"I forget:
But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labour's
Most business, when I do it."

"Most" being used in the sense of "greatest," as in _Henry VI._, Pt. I.,
Act IV. Scene 1., (noticed by Steevens):--

"But always resolute in most extremes."

Thus the change of a single syllable is sufficient to make good English,
good sense, and good metre of a passage which is otherwise defective in
these three particulars. It retains the _s_ in "labours," keeps the comma
in its place, and provides that antecedent for "it," which was justly
considered necessary by MR. SINGER.

JOHN TAYLOR.

30. Upper Gower Street.

_Meaning of Waste-book_ (Vol. iii., pp. 118, 195.).--Richard Dafforne, of
Northampton, in his very curious

"Merchant's Mirrour, or Directions for the Perfect Ordering and Keeping
of his Accounts; framed by way of Debitor and Creditor after the (so
tearmed) Italian Manner, containing 250 rare Questions, with their
Answers in the form of a Dialogue; as likewise a Waste Book, with a
complete Journal and Ledger thereunto appertaining;"

annexed to Malyne's _Consuetudo vel Lex Mercatoria_, edit. 1636, folio,
gives rather a different explanation of the origin of the term "waste-book"
to that contained in the answer of your last correspondent. "WASTE-BOOK,"
he observes,

"So called, because, when the Matter is written into the Journall, then
is this Book void, and of no esteeme, especially in Holland; where the
buying people firme not the Waste-book, as here our nation doe in
England."

JAS. CROSSLEY.

_Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Craigs_ (Vol. iii., p. 119.).--L. M. M. R. is
informed that there is a tradition of King Arthur having defeated the
Saxons in the neighbourhood of this hill, to the top of which he ascended
for the purpose of viewing the country.

In the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ we have another explanation also (_sub
voce_), as follows:--

"Arthur's Seat is said to be derived, or rather corrupted, from A'rd
Seir, a 'place or field of arrows,' where people shot at a mark: and
this not improperly; for, among these cliffs is a dell, or recluse
valley, where the wind can scarcely reach, now called the Hunter's Bog,
the bottom of it being a morass."

The article concludes thus:

"The adjacent crags are supposed to have taken their name from the Earl
of Salisbury; who, in the reign of Edward III., accompanied