_Dog-whippers: Frankincense._--Can any reader throw light upon the following entries in the churchwardens' account-book for the parish of Forest Hill, near Oxford? "1694. P^d to Tho. Mills for whipping dogs out of church, 1 shilling. "1702. P^d for frankincense for the church, 6 pence." The only passage which occurs to me as at all bearing upon so late a use of incense in parish churches in this country, is the following extract from Herbert: "The country parson hath a care that his church be swept and kept clean; and at great festivals, strewed and stuck with boughs, and perfumed with incense." This hardly brings the custom later than 1630. As regards the former entry, I am told by a friend that the office of dog-whipper existed about fifty years ago for the church of Heversham in Westmoreland. C. F. W. _Atchievement in Yorkshire--Lipyeatt Family._--Found and noted in a Yorkshire church tower, an atchievement painted apparently about forty or fifty years ago, of which no account can be given by the sexton or parish clerk. Query, to what names do the bearings belong? viz. Vert, on a fess or, between three bezants, three lions passant azure. Impaling: Vert, three swans in tri, statant, wings erect, argent. Crest, a lion passant azure, langued gules. The swans have head, neck, and body like swans, but their legs appear to have been borrowed from the stork. It is suspected that the dexter coat belongs to one of the Wiltshire Lipyeatts. Is there any pedigree of the Lipyeatt family, who were burghers of wealth and consideration in the town of Marlborough, from the middle of the seventeenth century down to the latter part of the eighteenth? PATONCE. "_Waestart._"--A common expression of sorrow or condolence among the lower classes in the manufacturing district around Leeds, in Yorkshire. Whence does it arise? Is it an abbreviation of "Woe to my heart," "Woe is me"? J. L. S., Sen. _Rebellion of 1715._--Has any report been published of the trial of the prisoners taken at Preston? Mr. Baron Bury, Mr. Justice Eyre, and Mr. Baron Montague opened the Commission at Liverpool. The trials began on January 20, 1716, and lasted till February 8. THOMAS BAKER. {350} "_Athenian Sport._"--Who was the writer of _Athenian Sport, or Two Thousand Paradoxes, merely argued to amuse and divert the Age_, by a Member of the Athenian Society, London, 1707?[1] It would almost appear to have been a burlesque upon the _Athenian Oracle_. HENRY T. RILEY. [Footnote 1: Lowndes has attributed this work, but we think incorrectly, to the celebrated John Dunton.--ED.] _Gutta Percha made soluble._--Can any one inform me how gutta percha may be made so soluble, that a coating of it may be given any article, which shall dry as hard as its former state? I have tried melting it in a ladle, but it never hardened properly. E. B. Leeds.