_Mugger._--Why are the gipsies in the North of England called _Muggers?_ Is it because they sell mugs, and other articles of crockery, that in fact being their general vocation? or may not the word be a corruption of _Maghrabee_, which is, I think, a foreign name given to this wandering race? H. T. RILEY. _Snail-eating._--Can any of your correspondents inform me in what part of Surrey a breed of large white snails is still to be found, the first of which were brought to this country from Italy, by a member, I think, of the Arundel family, to gratify the palate of his wife, an Italian lady? I have searched Britton and Brayley's History in vain. H. T. RILEY. _Mysterious Personage._--Who is the mysterious personage, what is his real or assumed lineage, who has, not unfrequently, been alluded to in recent newspaper articles as a legitimate Roman Catholic claimant of the English throne? Of course I do not allude to those _pseudo_-Stuarts, the brothers Hay Allan. W. PINKERTON. _George Wood of Chester._--Of what family was George Wood, Esq., Justice of Chester in the first year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1558? CESTRIENSIS. _A Scale of Vowel Sounds._--Can any correspondent tell me if such scale has anywhere been agreed on for scientific purposes? Researches into the philosophy of philology are rendered excessively complex by the want of such a scale, every different inquirer adopting a peculiar notation, which is a study in itself, and which, after all, is unsatisfactory. I should feel obliged by any reference to what has been done in this matter. E. C. _Seven Oaks and Nine Elms._--Can any reader of "N. & Q." inform me whether there is any old custom or superstition connected with Seven Oaks and Nine Elms, even to be traced as far back as the time of the Druids? In some old grounds in Warwickshire there is a circle of nine old elm-trees; and, besides the well-known Nine Elms at Vauxhall, and Seven Oaks in Kent, there are several other places of the same names in England. J. S. A. Old Broad Street. _Murder of Monaldeschi._--I will thank any of your correspondents who can give me an account of the murder of Monaldeschi, equerry to Christina, Queen of Sweden. In the 2nd volume of Miss Pardoe's _Louis XIV_. (p. 177.), Christina is stated to have visited the Court of France, and housed at Fontainebleau, where she had not long been an inmate ere the tragedy of Monaldeschi took place and in a letter to Mazarin she says, "Those who acquainted you with the details regarding Monaldeschi were very ill-informed." T. C. T. _Governor Dameram._--I should be glad of any particulars respecting the above, who was Governor of Canada (I think) about the commencement of the present century. He had previously been the head of the commissariat department in the continental expeditions. TEE BEE.