has been already touched on in these pages, Vol. vi., p. 601.; Vol. vii., p. 96.

Grose (quoted in Brand) tells us there is a superstition that a child who does not cry when sprinkled in baptism will not live; and the same is recorded in Hone's Year-Book.

Eirionnach.

UNPUBLISHED LETTER OF LORD NELSON.

The following letter of Lord Nelson may, especially at the present moment, interest and amuse some of the readers of "N. & Q." The original is in my possession, and was given me by the late Miss Churchey of Brecon, daughter of the gentleman to whom it was addressed. Can any of your readers inform me where the "old lines" quoted by the great hero are to be found?

E. G. Bass.

Ryde, Isle of Wight.

Merton, Oct. 20, 1802.

Sir,

Your idea is most just and proper, that a provision should be made for midshipmen who have served a certain time with good characters, and certainly twenty pounds is a very small allowance; but how will your surprise be increased, when I tell you that their full pay, when watching, fighting and bleeding for their country at sea, is not equal to that sum. An admiral's half-pay is scarcely equal, including the run of a kitchen, to that of a French cook; a captain's but little better than a valet's; and a lieutenant's certainly not equal to a London footman's; a midshipman's nothing. But as I am a seaman, and faring with them, I can say nothing. I will only apply some very old lines wrote at the end of some former war:

Your feelings do you great honour, and I only wish all others in the kingdom were the same. However, if ever I should be placed in a situation to be useful to such a deserving set of young men as our mids, nothing shall be left undone which may be in the power of,

FOLK LORE.

Devonshire Superstitions.—Seeing that you sometimes insert extracts from newspapers, I forward you a copy of a paragraph which appeared in The Times of March 7, 1854, and which is worth a corner in your folk-lore columns:

"The following gross case of superstition, which occurred as late as Sunday se'nnight, in one of the largest

market towns in the north of Devon, is related by an eye-witness:—A young woman, living in the neighbourhood of Holsworthy, having for some time past been subject to periodical fits of illness, endeavoured to effect a cure by attendance at the afternoon service at the parish church, accompanied by thirty young men, her near neighbours. Service over, she sat in the porch of the church, and each of the young men, as they passed out in succession, dropped a penny into her lap; but the last, instead of a penny, gave her half-a-crown, taking from her the twenty-nine pennies which she had already received. With this half-crown in her hand, she walked three times round the communion-table, and afterwards had it made into a ring, by the wearing of which she believes she will recover her health."

Haughmond St. Clair.

Quacks.—In the neighbourhood of Sevenoaks, Kent, a little girl was bitten by a mad dog lately. Instead of sending for the doctor, her father posted off to an old woman famous for her treatment of hydrophobia. The old woman sent a quart bottle of some dark liquid, which the patient is to take twice or thrice daily: and for this the father, though but a poor labourer, had to pay one pound. The liquid is said by the "country sort" to be infallible. It is made of herbs plucked by the old woman, and mixed with milk. Its preparation is of course a grand secret. As yet, the child keeps well.

Near Whitechapel, London, is another old woman, equally famous; but her peculiar talent is not for hydrophobia, but for scalds. Whenever any of the Germans employed in the numerous sugar-refineries in that neighbourhood scald themselves, they beg, instead of being sent to the hospital, to be taken to the old woman. For a few sovereigns, she will take them in, nurse, and cure them; and I was informed by a proprietor of a large sugar-house there, that often in a week she will heal a scald as thoroughly as the hospital will in a month, and send the men back hearty and fit for work to boot. She uses a good deal of linseed-oil, I am told; but her great secret, they say, is, that she gives the whole of her time and attention to the patient.

P. M. M.

Temple.

Burning a Tooth with Salt.—Can any one tell us whence originates the custom, very scrupulously observed by many amongst the common people, when a tooth has been taken out, of burning it—generally with salt?

Two Surgeons.

Half Moon Street.

PARALLEL PASSAGES.

"The old and true saying, that a man is generally more inclined to feel kindly towards one on whom he has conferred favours than towards one from whom he has received them."—Macaulay, Essay on Bacon, p. 367. (1-vol. edit.)—Query, whose saying?

"On s'attache par les services qu'on rend, bien plus qu'on n'est attaché par les services qu'on reçoit. C'est qu'il y a, dans le cœur de l'homme, bien plus d'orgueil que de reconnaissance."—Alex. Dumas, La Comtesse de Charny, II. ch. iii.

"Maria. Responde tu mihi vicissim:—utrum spectaculum amœnius: rosa nitens et lactea in suo frutice, an decerpta digitis ac paulatim marcescens?

"Pamphilus. Ego rosam existimo feliciorem quæ marcescit in hominis manu, delectans interim et oculos et nares, quam quæ senescit in frutice."—Erasmus, Procus et Puella.