ndant of that gentleman.

W. EWART.

Pimperne, Dorset.

_Boswell's "Johnson."_--In vol. v. p. 272. of _my_ favourite edition, and
p. 784. of the edition in one volume, Johnson, writing to Brocklesby, under
date Sept. 2, 1784, calls Windham "inter stellas Luna minores." Boswell, in
a note, says, "It is remarkable that so good a Latin scholar as Johnson
should have been so inattentive to the metre, as by mistake to have written
_stellas_ instead of _ignes_." Now, with all due deference, a Captain of
Native Infantry ventures to suggest that both _stellas_ and _ignes_ are
wrong, and that Johnson was thinking of the noble opening of Horace's 15th
Epode:

"Nox erat, et coelo fulgebat _Luna_ sereno,
_Inter minora_ sidera."

F. C.

Bangalore.

_Stage Coaches._--It occurs to me as highly desirable that, before the
recollection of the old stage coach has faded from the memory of all but
the oldest inhabitant, an authentic statement should be placed on record of
the length of the stages, and the speed that was obtained, by this mode of
conveyance, in which England was for so many years without a rival.

The speed of mail coaches is, I believe chronicled in the British Almanac
of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; but their speed, if I
mistake not, was surpassed by that of the "Rival," which travelled (from
Monmouth, I think) to London after the opening of the Great Western
Railway.

Could any of your correspondents favour us with the time-bill of that
coach, detailing the length of the several stages, and the time of
performance? It would also be interesting to chronicle the period during
which this rivalry with the railway was maintained.

GEO. E. FRERE.

_Antecedents._--The word "antecedents," as a plural, and in the sense
attached to it by the French, is not to be found in any English dictionary
that I have the means of consulting. And yet it seems now to be commonly
used as an English expression, even by some of our best writers.

When was this word first imported, and by whom? I have just met with an
instance of it in Jerdan's _Autobiography_, vol. i. p. 131.:

"I got him (Hammon), with a full knowledge of his antecedents, into the
employment of a humane and worthy wine merchant of Bordeaux."

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia.

_The Letter X._--The letter X on brewers' casks is probably thus derived:

_Simplex_ = single x, or X.
_Duplex_ = double x, or XX.
_Triplex_ = trebl