[Footnote 2:  Mr. Cunningham, speaking of Houndsditch, merely quotes the words of Stow.  It would appear that Stow’s reason for the name is entirely conjectural; and indeed the same reason would justify the same name being applied to all the “ditches” in London in the year 1500, and indeed much later.  This passage of Arnold throws a new light upon the name, at least, of that rivulet; for stagnant its waters could not be, from its inclination to the horizon.  It, however, raises another question respecting the mode of keeping and feeding hounds in those days; and likewise, as suggested in the text, the further question, as to the purpose for which these hounds were thus kept as a part of the civic establishment.]

[Footnote 3:  This view will no doubt be contested on the authority of Stow, who describes the tonne as a “prison for night-walkers,” so called from the form in which it was built.  (Cunningham, p. 141., 2nd ed.) Yet, as Mr. Cunningham elsewhere states (p. xxxix.), “the Tun upon Corn-hill [was] converted into a conduit” in 1401, it would hardly be called a “prison” a century later.  The probability is, that the especial building called the tonne never was a prison at all; but that the prison, from standing near or adjoining the tonne, took its name, the tonne prison, in conformity with universal usage.  It is equally probable that the tonne was originally built for the purpose to which it was ultimately applied; and that some delay arose in its use from the difficulty experienced in the hydraulic part of the undertaking, which was only overcome in 1401.  The universality of the punishment of “ducking” amongst our ancestors is at least a circumstance in favour of the view taken in the text.]

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FOLK LORE.

Midsummer Fires.—­From your notice of Mr. Haslam’s account of the Beltein or Midsummer fires in Cornwall, I conclude you will give a place to the following note.  On St. John’s eve last past, I happened to pass the day at a house situate on an elevated tract in the county of Kilkenny, Ireland; and I shall long remember the beauty of the sight, when, as dusk closed in, fire after fire shot up its clear flame, thickly studding the near plains and distant hills.  The evening was calm and still, and the mingled shouts and yells of the representatives of the old fire-worshippers came with a very singular effect on the ear.  When a boy, I have often passed through the fire myself on Midsummer eve, and such is still the custom.  The higher the flame, the more daring the act is considered:  hence there is a sort of emulation amongst the unwitting perpetrators of this Pagan rite.  In many places cattle are driven through the fire; and this ceremony is firmly believed to have a powerful effect in preserving them from various harms.  I need not say, that amongst the peasantry the fires are now lighted in honour of St John.