_Giving Quarter_ (Vol. viii., p. 246.).--It must be observed that the older form of the expression is "keeping quarter:" "That every one should kill the man he caught, To _keep no quarter_."--_Drayton in Richardson._ Now very obvious application of the word _quarter_, instanced by Todd, is to signify the proper station or appointed place of any one. "They do best who, if they cannot but admit love, yet make it _keep quarter_, and sever it wholly from their serious affairs."--Bacon's _Essays_. To keep quarter, then, is to keep within measure, within the limits or bounds appointed by some paramount consideration; and hence, as in the following passage from Shakspeare (where it is clumsily interpreted amity or companionship), the word is used as synonymous with terms or conditions: "Friends all but now, In quarter and in terms like bride and groom Divesting them for bed, and then but now Swords out and tilting one at other's breast." In the same sense Clarendon speaks of "offering them _quarter_ for their lives if they would give up the castle," _i. e._ offering them conditions for their lives on their performing their part of the bargain. Again, in a passage of Swift, cited by Todd: "Mr. Wharton, who detected some hundred of the bishop's mistakes, meets with very ill quarter from his Lordship," _i. e._ meets with very ill conditions of treatment from him. Finally, _to give quarter_ in the military sense is to give conditions absolutely, as opposed to the unmitigated exercise of the victor's power, and, as the most important of all conditions, to spare life. H. W. _Sheriffs of Glamorganshire_ (Vol. iii., p. 186.).--The list of the Glamorganshire sheriffs here inquired for was not printed by Mr. Traherne, but by the Rev. H. H. Knight, M.A., of Neath, and of Nottage Court, in Glamorganshire: it is a little pamphlet in a paper cover. TEWARS. "_When the maggot bites_" (Vol. viii., p. 244.).--A correspondent asks why a thing done on the spur of the moment is said to be done "when the maggot bites." It signifies rather doing a thing when the fancy takes one. When a person acts from no apparent motive in external circumstances, he is said to have a maggot in his head, to have a bee in his bonnet or, in French, "Avoir des rats dans la tete;" in Platt-Deutsch, to have a mouse-nest in his head, the eccentric behaviour being attributed to the influence of the internal irritation. H. W. _Connexion between the Celtic and Latin Languages_ (Vol. viii., p. 174.).--Your correspondent M. will find much valuable information on this subject in a work entitled _Thoughts on the Origin and Descent of the Gael_, by James Grant, Esq., Advocate: Edinburgh, Constable & Co., 1814. FRANCIS JOHN SCOTT. Tewkesbury. _Bacon's Essays_ (Vol. viii., p. 143.).--Bacon's Essay VII.: "Optimum elige," &c. Pythagoras, in _Plutarch de Exilio_.--Essay XV.: "Dolendi modus," &c. Plin., lib. viii. ep. 17. fin. C. P. E.