_Swan-marks_ (Vol. viii., p 62.).--W. COLLYN'S remark on swan-marks may mislead; therefore it is worth noting that "the swan with two necks" is not "a corruption of the _private_ mark of the owner of the swans, viz. two nicks made by cutting the _neck feathers_ close in two places." The nicks were made in the _beak_; and the privilege of having swan-marks was by grant from the crown. The Vintners' Company's mark for their swans on the Thames was two nicks; hence a two-nicked swan was a very appropriate sign for a tavern. The royal swans are marked with five nicks, two lengthwise, and three across the bill (See Hone's {257} _Every-day Book_, 1827, p. 963; Yarrell's _British Birds_; Jardine's _Nat. Lib._; _Penny Cyclop._, art. "Swan.") It is to be noted, however, that Hone is in error in saying the two nicks are the _royal_ swan-mark. EDEN WARWICK. Birmingham. _Limerick, Dublin, and Cork_ (Vol. viii., p. 102.).--I should think the author of this doggrel couplet, if we are to consider it as a fair specimen of his poetic genius, may safely be permitted to remain in obscurity. Be that as it may, the lines are by no means new, nor are they confined to the sister isle alone. In the _Prophecies of Nixon_, the Cheshire Merlin, who lived nobody knows when, except that it was certainly a "long time ago," we are given to understand that: "London streets shall run with blood, And at last shall sink So that it shall be fulfilled, That Lincoln was, London is, and York shall be The finest city of the three." As I have just stated, the original date of these _Prophecies_ is somewhat involved in mystery; but I myself possess copies of three different editions published during the last century, the first of the three, purporting to be the sixth edition, bearing date London, 1719. A Life of Nixon, affixed to this edition, states him to have lived and prophesied in the reign of King James I.; at whose court, we are farther told, he was, in conformity with his own prediction, starved to death. His _Prophecies_ are, by the learned, held to be apocryphal; the country folk of Cheshire, on the contrary, have as much faith in them and their author as they have in the fact of their own existence. T. HUGHES. Chester. _"Could we with ink," &c._ (Vol. viii., pp. 127. 180.).--I am surprised that none of your correspondents has referred to Smart, the translator of Horace, who has been frequently stated to be the writer of these lines, and I believe with truth. E. H. D. D.