[Footnote 4: This word is used for want of a better, to signify some unknown change.] * * * * * MILTON'S WIDOW. (Vol. viii., p. 594. &c.) GARLICHITHE'S apologies to MR. HUGHES are due, not so much for neglecting his communications as for misquoting them. We all owe an apology to your readers for keeping up so pertinaciously a subject of which I fear they will begin to be tired. MR. HUGHES has _not_ stated that Richard Minshull of Chester, son of Richard Minshull, the writer of the letter of May 3, 1656, was born in 1641. What MR. HUGHES _did_ state (Vol. viii., p. 200.) was, that Mrs. Milton's brother, Richard Minshull of Wistaston, was baptized on April 7 in that year; and the statement is quite correct, as I can vouch, from having examined the baptismal register. Richard Minshull of Chester was aged forty or forty-one at the date of his father's letter, as shown below; but even if he had been aged only fifteen, as supposed by GARLICHITHE, I do not see that there is anything in the language of the letter to call for observation. He had conveyed to his father a communication from Randle Holmes, and the father writes in answer,--"Deare and loveing sonne, my love and best respects to you and to my daughter [GARLICHITHE may read daughter-in-law if he likes, but I see no necessity for it], tendered w^{th} trust of y^r health. I have reaceived Mr. Alderman Holmes his letter, together with y^{rs}, wherin I understand that you desire to know what I can say concerning our coming out of Minshull House;" and he proceeds to give the information asked for. GARLICHITHE, in his former communication, confounds Randle the great-grandfather with Randle the great-grandson, and in his present one he confounds Richard Minshull of Chester, the uncle, with Richard Minshull of Wistaston, the nephew. I agree with GARLICHITHE that "he, Richard, the writer of the said letter, must be _fairly presumed_ to have been married at the date of such letter," which he addresses to his "Deare and loveing sonne;" but what of that? Whom he married, your readers are informed at p. 595. He died in the year following his letter, at the ripe age of eighty-six. The misquotations noticed above would, if not pointed out, lead to inextricable confusion of facts; and I am compelled therefore again to {39} trouble you. In order, if possible, to set the matter at rest, I will put together in the form of a pedigree, compressed so as to be fit for insertion in your columns, the material facts which have been the subject of so much discussion; but, before doing so, permit me a word of protest against some of the communications alluded to, which are scarcely fair to "N. & Q."