a good deal of cleverness.  This horse’s head is called Mari Lwyd, which I have heard translated “grey mare.” Llwyd certainly is grey, but Mari is not a mare, in Welsh.  I think I have heard that there is some connection between it and the camel which often appears in old pictures of the Magi offering their gifts.  Can any of your readers inform me of the real meaning of the name, and the origin of the custom, and also whether a similar custom does not prevail in some parts of Oxfordshire?

PWCCA.

Fall of Rain in England.—­Can you give me any information respecting the fall of rain in England?  I mean the quantity of rain that has fallen in various parts of the island, from month to month, during the last ten, fifteen, or twenty years.  If any of your correspondents can do that, or can give me a list of works, periodical or otherwise, in which such information is to be found, they will greatly oblige me.

Can any of your correspondents inform me who is the author of the following lines?—­

  “Though with forced mirth we oft may soothe a smart,
  What seemeth well, is oft not well, I ween;
  For many a burning breast and bleeding heart,
  Hid under guise of mirth is often seen.”

ROYDON.

Rev. J. Edwards on Metals for Telescopes.—­I shall feel obliged if any of your correspondents can inform me where I can find a paper, called “Directions for making the best Composition for the Metals of reflecting Telescopes, and the Method of grinding, polishing, and giving the great Speculum the true parabolic figure,” by the Rev. John Edwards, B.A.

I saw it some years ago in on old journal or transactions, but Capt.  Cuttle’s maxim not having been then given to the world, and being now unable to make a search, I avail myself of your valuable publication.

[Hebrew]

Colonel Blood’s House.—­The notorious Colonel Blood is said to have resided at a house in Peter Street, Westminster.  Tradition points out the corner of Tufton Street.  Can any of your readers give me information as to the correctness of this statement?

E.F.R.

John Lucas’s MS. Collection of English Songs.—­Ames, the author of the Typographical Antiquities, is said to have had in his possession a folio MS. volume of English Songs or Ballads, composed or collected by one John Lucas, about the year 1450.  If this MS. is in private hands, the possessor would confer an essential service on the antiquarian public by informing them of its contents.

E.F.R.

Theophania.—­I send you a copy, verbatim et literatim, of the title-page of an old book in my possession, in the hope that some one of your correspondents may be able to furnish me with information respecting its author.  I believe the work to be a very scarce one, having never seen or heard of any other copy than my own.