D. 1728, introduced the
pheliebeg, or short kilt, worn in the Highlands. This fact, very little
known, is established in a letter from Ewan Baillie, of Oberiachan,
inserted in the _Edinburgh Magazine_ for 1785, and also by the Culloden
Papers."

The writer of that work, and of that _daring_ statement, was, I have been
informed, a Scottish military gentleman of the name of Hamilton. This
origin of the kilt is also mentioned by Mr. Robert Chambers in his _Life of
Duncan Forbes, of Culloden_. See his _Biographical Dictionary of Eminent
Scotsmen_.

SCOTUS SECUNDUS.

Edinburgh, Nov. 22.

_Bacon Family_ (Vol. ii., p. 247.).--The origin, of this surname is to be
found, I conceive, in the word _Beacon_. The man who had the care of the
_Beacon_ would be called _John_ or _Roger of the Beacon. Beacon Hill_, near
Newark, is pronounced in that locality as if spelt _Bacon Hill_.

W. G. S.

_Mariner's Compass_ (Vol. ii., p. 56.).--The "fleur de lis" was made the
ornament of the northern radius of the mariner's compass in compliment to
Charles of Anjou (whose device it was), the reigning king of Sicily, at the
time when Flavio Gioja, the Neapolitan, first employed that instrument in
navigation.

O. P. Q.

_Arabic Numerals, Brugsch_ (Vol. ii., pp. 294. 424.).--_Brugsch, Numerorum
apud Veteres AEgyptos demoticorum Doctrina. Ex Papyris et Inscriptionibus
nunc primum illustrata_. 4to., with five plates of facsimiles, &c., is
published in this country by Williams and Norgate, Henrietta Street, Covent
Garden, where J. W. H. may see it, or whence he may get any information he
may require respecting it.

W.

* * * * *

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.

Mr. Bohn has just issued a new volume of his Antiquarian Library; and we
shall be greatly surprised if it does not prove one of the most popular of
the whole series. It is a new and greatly enlarged edition of Mr.
Keightley's _Fairy Mythology illustrative of the Romance and Superstition
of various Countries_, a work characterised alike by a quick perception of
the beauty of the popular myths recorded in its pages, the good taste
manifested in their selection, and the learning and scholarship with which
Mr. Keightley has illustrated them. The lovers of folk-lore will be
delighted with this new edition of a book, which such men as Goethe, Grimm,
Von Hammer, Douce, and Southey have agreed in commending; and o