{328} The incident, however, is one too familiar in schoolboy life to make the repetition of the story a matter of surprise. The property in an apple growing within the reach of a boy's hand has from time immemorial been in peril, and the law itself has not always regarded it as an object of scrupulous protection. The old laws of the Rheingau, and (if I mistake not) of some other states, warranted a wayfaring man in picking apples from any tree, provided he did not exceed the number of three. E. SMIRKE. * * * * * FOLK LORE. _Subterranean Bells_ (Vol. vii., pp. 128. 200.).--In answer to J. J. S.'s inquiry, I beg to state, that at Crosmere, near Ellesmere, Shropshire, where there is one of a number of pretty lakes scattered throughout that district, there is a tradition of a chapel having formerly stood on the banks of the lake. And it is said that the belief once was, that whenever the waters were ruffled by wind, the chapel bells might be heard as singing beneath the surface. This, though bearing on the subject of "submarine" or "subaqueous," rather than "subterranean" bells, illustrates, I think, the tradition to which J. J. S. refers. J. W. M. Hordley, Ellesmere. _Welsh Legend of the Redbreast._--According to my old nurse (a Carmarthenshire woman), the redbreast, like Prometheus, is the victim ~philanthrôpou tropou~. Not only the babes in the wood, but mankind at large, are indebted to these deserving favourites. How could any child help regarding with grateful veneration the little bird with bosom red, when assured-- "That far, far, far away is a land of woe, darkness, spirits of evil, and _fire_. Day by day does the little bird bear in his bill a drop of water to quench the flame. So near to the burning stream does he fly, that his dear little feathers are _scorched_: and hence he is named Bron-_rhuddyn_.[5] To serve little children, the robin dares approach the Infernal Pit. No good child will hurt the devoted benefactor of man. The robin returns from the land of _fire_, and therefore he feels the _cold_ of winter far more than his brother birds. He shivers in the brumal blast; hungry, he chirps before your door. Oh! my child, then, in gratitude throw a few crumbs to poor red-breast." Why, a Pythagorean would have eaten a peacock sooner than one of us would have injured a robin. R. P. [Footnote 5: Bron-rhuddyn = "breast-burnt," or "breast-scorched."] * * * * * JOHNSONIANA. I inclose you a transcript of a letter of Boswell's which I think worthy of being permanently recorded, and am not aware of its having been before in print. Edinburgh, 11th April, 1774. Dear Sir,