_Admiral Hopson._--In Tomkins' _History of the Isle of Wight_ (1796), vol. ii. p. 123., an anecdote is told of a native of Bonchurch named Hobson, who afterwards became Admiral Hobson. It is mentioned that he was _an orphan_, bound apprentice to a tailor; and that being struck with the sight of a squadron of ships off the Isle of Wight, he rowed off in a boat to them, and was received on the admiral's ship; that _the next day_, in an engagement with _the French_, when his ship was engaged yard-arm and yard-arm with the enemy, he climbed up the mast, clambered to the enemy's yard-arm, mounted to the top-gallant mast, and took down the flag. This created consternation in the enemy, who were soon defeated. Hobson was {173} promoted to be an officer, and ultimately became an admiral. This is the story as told by Tomkins. I wish to know what was his authority. Consulting Chernoch's _Lives of the Admirals_, I find mention of Admiral Sir Thomas Hopson, a native of Bonchurch; who ran away from his parents, and did not return to his home till he was an admiral. This Sir Thos. Hopson was made second lieutenant in 1672, the year of the action in Solbay, in which the Earl of Sandwich perished. He rose to the rank of Vice-Admiral of the Red; and in the action of Vigo, in 1702, he distinguished himself, and was knighted in consequence. He received a pension of 500l. a year, and retired from the service in this year. He died in 1717. After he quitted the navy, he became Member of Parliament for Newtown, in the Isle of Wight. It is evident that this Hopson is the _Hobson_ of Tomkins; and that Tomkins spoke of the French by mistake for the _Dutch_ enemy. But I cannot discover what authority he had for his account of the manner in which young Hobson first distinguished himself. G. CURREY. Charterhouse. _"Three cats sat," &c._--Can any of your correspondents give me the end of a ballad, beginning thus, which a very old lady in her ninetieth year is most anxious to know?-- "Three cats sat by the fire-side, With a basket full of coal dust, Coal dust, coal dust, With a basket full of coal dust." JULIA R. BOCKETT. Southcote Lodge. _Herbert's "Church Porch."_--Will any of your readers help me to the sense of the following stanza from George Herbert's _Church Porch_, verse 48: "If thou be single, all thy good and ground Submit to love; but yet not more than all. Give one estate, as one life. None is bound To work for two, who brought himself to thrall. God made me one man; love makes me no more Till labour come, and make my weakness score." The lines of which I want the meaning are the last three. S. SINGLETON. Greenwich.