Dr. Whichcot and Lord Shaftesbury.—­Your correspondent “C.” (No. 24. p. 382.) will find in the Alumni Etonenses, by Harwood, printed at Birmingham by Pearson, and by Caddell, jun., and Davies, Strand, 1797, at p. 46. in the account of Whichcot, under the head of “Provosts of King’s College,” the following passage:—­“A volume of his sermons was published in 1628, from copies taken in short-hand as they were delivered from the pulpit, with a preface by Lord Shaftesbury.”  In a MS. account of the provosts it is stated, “the first volume of his discourses, published by Lord Shaftesbury, 1698;” and that one of his brothers was alive in 1749, at Finchley, aged 96.

A letter from Lord Lauderdale to Dr. Whichcot is in MS. Harl. 7045. p. 473.  I take the figures from a printed, but not published, account of some of the proceedings relating to Dr. Whichcot’s deprivation of his provostship at the Restoration, in which Lord Lauderdale says, “For I took an opportunity, in the presence of my Lord Chamberlain, your Chancellor, to acquaint his Majesty with those excellent endowments with which God hath blesst you, and which render you so worthie of the place you enjoy, (which the King heard very graciously); afterwards he spoke with my Lord Chamberlain about your concerns, and he and I are both of opinion there is no fear as to your concerns.”  Was Shaftesbury ever Chancellor of Cambridge? or who was the Lord Chamberlain who at that time was Chancellor of the university?  I have no means of referring to any University History as to these points.

COLL.  REGAL.  SOCIUS.

Black Doll at Old Store Shops.—­I asked you some time since the origin of the Black Doll at Old Store Shops; but you did not insert my Query, which curiously enough has since been alluded to by Punch, as a mystery only known to, or capable of being interpreted by, the editor of “Notes and Queries.”

A.C.

[We are obliged to our correspondent and also to our witty contemporary for this testimony to our omniscience, and show our sense of their kindness by giving them two explanations.  The first is, the story which has been told of its originating with a person who kept a house for the sale of toys and rags in Norton Falgate some century since, to whom an old woman brought a large bundle of rags for sale, with a desire that it might remain unopened until she could call again to see it weighed.  Several weeks having elapsed without her re-appearance, the ragman opened the bundle, and finding in it a black doll neatly dressed, with a pair of gold ear-rings, hung it over his door, for the purpose of its being owned by the woman who had left it.  The plan succeeded, and the woman, who had by means of the black doll recovered her bundle of rags, presented it to the dealer; and the story becoming known, the black doll was adopted as the favourite sign of this class of shopkeepers.  Such is the romance of the black doll; the reality, we believe, will be