degree, but retaining
distinctly its woody texture. Dr. MacCulloch, _On Rocks_, p. 636.,
observes: "In its chemical properties, lignite holds a station
intermediate between peat and coal; while among the varieties a
gradation in this respect may be traced; the brown and more organised
kinds approaching very near to peat, while the more compact kinds, such
as jet, approximate to coal."]

_Bishop Bathurst._--I have heard it often asserted that the late Dr.
Bathurst, Bishop of Norwich, was the youngest of _forty-two_ children. Can
this {423} be satisfactorily ascertained? I remember hearing it many years
since during the bishop's lifetime. Such a circumstance is not beyond the
bounds of possibility, if we are to believe the Parish Register of
Bermondsey; for there appears an entry there of the marriage, on Jan. 4,
1624-5, of James Harriott, Esq., one of the _forty_ children of his father.
I myself knew intimately a lady, a clergyman's widow, who was the mother of
twenty-six children (Vol. v., p. 106.; Vol. ix., p. 186.); and I have heard
it said that one of her brothers-in-law was father of twenty-four, and
another of fourteen children. The late Sir Robert Wigram, Bart., had
twenty-four children: he died at the age of eighty-six.

Y. S. M.

[Mrs. Thistlethwaite, in her _Memoirs_ of her father, p. 6, states,
that "Benjamin Bathurst, Esq., the father of the Bishop of Norwich,
having married, first, Miss Poole, an heiress, he had issue by her
twenty-two children; by his second wife, Miss Brodrick, daughter of Dr.
Brodrick, a Brother of Lord Midleton's, Mr. Bathurst had a second
family of fourteen children, of whom my father was third child and
second son. He was a seven months' child, and I have heard that he was
so extremely small an infant, that he could not be dressed like other
children for some time after his birth, but was obliged to be wrapped
in cotton. My father used to say in a joke, that he was wrapped in
cotton, and put into a quart mug." The bishop's father had four
children, one daughter and three sons. These four had a hundred
children between them, thirty-six of whom fell to the lot of the
bishop's father.]

"_Selah._"--What is the meaning of the word _Selah_, which occurs so often
in the Psalms? I have observed that most people, in reading, omit it.
Should it be read or not?

F. M. MIDDLETON.

[A diversity of opinion pr