annot better answer than in
palindrome, _Trash? even interpret Nineveh's art!_ for the deciphering of
the cuneiform character is both a respectable and a useful exercise of
ingenuity. The English language, however, is not susceptible of any great
amount of palindromic compositions. The Latin is, of all, the best adapted
for that fancy. I append an inscription for a hospital, which is a
paraphrase of a verse in the Psalms:

"Acide me malo, sed non desola me, medica."

I doubt whether such compositions should ever be characterised by the term
_sotadic_. Sotadic verses were, I believe, restricted to indecent
love-songs.

C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.

Birmingham.

_Detached Church Towers_ (Vol. vii. _passim_; Vol. viii., p. 63.).--At
Morpeth, in Northumberland, the old parish church stands on an eminence at
the distance of a mile from the town. In the market-place is a square clock
tower, the bells in which are used for ordinary parochial purposes.

At Kirkoswald, in Cumberland, where the church stands low, the belfry has
been erected on an adjoining hill.

E. H. A.

_Bishop Ferrar_ (Vol. viii., p. 103.).--Bishop Ferrar, martyred in Queen
Mary's reign, was not of the same family with the Ferrers, Earl of Derby
and Nottingham. Was your correspondent led to think so from the fact of the
martyr having been originally a bishop of the Isle of Man?

A LINEAL DESCENDANT OF THE MARTYR.

Cambridge.

"_They shot him by the nine stone rig_" (Vol. viii., p. 78.).--This
fragmentary ballad is to be found in the _Border Minstrelsy_. It was
contributed by R. Surtees of Mainsforth, co. Durham, and described by him
as having been taken down from the recitation of Anne Douglas, an old woman
who weeded in his garden. It is however most likely that it is altogether
factitious, and Mr. Surtees' own production, Anne Douglas being a pure
invention.

The ballad called "The Fray of Haltwhistle," a portion of which, "How the
Thirlwalls and the Ridleys a'," &c., is interwoven with the text in the
first canto of _Marmion_, is generally understood to have been composed by
Mr. Surtees. He, however, succeeded in palming it upon Scott as a genuine
old ballad; and states that he had it from the recitation of an ancient
dame, mother of one of the miners of Alston Moor. Scott's taste for old
legends and ballads was certainly not too discriminating, or he would never
have swallowed "The Fray of Haltwhistle." Perhaps he suspected its
authenticity,