MR. URBAN,-With reference to the inquiry of T. W. P. in your Magazine for Feb. 1849 (p. 114) for the arms of DE ROUBAIX FAMILY, I, as one of the members of the family of that name, have herewith the honour to transmit a copy of an impression of the said arms, which was obtained by me from my grandfather Petrus de Roubaix, who came to this place as secretary in a Dutch man-of-war in or about 1782, and, in consequence of ill health, remained behind, married, and died here. His father left France, where he was born, under the following circumstances, as appears from a brief written statement of my said grandfather, which remained with the family after his demise, and of which the following is a true copy, translated from the Dutch language:-" My father, Emanuel Joseph de Roubaix, de Tourcoing, died at the Hague, in the age of nearly 74 years, in the year 1775, born a Marquis, descended of a most noble extraction. The estates de Roubaix and Tourcoing, in Picardie, in France (which after his flight were confiscated by the French government), belonged to him, and which he left and fled from in consequence of the persecution in France against the Protestant reformed religion. He settled himself in the Hague, where he was greatly esteemed by reason of his abilities and skill in all arts, sciences, and languages, and was afterwards promoted to the rank of Lieut.-Col. of the Engineers, in which branch, as well as that of surveying, he rendered many services to the Dutch government, and for which he has obtained their approbation. He married in the year 1764 with my mother, named Margaretha Woest."-Yours, &c.

P. E. DE ROUBAIX. Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope. Note. The impression in sealing-wax inclosed by this Correspondent with this letter was wholly defaced by pressure; but another writer communicated a reply respecting the arms in question, which was inserted in our number for March, 1849, p. 226.-EDIT.

P. C. informs us that the Brechin seal noticed at p. 607 of our last number is not one of the "episcopal see of that name,

but of the court of the official of that diocese. Its legend is Sigillum curie officialis brecinensis, and its device the mitred head of St. Columba, and beneath it a hunting horn stringed. The latter feature makes it probable that the official's name was Forester, of which name there were several churchmen in that diocese, and a Walter Forester was Bishop of Brechin in the very beginning of the fifteenth cen

tury, and it is not improbable that he may have been official before he was elevated to the see; but there was a Gilbert Forester who was archdeacon at a somewhat later period within that century. There was also a considerable family of landowners of the name in the immediate neighbourhood, who bore for their arms three hunting horns stringed, some cadets of the family bearing only one. From Mr. H. Laing's "Catalogue of Scottish Seals" it appears that this matrix was found near Montrose in 1848, and then surrendered as treasure-trove to the Queen's Remembrancer in the Exchequer.

With reference to the term bridge as applied to landing-places, Mr. John Acklam, of Gravesend, has the kindness to inform us that it is still used at that town in regard to various low wooden platforms running from waterside premises to the low water mark, at which persons can land from small boats at all times of the tide. The modern piers are similar contrivances for large vessels, and consequently built on a larger scale, with this difference, that, whereas the pier is on a level, and the landing always taking place at the extreme end, the different state of the tide being met by a floating barge and a staircase,the smaller landing-place is on an incline, and the passenger from the small boat steps from the boat to the "bridge." At high water these " bridges are entirely under water; at low water they are dry.

It may be interesting to some of our readers to know that the Rev. PHILIP STANHOPE DODD as well as Mr. CHILDREN, who were both subjects of articles in the Obituary of our last Magazine, were alike scholars of the Rev. Vicesimus Knox -the former receiving the whole, and the latter a part, of his education under that eminent master at Tunbridge School.

In the article on "Monetary Affairs after the Revolution of 1688," in our last Magazine, p. 567, the name of the writer of the diary is misprinted Leake instead of Jeake. He was the son of Samuel Jeake, the wellknown editor of the Charters of the Cinque Ports.

We have much pleasure in complying with the wish of CORNUBIENSIS by inserting Mr. Le Grice's Sonnet on Coleridge in our present Magazine. Our readers will recollect the sonnet by the same veteran writer "On Charles Lamb leading his Sister to the Asylum," which was inserted in our Magazine for May, 1851; and we also refer them to that for March, 1846, for Mr. Le Grice's Lines on hearing of the recovery of the Rev. Dr. Wordsworth, Master of Trinity.

Of its kind we do not know a better book than this. It does not pretend to treat the subject philosophically, but as a collection of popular legends, brought together from a variety of sources inaccessible to the general reader, translated with obvious care, well illustrated with notes, and rendered accessible by useful indexes, the work is worthy of high praise and deWe shall proserves great success. bably do justice to the author most completely, and inform our readers in the clearest way what is the nature of the book, if we throw together the information it contains upon some of those subjects of popular superstition which are best known amongst ourselves, or are common to us as well as to the nations to whose mythology these volumes relate,-perhaps common to all mankind.

We will first take Jack-o'-lantern or Will with the Whisp. Among ourselves, popular superstition imagines these flickering lights to be the false glimmering torches of mischievous little beings who seek to mislead the wandering traveller into bogs and marshes. In Northern Germany we are told that they are called by various familiar names similar to those among ourselves, and at Magdeburg are styled "light-mannikins."

Both

in Northern Germany and in Denmark the peasants say they are the souls of land-measurers who, in their

lifetime, had perpetrated injustice in their measurements, or persons who had sworn away lands, or who had removed landmarks. In punishment of these several offences they are condemned to run about at midnight, measuring with red-hot iron rods, and exclaiming "From here to there,

so much," or "Here is the clear and right boundary." (Thorpe, ii. 211, iii. 158.)

In Sweden the tradition is very precise.

According to the old popular belief a man who during life has rendered himself guilty of such a crime [removing landmarks], is doomed to have no rest in his grave after death, but to rise every midnight, and with a lantern in his hand to proceed to the spot where the land-mark had stood which he had fraudulently removed. On reaching the place he is seized with the same desire which instigated him in his lifetime, when he went forth to remove his neighbour's landmark, and he says as he goes, in a harsh, hoarse, voice, "It is right! it is right! it is right!" But on his return qualms of conscience and anguish seize him, and he then exclaims, "It is wrong! it is wrong!" (ii. 97.)

This was probably the most ancient form, that is, the heathen form, of the superstition; then followed the Christian, or priestly form; which was, that these wandering fires were the souls of unbaptized children, that have no rest in the grave, and must hover

between heaven and earth. This phase of the superstition seems most definite in the Netherlands;

Because these souls cannot enter into heaven they take their abode in forests, and in dark and desert places, where they mourn over their hard lot. If at night they get sight of any person they run up to him and then hasten on before him, to show him the way to some water, that he may baptize them therewith. And that no one should neglect to do, because the poor beings must remain without the gates of paradise until some takes pity on them. (iii. 220.)

In some places (of course boggy marshy situations) it is thought possible to call up these lights by a particular form of invocation. When they come unbidden, the best safeguard against them is " to turn one's cap inside out." If they appear at a distance they ought never to be pointed at or invoked; they will come, if they are, and then let him that has drawn them to him beware. If they assemble around a traveller in troops, his safety is to be found, not in prayers, but in curses. Swear at them manfully, and they will take to their heels at once. All this seems clear enough to be understood. To turn a man's cap is an act of exertion and consideration, and to bid a man seek safety in doing that, is to tell him, not to follow the light incautiously, but to rouse himself and think where he is going. The different effects of praying and swearing indicate in like manner that safety is to be sought in shaking off all fear and facing the misleading enemy boldly. An amusing story is told in illustration of this last point. A clergyman of Storkow, in North Germany, was driving home late at night. As he crossed a marsh, the little Jacks came buzzing about the heads of the horses, who shied, and started, and plunged, to the terror of the driver. He began to pray aloud, "but the more he prayed the more jack-o'-lanterns came." The matter was becoming worse and worse, when the clergyman's servant interfered, "Just leave that off," he said to his master, "or they will never go: but I'll send them packing;" and then he roared out at the top of his voice, "Will ye be off in the devil's name!" In a moment not a jack-o'-lantern was to be seen. (iii. 85.)

There is another story, not less pleasant, which turns upon the capture of one of these little fellows. Mr. Thorpe shall tell it in his own words.

A cow-herd, near Rathenow, who had been all day on the heath with his cattle,

on his return home at dark, was not aware that one of his cows was missing. On discovering his loss he immediately went in search of her, but, after seeking her here and there and all over the forest, without finding her, he sat down overcome with fatigue, on the stump of an old tree, and prepared to smoke his pipe. While he was thus sitting there came all at once a countless multitude of jack-o'-lanterns, dancing wildly around him, so that he

would have been not a little terrified had he not been a courageous fellow. He remained, however, sitting quietly and filling his pipe, but just as he was about to light it they began to fly about his head, so that he expected every moment they his stick and began to strike about him, would singe his hair. He therefore seized but the more he struck the more jacko'-lanterns came. At last he made a grasp at one of them, and found that he held in his hand a bone. This seemed to have scared the others, as they instantly disappeared; but the man put the bone into his pocket, lighted his pipe, and returned home. On the following morning he again drove out his herd, and also found the missing cow, but on his return in the evening, when it was already dark, he and supposing that a neighbour with a saw a couple of lights before his window,

But

lantern was come to consult him about a sick cow, he opened the window and saw the entire village street full of jacko'-lanterns, which came in large bodies dancing and whirling about, and crying "If you don't give us our comrade we will burn your house!" He now first recollected the bone, and said "Don't make such a stupid hubbub, surely the bone cannot be your comrade?" they cried yet more loudly, " If you don't give us our comrade we will burn your house!" Thinking then the matter serious, he took the bone, laid it on the palm of his hand, and held it out of the window, when it instantly became a bright, flickering jack-o'-lantern, and danced away, all the others surrounding it as in joy, and then merrily hopping and springing out of the village. (iii. 85.)

Another superstition with which we are all well acquainted is that of the Wandering Jew. That tradition is known in all the countries to which these volumes relate, and pretty nearly in one and the same form. The wanderer