It may probably be new to most of your readers, as it is to me, that an ancient house in Blackwall (opposite the Artichoke Tavern) is said to have been the residence of Sebastian Cabot at one time, and at another that of _Sir Walter Raleigh_. Whether the tradition be true or not, the house is very curious, and worth a visit, if not worthy of being sketched and engraved to preserve its memory. Perhaps the photograph in this case could be applied. It is not impossible that Sir John de Pulteney or Poultney, to whom the manor of Poplar was granted in the 24th of Edward III., resided on this spot. My reasons for thinking it are--this fact, which connects him with the neighbourhood; and the inference from two other facts, viz. that the house in which Sir John resided in town was {264} called _Cold Harbour_, and that _Cold Harbour_ is here also to be found. Sir John Pulteney is thus connected with both the places known by this name. I would give my name in verification, but you have it, as you should have the names and addresses of all your correspondents. B. H. C. Poplar. * * * * * PICTS' HOUSES IN ABERDEENSHIRE. A short time ago, one of those remarkable remains of a very remote antiquity, and called by the country-people Picts' Houses, Yird, Eirde, or Erde houses, was discovered by Mr. Douglass, farmer, Culsh, in the parish of Tarland, Aberdeenshire, near his farm-steading, on the property of our noble Premier. It is a subterranean vault, of a form approaching the semicircular, but elongated at the farther end. Its extreme length is thirty-eight feet; its breadth at the entrance a little more than two feet, gradually widening towards the middle, where the width is about six feet, and it continues at about that average. The height is from five and a half to six feet. The sides are built with stones, some of them in the bottom very large; the roof is formed of large stones, six or seven feet long, and some of them weighing above a ton and a half. They must have been brought from the neighbouring hill of Saddle-lick, about two miles distant, being of a kind of granite not found nearer the spot. The floor is formed of the native rock (hornblende), and is very uneven. When discovered it was full of earth, and in the process of excavation there was found some wood ashes, fragments of a glass bottle, and an earthenware jar (modern), some small fragments of bones, and one or two teeth of a ruminant animal, and the upper stone of a querne (hand-corn-mill, mica schist), together with a small fragment, probably of the lower stone. But, alas! there were no hieroglyphics or cuneiform inscriptions to assist the antiquary in his researches. These underground excavations have been found in various parishes in Aberdeenshire, as well as in several of the neighbouring counties. In the parish of Old Deer, about fifty years ago, a whole village of them was come upon; and about the same time, in a den at the back of