he preface to his _Free
Agency of Accountable Creatures Examined_, London, 1733, 8vo. On his
authority it was included in the list of Cudworth's works in the _General
Dictionary_, 1736, folio, vol. iv. p. 487., and in the _Biographia
Britannica_, 1750, vol. iii. p. 1581., and in the last edition by Kippis.
Birch, in the mean time, finding, no doubt, on inquiry, that there was no
ground for ascribing it to Cudworth, made no mention of it in his accurate
life prefixed to the edition of the _Intellectual System_ in 1742.

Hallywell, the author, deserves to be better known. In many passages in his
works he gives ample proof that he had fully imbibed the lofty Platonism
and true Christian spirit of his great master.

JAMES CROSSLEY.

_Touchstone's Dial_ (Vol. ii., p. 405.; Vol. iii., pp. 52. 107.).--I am
gratified to find that my note on "Touchstone's Dial" has prompted MR.
STEPHENS to send you his valuable communication on these old-fashioned
chronometers. The subjoined extract from _Travels in America in the Year_
1806, by Thomas Ashe, Esq., is interesting, as it shows that "Ring-dials"
were used as common articles of barter in America at the commencement of
the present century:--

"The storekeepers on the Alleghany River from above Pittsburg to New
Orleans are obliged to keep every article which it is possible that the
farmer and manufacturer may want. Each of their shops exhibits a
complete medley: a magazine, where are to be had both a needle and an
anchor, a tin pot and a large copper boiler, a child's whistle and a
piano-forte, a _ring-dial_ and a clock," &c.

J. M. B.

_Ring Dials_.--I was interested with the reference to _Pocket Sun-dials_ in
"NOTES AND QUERIES," pp. 52. 107. because it re-furnished an opportunity of
placing in print a scrap of information on the subject, which I neglected
to embrace when I first read MR. KNIGHT'S note on the passage in
Shakspeare. About seventy years ago these small, cheap, brass "Ring-dials"
for the pocket were manufactured by the gross by a firm in Sheffield
(Messrs. Proctor), then in Milk street. I well remember the workman--an old
man in my boyhood--who had been employed in making them, as he said, "in
basketsful;" and also his description of the _modus operandi_, which was
curious enough. They were of different sizes and prices, and their extreme
rarity at present, considering the number formerly in use, is only less
surprising than the commonness