ur correspondents inform me if such was the case, and where? In
Halliwell's _Dictionary_, "hoisting the glove" is said to be practised at
Lammas Fair, in Devonshire: but why? In the east of England certain village
fairs are called _Gants_,--Mattishall Gant, &c. Forby derives this from
A.-S. _gan_, to go; but may it not have some reference to the French
_gants_, gloves?

E. G. R.

_Mr. Caryl or Caryll._--Every one knows that the _Rape of the Lock_ was
written at the request of _Mr. Caryl_, stated by Pope to have been private
secretary to James II.'s queen before the {456} Revolution. It also appears
in the Prolegomena to the _Life of James_, that two royal warrants issued
at St. Germains by the abdicated monarch and his son the Pretender in 1701
and 1707, are counter-signed _Caryll_ as Secretary of State. Is there any
doubt that this is the same person; and if not, is there any account of
when and on what terms he returned to England? where he must have been
again domiciled in 1711, and some years after, during which period he
corresponded with Pope. His family was settled near East Grinstead, in
Sussex.

C.

_Early Reaping-machines._--Have the former Numbers of "N. & Q." contained
an account of the invention of a reaping-machine in the last century,
similar in design and construction to the one lately invented in America? A
friend of mine has in his possession a work, entitled _The Complete Farmer,
or a General Dictionary of Husbandry_; containing the various methods of
improving the land, &c., together with great variety of new discoveries and
improvements, the 4th edition, by a society of gentlemen. There is no date
on the title-page; but from internal evidence, I am led to think that the
work was not published before 1780. If it be thought desirable, I shall be
happy to send an extract from the work, giving an account of the machine,
or, if drawings be admitted into the pages of "N. & Q.," the work might be
sent to the Editor.

H. D. W.

* * * * *

Minor Queries with Answers.

"_Diary of a Self-Observer._"--

"Augustine's _Confessions_ may be in some degree compared with the _Private
Diary of a Self-Observer_ (_Geheimes Tagebuch von einem Beobachter seiner
selbst_) which has in our own days been read with so great eagerness and
sympathy. Not as if the celebrated author of the latter work did not in
many ways deserve a preference above the African bishop," &c.--Schroeckh's