he German
_schalten_, to thrust forward, which in the dialect of the north of
England means 'to scatter and throw abroad as molehills are when
levelled;' or from _skeyl_, which in the same dialect is 'to push on
one side, to overturn.'"]

_Father Traves._--Can any of your Lancashire readers refer me to a source
whence I might obtain information on matters pertaining to the life of one
Father Travers [Traves], the friend and correspondent of the celebrated
martyr John Bradford?

As yet I have but met with the incidental mention of his name in the pages
of Fox, and in Hollingworth's _Mancuensis_, pp. 75, 76.

A JESUIT.

[The name is spelt by Fox sometimes Traves and sometimes Travers; but
who he was there is no particular mention; except that it appears from
Bradford's letters that he was some friend of the family, and from the
superscription to one of them, that he was the minister of Blackley,
near Manchester, in which place, or near to which, Bradford's mother
must then have resided. Strype says, he was a learned and pious
gentleman, his patron and counsellor.--_Mem. Eccles._, vol. iii. part
I. p. 364.]

_Precise Dates of Births and Deaths of the Pretenders._--Will any one be so
kind as to tell me the date of the birth and death of James VIII. and his
son Charles III. (commonly called Prince Charles Edward Stuart)? These
dates are given so variously, that I am anxious to ascertain them
correctly.

L. M. M. R.

[We believe the following to be the precise dates:--James VIII., born
June 10, 1688; died January 2, 1765-6. Charles Edward, born December
20, 1720 (sometimes printed as New Style, Dec. 31); died January 31,
1788.]

_Clarence._--Whence the name of this dukedom? Was the title borne by any
one before the time of Lionel, son of Edward III.?

W. T. M.

[The title CLARENCE was, as we learn from Camden (_Britannia_, edit.
Gough, vol. ii. pp. 73, 74.), derived from the honour of Clare, in
Suffolk; and was _first_ borne by Lionel Plantagenet, third son of
Edward III., who married Elizabeth de Burgh, daughter and heir of
William, Earl of Ulster, and obtained with her the honour of Clare. He
became, _jure uxoris_, Earl of Ulster, and was created, September 15,
1362, Duke of Clarence.]

* * * * *

Replies.

MACKEY'S "THEORY OF THE EARTH".

(Vol. viii., p. 468.)

About the year 18