ntly happy.

J. KELWAY.

_To speak in Lutestring_ (Vol. viii., p. 202.).--_Lutestring_, or
_lustring_, is a particular kind of silk, and so is _taffeta_; and thus the
phrase may be explained by Shakspeare's _Love's Labour's Lost_, Act V. Sc.
8.:

"Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise."

Junius intended to ridicule such kind of affectation by persons who were,
or ought to have been, grave senators.

J. KELWAY.

_Dog Latin_ (Vol. viii., p. 218.).--A facetious friend, alluding
particularly to law Latin with its curious abbreviations, says that it is
so called because it is _cur-tailed_!

J. KELWAY.

_Longevity_ (Vol. viii., p. 113.).--I recollect seeing an old sailor in the
town of Larne, county Antrim, Ireland, in the year 1826-27, of the name of
Philip Lake, aged 110, who was said to have been a cabin boy in Lord
Anson's vessel, in one of his voyages. If any of your correspondents can
furnish the registry of his death it would be interesting.

FRAS. CROSSLEY.

Mary Simondson, familiarly known as "Aunt Polly," died recently at her
cottage near Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, at the advanced age of 126 years.

M. E.

Philadelphia.

_Definition of a Proverb_ (Vol. viii., p. 243.)--C. M. INGLEBY inquires the
source of the following definition of proverb, viz. "The wisdom of many,
and the wit of one."

"To Lord John Russell are we indebted for that admirable definition of
a proverb: 'The wisdom,' &c."--See Notes to Rogers's _Italy_, 1848.

The date is added since, in an edition of 1842; this remark makes no part
of the note on the line, "If but a sinew vibrate," &c.

Q. T.

_Ireland a bastinadoed Elephant_ (Vol. viii., p. 366.).--I venture to
suggest whether this expression may not be something more than a bull, as
[Old English W]. inclines to call it. If any one will look at a physical
map of Ireland at some little distance, a very slight exercise of the
"mind's eye" will serve to call up in the figure of that island the shape
of a creature kneeling and in pain. Lough Foyle forms the eye; the coast
from Bengore Head to Benmore Head the nose or snout; Belfast Lough the
mouth; the coast below Donaghdee the chin; County Wexford the knees. The
rest of the outline, according to the imagination of the observer, may
assume that of an elephant, or something, perhaps, "very like a whale."
Some fanciful observation of this kind may have suggested the otherwise
unaccountable simile to Curran.

POLONIUS.