_Porc-pisee_ (Vol. vi., p. 579.).--MR. WARDE will find that this is the old English way of writing _porpoise_, more nearly to the French and Italian. Spenser writes _porcpisces_, and Ray _porpesse_, i.e. _porc-pesee_. Both are quoted in Richardson. "_Wheal_ instead of milk," is _whey_ or _whig_. "To _flesh_ in sin," is to indulge in, to accustom to, to inure to, the gratification of the sinful lusts of the _flesh_. Johnson has from Hales the same expression "fleshed in sin" which he interprets "hardened." Q. Bloomsbury. _Lowbell_ (Vol. vii., pp. 181. 272.).--Your correspondents H. T. W. and M. H. will find sufficient reasons from Nares' quotations to convince them that _lowbell_ is so called from its sound; and the usage by Hammond (in Johnson) that the verb, to _lowbell_, was used consequentially to signify to frighten into a snare, and thus, to ensnare. And the noun, a snare, allurement, temptation. "Now commonly he who desires to be a minister looks not at the work, but at the wages; and by that _lure_ or _lowbell_ may be toll'd from parish to parish all the town over."--Milton, "Hirelings," &c., _Works_, vol. i. p. 529. Q. Bloomsbury. _Praying to the West_ (Vol. viii., p. 102.).--_The isles of the West_, by which is understood what we term the British Isles, in the ancient Hindoo writings are described as _the Sacred Isles_, or the abode of religion. The Celtic tribes used the practice of turning to the West in their religious rites, having adopted it in a very early age from a reason similar to that which led the _Turks_ in a later age to turn towards Mecca, and _other nations_ towards the East; that is, the superior sanctity attached by each to these several points. This practice the Celtic tribes brought with them in their migration from the East to those parts in which we now find it in the West; where it has been retained by their descendants after the circumstances which gave rise to it had been long forgotten. G. W. Stansted, Montfichet. _Old Dog_ (Vol. iv., p. 21.).--See _The Observer_ (Cumberland's), No. 131.:--"Uncle Antony was _an old dog_ at a dispute." P. J. F. GANTILLON, B.A. _Contested Elections_ (Vol. vii., p. 208.).--An account of many of the English contested elections may be found in Oldfield's _Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland_, 6 vols.: London, 1816. I hope that X. Y. Z. does not rank this among the "wretched compilations." Oldfield was a man of much experience as a parliamentary agent, and his book is entertaining--at least, to us Americans. M. E. Philadelphia. _"Rathe" in the Sense of "early"_ (Vol. vii., p. 634. _et alibi._).--See _The Antiquary_, cap. xxxix. (vol. i. p. 468. People's Edition), where Maggie Mucklebacket says: "I havena had the grace yet to come down to thank your honour for the credit ye did puir Steenie, wi' laying his head in a _rath_ grave." The Glossary explains the word as _ready_, _quick_, _early_. P. J. F. GANTILLON, B.A.