ter, for
100_l_. received of Mrs. Elizabeth Milton in consideration of a transfer to
her of a lease for lives, or ninety-nine years, of a messuage at Brindley
in Cheshire, held under Sir Thomas Wilbraham.

There were also receipts or releases from Milton's three daughters, Anne
Milton, Mary Milton, and Deborah Clarke (to the last of which Abraham
Clarke was a party): the first two dated Feb. 22, 1674; the last, March 27
in the same year; for 100l. each, received of Elizabeth Milton their
step-mother in consideration of their shares of their father's estate. The
sums were, with the consent of Christopher Milton and Richard Powell, both
described of the Inner Temple, to be disposed of in the purchase of
rent-charges or annuities for the benefit of the said daughters.

Two of these documents appear to be now in the possession of your
correspondents MR. MARSH and MR. HUGHES; but I have met with no mention
hitherto of the destination of the others.

These may seem trifling minutiae to notice, but nothing can fairly be
considered unimportant which may lead to the elucidation of the domestic
history of Milton.

S. W. SINGER.

Mickleham.

* * * * *

OATHS.

(Vol. viii., p. 364.)

There can be no doubt that, as your correspondent suggests, the judicial
oath was originally taken without kissing the book, but with the form of
laying the right hand upon it; and, moreover that this custom is of Pagan
origin. Amongst the Greeks, oaths were frequently accompanied by sacrifice;
and it was the custom to lay the hands upon the victim, or upon the altar,
thereby calling to witness the deity by whom the oath was sworn. So
Juvenal, _Sat._ XIV. 218.:

"Falsus erit testis, vendet perjuria summa
Exigua, et Cereris tangens aramque pedemque."

Christians under the later Roman emperors adopted from the Greeks a similar
ceremony. In the well-known case of Omychund _v._ Barker, heard in
Michaelmas Term, 1744, and reported in 1 Atk. 27., the Solicitor-General
quoted a passage from Selden, which gives us some information on this
point:

"Mittimus hic, principibus Christianis, ut ex historiis satis obviis
liquet, solennia fuisse et peculiaria juramenta, ut per vultum sancti
Lucae, per pedem Christi, per sanctum hunc vel illum, ejusmodi alia
nimis crebra: _Inolevit hero tandem, ut quemadmodum Pagani sacris ac
mysteriis aliquo suis aut tactis aut praesentibus jurare solebant, ita