* * *

THE THISTLE OF SCOTLAND.

Mr. Editor,--May I ask if any of your contibutors could inform me in an
early number, when and on what occasion the Thistle was adopted as the
emblem of the Scottish nation? I have looked into many historians, but
as yet found nothing definite enough.

R. L.

Paisley, Oct. 29. 1849.

* * * * *

CAPTURE OF THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH.

Mr. Editor,--Having noticed the letter of Mr. John Bruce, in your
Miscellany, I beg leave to inform him that the ash tree under which
Monmouth was taken is still standing on the Woodland estate, now the
property of the Earl of Shaftesbury.

I shall be happy at some future day, if it suits your purpose, to
collect and send you such particulars as may be gained on the spot
respecting it, and the incidents of the capture.

We have still in the Town Hall here the chain in which it is said
Jefferies sat at the Bloody Assize.

A. D. M.

Dorcester, 3d Nov. 1849.

[We shall gladly receive the particulars which our Correspondent
proposed to collect and forward.]

* * * * *

SERPENTS' EGGS AND STRAW NECKLACES.

[Mr. Thoms' Query in this case should have been limited to the _straw
necklaces_, as Mr. Nichols has already explained the _serpents' eggs_;
but our Correspondent's letter is so satisfactory on both points that we
insert it entire.]

The passage from Erasmus, "brachium habet ova serpentum," is plainly to
be rendered "and with a string of serpents' eggs on your arm." The
meaning is equally apparent on recalling the manner in which snakes'
eggs are found, viz., hanging together in a row. Erasmus intends
Menedemus to utter a joke at the _rosary of beads_ hanging over the
pilgrim's arm, which he professes to mistake for serpents' eggs.

I am not aware what particular propriety the "collar or chaplet" (for it
may mean either) of _straw_ may have, as worn by a pilgrim from
Compostella; or whether there may not lurk under this description, as
beneath {25} the other, a jocular sense. The readiest way of determining
this point would be to consult some of the accounts of Compostella and
of its relics, which are to be found in a class of books formerly
abundant in the north-western towns of Spain.

V.

* * * * *

MADOC--HIS EXPEDITION TO AMERICA.

"A Student" may consult the _Proceedings of the Royal Society of
Northern Antiquaries, Copenhag