I concur with Mr. Lodge. The style of the letter is quite modern: the verb "bully" seems also quite a modern coinage and the signature varies from the usual setting forth and sequence of titles contained in the inscriptions which the Countess placed over the gateways of her castles, as she repaired them, and which ran thus, the peerages being placed in the order of their creation, viz.: "Countess Dowager of Pembroke, Dorset, and Montgomery." In support of the genuineness of the letter, it may be urged that Sir Joseph Williamson, from an early period after the Restoration until 1674, when he became Secretary of State, held various offices about the Court that might have thus brought him into collision with the Countess; that he was not a very scrupulous man; that he was the "son of a clergyman somewhere in _Cumberland_;" and that his highest promotion took place before the death of the Countess in 1675. (For some account of him, see Evelyn's _Memoirs_, Index.) To this it may be added, that the letter accords with her courageous spirit. Can no earlier authority be given for it than that of _The World_ in 1753? J. K. [Although this subject has been already briefly discussed in our columns (see Vol. i., pp. 28. 119. 154.), we think it of sufficient interest to be renewed, now that our increased circulation will bring it under the notice of so many more readers; among whom, {155} perhaps one may be found in a position to solve the mystery in which the authenticity of this oft-quoted letter is at present involved.] * * * * * Minor Queries. _Mediæval Parchment._--In what way did mediæval illuminators prepare their parchment? For our modern parchment is so ill prepared, that it gets crumpled as soon as wet chalk for gilding, or any colour, is laid on it; whilst the parchment in mediæval MSS. is quite smooth and level, as if it had not been moistened at all. Should a full answer to this Query take up too much of your valuable space, I should be satisfied with the titles of any works on the art of "illumination," in which special mention is made of the way of preparing parchment. F. M. (A Maltese.) "_Mater ait natæ._"--Where can the following lines, thus "Englished by Hakewill," be found? "Mater ait natæ, dic natæ, filiâ, natam Ut moneat natæ plangere[2] filiolam." "The aged mother to her daughter spake, Daughter, said she, arise; Thy daughter to her daughter take, Whose daughter's daughter cries." My object in asking the above question is for the purpose of discovering if such a relationship ever existed. W. W. Malta. [Footnote 2: "plangere" corrected from "piangere".--Transcriber.]