The following recipe for taking paint off old oak is from No. 151. of _The Builder_: "Make a strong solution of American potash (which can be bought at any colour-shop, and resembles burnt brick in appearance); mix this with sawdust into a kind of paste, and spread it all over the paint, which will become softened in a few hours, and is then easily removed by washing with cold water. If, after the wood has dried, it becomes cracked, apply a solution of hot size with a brush, which will bind it well together and make it better for varnishing, as well as destroy the beetle which is often met with in old oak, and is erroneously called the worm." The following is also from the same Number: "To make dark oak pale in colour, which is sometimes a desideratum, apply with a brush a little dilute nitric acid judiciously; and to stain light oak dark, use the dregs of black ink and burnt amber mixed. It is better to try these plans on oak of little value at first, as, to make a good job, requires care, practice, and attention." H. C. K. F. M. MIDDLETON will find that American potash, soft soap, and warm water, will remove paint from oak. The mixture should be applied with a paint-brush, and allowed to remain on until the paint and it can be removed by washing with warm water and a hard brush. GETSRN. * * * * * BURIAL IN AN ERECT POSTURE. (Vol. viii., p. 5.) Your correspondent CHEVERELLS refers to the "tradition" of one of the Harcourt family being buried in an erect posture, and asks, "Is the probability of this being the case supported by any, and what instances?" As this Query has been raised, it may be worth while to mention the following circumstance, as a singular illustration of a remarkable subject; though (as will be seen) the actual burial in an erect posture is here also probably "traditional." Towards the close of the last century, there lived in Kidderminster an eccentric person of the name of Orton (_not_ that Orton, the friend of Doddridge, who passed some time in the town), but "Job Orton," the landlord of the Bell Inn. During his lifetime he erected his tomb in the parish churchyard, with this _memento-mori_ inscription graven in large characters on the upper slab: "Job Orton, a man from Leicestershire; And when he's dead, he must lie under here."