There were also receipts or releases from Milton's three daughters, Anne Milton, Mary Milton, and Deborah Clarke (to the last of which Abraham Clarke was a party): the first two dated Feb. 22, 1674; the last, March 27 in the same year; for 100l. each, received of Elizabeth Milton their step-mother in consideration of their shares of their father's estate. The sums were, with the consent of Christopher Milton and Richard Powell, both described of the Inner Temple, to be disposed of in the purchase of rent-charges or annuities for the benefit of the said daughters. Two of these documents appear to be now in the possession of your correspondents MR. MARSH and MR. HUGHES; but I have met with no mention hitherto of the destination of the others. These may seem trifling minutiae to notice, but nothing can fairly be considered unimportant which may lead to the elucidation of the domestic history of Milton. S. W. SINGER. Mickleham. * * * * * OATHS. (Vol. viii., p. 364.) There can be no doubt that, as your correspondent suggests, the judicial oath was originally taken without kissing the book, but with the form of laying the right hand upon it; and, moreover that this custom is of Pagan origin. Amongst the Greeks, oaths were frequently accompanied by sacrifice; and it was the custom to lay the hands upon the victim, or upon the altar, thereby calling to witness the deity by whom the oath was sworn. So Juvenal, _Sat._ XIV. 218.: "Falsus erit testis, vendet perjuria summa Exigua, et Cereris tangens aramque pedemque." Christians under the later Roman emperors adopted from the Greeks a similar ceremony. In the well-known case of Omychund _v._ Barker, heard in Michaelmas Term, 1744, and reported in 1 Atk. 27., the Solicitor-General quoted a passage from Selden, which gives us some information on this point: "Mittimus hic, principibus Christianis, ut ex historiis satis obviis liquet, solennia fuisse et peculiaria juramenta, ut per vultum sancti Lucae, per pedem Christi, per sanctum hunc vel illum, ejusmodi alia nimis crebra: _Inolevit hero tandem, ut quemadmodum Pagani sacris ac mysteriis aliquo suis aut tactis aut praesentibus jurare solebant, ita solenniora Christianorum juramenta fierent, aut tactis sacrosanctis evangeliis, aut inspectis, aut in eorum praesentia manu ad pectus amota, sublata aut protensa_; atque is corporaliter seu personaliter juramentum praestari dictum est, ut ab juramentis per epistolam, aut in scriptis solummodo praestitis distingueretur, inde in vulgi passim ore."