[Brand quotes Vallancey and Leo Modena for the use of the marriage ring among the Jews (_Popular Antiq._, vol. ii. p. 103. edit. 1849). Wheatly, however, has given the most detailed account of its origin:--"The reason," he says, "why a ring was pitched upon for the pledge rather than anything else was, because anciently the ring was a _seal_, by which all orders were signed, and things of value secured (Gen. xxxviii. 18., Esther iii. 10. 12., 1 Maccab. vi. 15.); and therefore the delivery of it was a sign that the person to whom {333} it was given was admitted into the highest friendship and trust (Gen. xli. 42.). For which reason it was adopted as a ceremony in marriage to denote that the wife, in consideration of her being espoused to the man, was admitted as a sharer in her husband's counsels, and a joint-partner in his honour and estate: and therefore we find that not only the _ring_, but the _keys_ also were in former times delivered to her at the marriage. That the ring was in use among the old Romans, we have several undoubted testimonies (Juvenal, _Sat._ vi. ver. 26, 27.; Plin. _Hist. Nat._, lib. iii. c. i.; Tertull. _Apol._, c. vi. p. 7. A.). Pliny, indeed, tells us, that in his time the Romans used an iron ring without any jewel; but Tertullian hints, that in the former ages it was a ring of gold."--_Rational Illustration of the Common Prayer_, p. 390. edit. 1759.] _Amusive._--Is this word peculiar to Thomson, or is it made use of by other poets? Its meaning does not appear to be very definite. In the _Spring_ it is applied to the rooks, with their "ceaseless caws amusive;" in the _Summer_ to the thistledown, which "amusive floats;" and in the _Autumn_, the theory of the supposed cause of mountain springs is called an "amusive dream." Thomson seems to have been partial to these kind of adjectives, "effusive," "diffusive," "prelusive," &c. CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A. [A reference to Richardson's _Dictionary_ will show that, however fond Thomson may have been of this word, it is not one peculiar to him. Whitehead says: "To me 'twas given to wake _th' amusive_ reed," and Chandler, in his _Travels in Greece_, speaks of the wind "murmuring _amusively_ among the pines."] _Belfry Towers separate from the Body of the Church._--At Mylor, near Falmouth, there is an old tower for the bells (where they are rung every Sunday), separate from the church itself, which has a very low tower. Are there many other instances of this? I do not remember to have seen any. J. S. A.