The post to which this woman was bound stood, till recently, in a field adjoining Winchester. She was condemned to be burnt at the stake; and a marine, her paramour and an accomplice in the murder, was condemned to be hanged. A gentleman lately deceased told me the circumstances minutely. I think that he had been at the trial, but I know that he was at the execution, and saw the wretched woman fixed to the stake, fire put to the faggots, and her body burnt. But I know two persons still alive who were present at her execution, and I endeavoured, in 1848, to ascertain from one of them the date of this event, and "_made a note_" of his answer, which was to this effect:-- "I can't recollect the year; but I remember the circumstance well. It was about sixty-five years ago. I was there alone with the crowd. I sat on my father's shoulder, and saw them bring her and the marine to the field. They fixed her neck by a rope to the stake, and then set fire to the faggots, and burnt her." She was probably strangled by this rope. One Query which I would ask is, Was this execution at Winchester, in 1783 (or thereabouts), the last instance in England? and another is, Are you aware of any other instance in the latter part of the last century? E.S.S.W. * * * * * CORNELIS DREBBEL. In a very curious little book, entitled _Kronÿcke van Alemaer_, and published in that town anno 1645, I read the following particulars about Cornelis Drebbel, a native of the same city. Being justly renowned as a natural philosopher, and having made great progress in mechanics,{7} our Drebbel was named tutor of the young Prince of Austria, by the emperor Ferdinandus II.; an office which he fulfilled so well, that he was afterwards chosen councillor to his Majesty, and honoured with a rich pension for past services. But, alas! in the year 1620, Prague, the place he dwelt in, was taken by Frederick, then king of Bohemia, several members of the imperial council were imprisoned, and some of them even put to death. Bereft of every thing he possessed, a prisoner as well as the others, poor Drebbel would perhaps have undergone the same lot if the High Mighty States of the United Provinces had not sent a message to the King of England, asking him to interfere in their countryman's favour. They succeeded in their benevolent request for his English Majesty obtained at last from his son-in-law, the Dutch philosopher's liberation, who (I don't exaggerate) was _made a present of_ to the British king; maybe as a sort of _lion_, which the king of Morocco had never yet thought of bestowing upon the monarch as a regal offering. Drebbel, however, did not forget how much he owed to the intercession of King James, and, to show his gratitude, presented him with an object of very peculiar make. I will try to give you an exact version of its not very clear description in the Dutch book.