tance of Arabic numerals of early
occurrence, I would refer him, for one at least, to _Notices of the
Castle and Priory of Castleacre_, by the Rev. J.H. Bloom: London;
Richardson, 23. Cornhill, 1843. In this work it appears that by the
acumen of Dr. Murray, Bishop of Rochester, the date 1084 was found
impressed in the plaster of the wall of the priory in the following,
form:--

1
4 x 8
0

The writer then goes on to show, that this was the regular order of
the letters to one crossing himself after the Romish fashion.

E.S.T.

_Pusan_ (Vol. i., p. 440.)--May not the meaning be a collar in the
form of a serpent? In the old Roman de Blanchardin is this line:--

"Cy guer _pison_ tuit Apolin."

Can _Iklynton_ again be the place where such an ornament was made?
Ickleton, in Cambridgeshire, appears to have been of some note in
former days, as, according to Lewis's _Topog. Hist._, a nunnery was
founded there by Henry II., and a market together with a fair granted
by Henry III. As it is only five miles from Linton, it may have
formerly borne the name of Ick-linton.

C.I.R.

"_I'd preach as though_" (Vol. i., p. 415.).--The lines quoted by
Henry Martyn are said by Dr. Jenkyn (Introduction to a little vol.
of selections from Baxter--Nelson's _Puritan Divines_) to be Baxter's
"own immortal lines." Dr. J. quotes them thus:--

"I preached as never sure to preach again,
And as a dying man to dying men."

ED. S. JACKSON.

May 18.

"_Fools rush in_" (Vol. i., p. 348.).--The line in Pope,

"For fools rush in where angels fear to tread,"

it has been long ago pointed out, is founded upon that of Shakspeare,

"For wrens make wing where eagles dare not perch."

I know not why that line of Pope is in your correspondent's list. It
is not a proverb.

C.B.

_Allusion in Friar Brackley's Sermon_ (Vol. i., p. 351.)--It seems
vain to inquire who the persons were of whom stories were told in
medieval books, as if they were really historical. See the _Gesta
Romanorum_, for instance: or consider who the Greek king Aulix was,
having dealings with the king of Syria, in the 7th Story of the
_Novelle Antiche_. The passage in the sermon about a Greek king, seems
plainly to be still part of the extract from the _Liber Decalogorum_,
being in Latin. This book was perhaps the _Dialogi decem_, put into
print at Cologne in 1472: Brunet.

C.B.

_Earwig_ (Vol. i., p. 383.).-