"Previous to the suppression of monasteries in Hull, it was the custom for the monks to provide liberally for the poor and the wayfarer who came to the fair, held annually on the 11th of October; and while busy in this necessary preparation the day before the fair, a dog strolled into the larder, snatched up a joint of meat and decamped with it. The cooks gave the alarm; and when the dog got into the street, he was pursued by the expectants of the charity of the monks, who were waiting outside the gate, and made to give up the stolen joint. Whenever, after this, a dog showed his face, while this annual preparation was going on, he was instantly beaten off. Eventually this was taken up by the boys; and, until the introduction of the new police, was rigidly put in practice by them every 10th of October." I write this on October 10, 1853: and so effectually has this custom been suppressed, that I have neither seen nor heard of any dog having been this day whipped according to ancient custom. JOHN RICHARDSON. 13. Savile Street, Hull. _State_: _Hamlet_, Act I. Sc. 1.--Professor Wilson proposed that in the "high and palmy _state_ of Rome," _state_ should be taken in the sense of _city_: "Write henceforth and for ever _State_ with a towering capital. State, properly republic, here specifically and pointedly means Reigning City. The ghosts walked in the city, not in the republic."--Vide "Dies Boreales," No. III., _Blackwood_, August, 1849. Query, Has this reading been adopted by our skilled Shakspearian critics? Coleridge uses _state_ for _city_ in his translation of _The Death of Wallenstein_, Act III. Sc. 7.: "What think you? Say, shall we have the _State_ illuminated In honour of the Swede?" J. M. B. * * * * * QUERIES. POLARISED LIGHT. During the last summer, while amusing myself with verifying a statement of Sir D. Brewster respecting the light of the rainbow, viz. that it is polarised in particular planes, I observed a phenomenon which startled me exceedingly, insamuch as it was quite new to me at the time; and not withstanding subsequent enquiries, I cannot find that it has been observed by any other person. I found that _the light of the blue sky is partially polarised_. When analysed with a Nichols prism, the contrast with the surrounding clouds is very remarkable; so much so, indeed, that clouds of extreme tenuity, which make no impression on the unassisted eye, are rendered plainly visible.