"There is another conceit of better notice, and _whispered thorow the world_ with some attention; credulous and vulgar auditors readily believing it, and more judicious and distinctive heads not altogether rejecting it. The conceit is excellent, and, if the effect would follow, somewhat divine: whereby we might communicate like spirits, and confer on earth with Menippus in the moon. And this is pretended from the sympathy of two needles touched with the same loadstone, and placed in the centre of two abecedary circles, or rings with letters described round about them, one friend keeping one, and another the other, and agreeing upon the hour wherein they will communicate. For then, _saith tradition_, at what distance of place soever, when one needle shall be removed unto any letter, the other, by a wonderful sympathy, will move unto the same."--Book II. chap. ii, 4to., 1669, p. 77. Thus it is that "coming events cast their shadows before:" and, in the present case, one is curious to learn how far back the _shadow_ may be traced. By whom has this _conceit_ been _whispered thorow the world_? and in what musty tomes is that _tradition_ concealed, which speaks concerning it? Kircher's _Catena Magnetica_ might haply tell us something in reply to these inquiries. In conformity with an often repeated suggestion to the correspondents of "N. & Q.," to the simple signature of my _habitat_, alone hitherto adopted by me, I now subjoin my name. WM. MATTHEWS. Cowgill. * * * * * Minor Queries. _Sir Walter Raleigh._--In the discussions on the copyright question some years ago, Sir Walter Raleigh was mentioned as one of the authors whose posterity is totally extinct; but in his Life, as given in _Lodge's Portraits_, his descendants are given as far down as his great-grandchildren, of whom many were still living in 1699, at which period, says Mr. Lodge, my information ceases. It seems unlikely that a family then so numerous should have utterly perished since, both in its male and female branches; and perhaps some of your correspondents may be able to trace their subsequent history: the _name_ is certainly not extinct, whether its bearers be his descendants or not. Is the gallant Sir Walter Raleigh Gilbert descended from one of Sir Walter's half-brothers? J. S. WARDEN. _Ancient Fortifications: Hertstone, Pale, Brecost._--In the Clause Rolls, 16 John, M. 6. (_Public Records_, vol. i. p. 192.) is a warrant of King John's, addressed to the bailiffs of Peter de Maulay of Doncaster, as follows: "Mandam' vob' q[=d] villa de Danecast[=r] claudi faciatis heritone et palo sc[=d]m q[=d] fossatu f[=cm] exigit, et una leve bretasca fi faciatis su[p=] ponte ad villa defendenda." Which, in Miller's History of that town (p. 40.), is thus translated: