eckett, Jackson and others, to be
examined? If not, are _any_ conjectural emendations of the last and present
centuries to be given? Where is the line to be drawn? A mere selection is
valueless, or next to valueless; because, setting aside the differences in
opinion in such matters, we want to know what conjectures are new, and
which are old? 3. Are the various readings suggested in periodicals to be
given? 4. Can any positive and practical rules be furnished, likely to
render such an undertaking useful and successful?

J. O. HALLIWELL.

* * * * *

Minor Notes.

_Local Rhymes, Kent._--

"Between Wickham and Welling
There's not an honest man dwelling;
And I'll tell you the reason why,
Because Shooters' Hill's so nigh."

Unless this is preserved in "N. & Q." it will probably be forgotten with
the highwaymen, whose proceedings at Shooters' Hill, no doubt, originated
it.

G. W. SKYRING.

_Samuel Pepys's Grammar._--I have lately been looking over the _Diary_ of
this very clever person, and I confess it has surprised me to find him, a
graduate of Cambridge, and, in fact, I may say a man of letters, constantly
employing such vulgar bad grammar as "he _do_ say," and such like. I am the
more surprised when, on looking at his letters, even the familiar ones to
his cousin Roger and to W. Hewer, I can find nothing of the kind, they
being as grammatical and as well written as any of the time.

My hypothesis is--LORD BRAYBROOKE can correct me if I am wrong--that Pepys,
writing his _Diary_ in short-hand, used one and the same character for all
the persons of the present tense of _do_, and that the decypherer did not
attend to this circumstance. In his letter to Col. Legge (vol. v. p. 296.),
Pepys writes "His R. H. _does_ think," &c., which in the _Diary_ would
surely be "His R. H. _do_ think," &c. In a similar way I would account for
the use of _come_ instead of _came_ in the _Diary_, as there is nothing of
the kind in the Letters. Should I be right, I may have rendered a slight
service to the memory of an able and worthy man.

THOS. KEIGHTLEY.

_Roman Remains._--In Wright's _Celt, Roman, and Saxon_, p. 207., a curious
Roman altar, dedicated to Silvanus, "ab aprum eximiae forme captum," is
mentioned as found at Durham. It was found in the wild district to the
west, in the neighbourhood of Stanhope in Weardale, and is preserve in the
rectory house there.

P. 330., figure A. This