_Raffaelle's Sposalizio_ (Vol. vii., p. 595.; Vol. viii., p. 61.).--The reason why the ring is placed on {575} the third finger of the right hand of the Blessed Virgin in Raffaelle's "Sposalizio" at Milan, and in Ghirlandais's frescoe of the same subject in the Santa Croce at Florence, is to be found in the fact that the right hand has always been considered the hand of power or dignity, and the left hand of inferiority or subjection. A married woman always wears her ring on the third finger of the left hand to signify her subjection to her husband. But it has been customary among artists to represent the Blessed Virgin with the ring on the right hand, to signify her superiority to St. Joseph from her surpassing dignity of Mother of God. Still she is not always represented so, for in Beato Angelico's painting of the marriage of Mary and Joseph she receives the ring on her left hand. See woodcut in Mrs. Jameson's _Legends of Madonna_, p. 170. In the Marriage of the Blessed Virgin by Vanloo, in the Louvre, she also receives the ring on the left hand. Giotto, Taddeo Gaddi, Perugino, &c., have painted the "Sposalizio," but I have not copies by me to refer to. CEYREP. _Early Use of Tin._--_Derivation of the Name of Britain_ (Vol. viii., pp. 290. 344. 445.).--Your correspondent G. W. having been unable to inform DR. HINCKS who first suggested the derivation of _Britannia_ from _Baratanac_ or _Bratanac_, I have the pleasure to satisfy him on this point by referring him to Bochart's _Geographia Sacra_, lib. I. c. xxxix. In that great storehouse of historical information, the Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, there are some profound researches by Melot and others, in which may be found answers to all the Queries proposed by G. W. The islands, rivers, mountains, cities, and remarkable places of Phoenician colonies, had even in the time of the habitation of the Greeks and Romans Phoenician names, which, according to the spirit of the ancient languages of the East, indicated clearly the properties of the places which bore those names. See instances in Bochart, _ubi supra_; Sammes's _Britannia Antiqua Illustrata, or the Antiquities of Ancient Britain derived from the Phoenicians_; and D'Hancarville's Preface to Hamilton's _Etruscan, &c. Antiquities_. BIBLIOTHECAR. CHETHAM. _Unpublished Epigram by Sir Walter Scott_ (Vol. vii., pp. 498. 576.).--The following extract is from the _Gentleman's Magazine_, March, 1824, p. 194.: