s." I wonder the wags have not been
quoting upon you, "Whose erudition is a _Christmas tale_." But
Mr. Johnson is ready to bruise any one who calls in question
your classical knowledge and your happy application of it. I
hope Mr. Johnson has given you an entertaining account of his
Northern Tour. He is certainly to favour the world with some
of his remarks. Pray do not fail to quicken him by word as I
do by letter. Posterity will be the more obliged to his
friends the more that they can prevail with him to write. With
best compliments to Mrs. Garrick, and hoping that you will not
punish me by being long silent, I remain faithfully yours,

JAMES BOSWELL.

To David Garrick, Esq.,
Adelphi, London.

W. P.

* * * * *

MINOR NOTES.

_White Roses._--In an old newspaper, _The Weekly Journal, or British
Gazetteer_, of Saturday, June 15, 1723, I find the following paragraph:

"Monday being the anniversary of the White Roses, some persons
who had a mind to boast that they had bid defiance to the
government, put them on early in the morning; but the mob not
liking such doings, gathered about them, and demolished the
wearers; which so terrified the crew, that not one of them
afterwards would touch a white rose."

Can you, or any of your correspondents, explain this curious allusion?
Is it to the emblem of the House of York, or the badge of the Pretender?

E. G. B.

_Fifeshire Pronunciation._--I have observed, in various parts of
Fifeshire, a singular peculiarity in the pronunciation of certain words,
of which the following are specimens:

Pronounced

Wrong, Vrang.
Wright, Vricht (_gut._).
Wretch, Vretch.
Write, _v. a._ Vrite.
Write, or writing, _s._ Vreat.

This strange mode is not altogether confined to the most illiterate
portion of the people. My query is, Does this peculiarity obtain in any
other portion of Scotland?

A. R. X.

Paisley.

_Original Letter._--The following letter, written by the French general
at Guadaloupe, when it was taken in 1810, to his conqueror, is an
exquisite specimen of something more than that national politeness which
does not desert a Frenchman even in misfortune. I possess the original: