e trouve
tres-anciennement dans un grand nombre de mysteres.

"'Numquid me velis,' ecrivoit Jean Raulin, mort en 1514, 'antiquam
illam familiam Harlequini, revocare, ut videatur mortuus inter mundanae
curiae nebulas et caligines equitare?'"

By the above extracts, which I fear you will find too long, harlequinades
would seem rather to be derived from the wanton pranks of sprites than the
coarse gambols of buffoons; and this derivation would certainly best agree
with the accepted character of the modern harlequin.

H. C. C.

"_Predeceased_" and "_Designed_" (Vol. iii., p. 143.).--The former word is
used in an active sense by Shakspeare, in his "Rape of Lucrece:"

"If children _predecease_ progenitors,
We are their offspring, and they none of ours."

"Designed," in the sense of "designated," is employed by Locke:

"'Tis not enough to make a man a subject, to convince him that there is
regal power in the world; but there must be ways of _designing_ and
knowing the person to whom the regal power of right belongs."

COWGILL.

"_Quadrijugis invectus equis," &c._ (Vol. ii., p. 391.).--These lines, in
which "veriis" and "antesolat" are, of course, misprints for "variis" and
"antevolat," apply with such peculiar exactness to Guido's celebrated
Aurora, at the Rospigliosi Palace, that I cannot but think the painting has
given rise to the lines. Besides, in the ancient mythology, the Horae are
said to be _three_ in number, daughters of Jupiter and Themis, and one of
their offices was harnessing the horses of the Sun. It is unlikely,
therefore, that any classic author would mention them as being seven in
number.

C. I. R.

_St. John's Bridge Fair_ (Vol. iii., p. 88.).--Perhaps in the county of
Northampton, and in the city of Peterborough, where a fair, commencing
October 2d, is still called "Bridge Fair." The parish church of
Peterborough is dedicated to St. John Baptist; but a fair on the saint's
day would be too near the other, and probably more ancient fair, which is
held on old St. Peter's Day, to whom the cathedral church is dedicated.

ARUN.

_Anticipations of Modern Ideas by Defoe_ (Vol. iii., pp. 137. 195.).--It is
a singular fact, to which I do not remember a reference has hitherto been
made, that Defoe, in his _Life and Adventures of Captain Singleton_, has
foreshadowed the discovery by recent travellers of a great inland lake in
the South of Africa. He describes his adventuro