_Prospectuses_ (Vol. viii., p. 562.).--I have seen a very curious volume of prospectuses of works contemplated and proposed, but which have never appeared, and wherein may be found much interesting matter on all departments of literature. A collection of this description would not only be useful, but should be preserved. A list of contemplated publications during the last half century, collected from such sources, would not be misplaced in "N. & Q.," if an occasional column could be devoted to the subject. G. "_I put a spoke in his wheel_" (Vol. viii., pp. 464. 522. 576.).--This phrase must have had its origin in the days in which the vehicles used in this country had wheels of solid wood without spokes. Wheels so constructed I have seen in the west of England, in Ireland, and in France. A recent traveller in Moldo-Wallachia relates that the people of the country go from place to place mounted on horses, buffaloes, or oxen; but among the Boyards it is "fashionable" to make use of a vehicle which holds a position in the scale of conveyances a little above a wheelbarrow and little below a dung-cart. It is poised on four wheels of solid wood of two feet diameter, which are more or less rounded by means of an axe. A vehicle used in the cultivation of the land on the slopes of the skirts of Dartmoor in Devonshire, has three wheels of solid wood; it resembles a huge wheelbarrow, with two wheels behind, and one in front of it, and has two long handles like the handles of a plough, projecting behind for the purpose of guiding it. It is known as "the old three-wheeled But." As the horse is attached to the vehicle by chains only, and he has no power to hold it back when going down hill, the driver is provided with a piece of wood, "a spoke," which is of the shape of the wooden pin used for rolling paste, for the purpose of "dragging" the front wheel of the vehicle. This he effects by thrusting the spoke into one of the three round holes made in the solid wheel for that purpose. The operation of "putting a spoke in a wheel by way of impediment" may be seen in daily use on the three-wheeled carts used by railway navvies, and on the tram waggons with four wheels used in collieries to convey coals from the pit's mouth. N. W. S. * * * * * Miscellaneous. NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. Every lover of Goldsmith--and who ever read one page of his delightful writings without admiring the author, and loving the man-- "... for shortness call Noll, Who wrote like an angel, but talk'd like poor Poll?"--