_The Meaning of "Race" in Ship-building._--In Hawkin's _Voyages_ ("Hakluyt Society, 1847"), p. 199., he says, "Here is offerred to speak of a point much canvassed amongst carpenters and sea-captains, diversely maintained but yet undetermined, that is, whether the _race_, or loftie built shippe, bee best for the merchant;" and again, p. 219.: "A third and last cause of the losse of sundry of our men, most worthy of note for all captains, owners, and carpenters, was the _race_ building of our ship, the onely fault she had," &c. Can any of your correspondents explain what is meant by "race"; the editor of the _Voyages_, Captain C. R. D. Bethune, R.N., confesses himself unable to explain it. E. N. W. Southwark, May 27. 1850. _The Battle of Death._--I possess a curious old print entitled "The Battle of Death against all Creatures, and the Desolation wrought by Time." It bears the engraver's name, "Robert Smith," but no date. The figures, however, which are numerous, and comprise all ranks, seem to present the costume of the latter end of the 16th century. There is a long inscription in verse, and another in prose: query, who was the author of the verses, and what is the date of the engraving? As I am on the subject of prints, perhaps some person learned in such matters will also be kind enough to inform me what number constitutes a complete series of the engravings after Claude by Francis Vivares; and who was "Jean Rocque, Chirographaire du Roi," who executed several maps of portions of London, also a map of Kilkenny? X. Y. A. Kilkenny, June 8. 1850. _Execution of Charles I._--Is the name of the executioner known who beheaded King Charles I.? Is there any truth in the report that it was an Earl Stair? P. S. W. E. _Morganitic Marriage._--In Ducange, &c., the adjective _morganitic_ is connected with the _morgangab_ (morning gift), which was usual from a husband to his wife the day after their marriage. How comes this adjective to be applied to marriages in which the wife does not take her husband's rank? M. _Lord Bacon's Palace and Gardens._--Will any of your architectural or landscape gardening readers inform me whether any attempts were ever made by any of our English sovereigns or nobility, or by any of our rich men of science and taste, to carry out, in practice, Lord Bacon's plans of _a princely palace_, or _a prince-like garden_, as so graphically and so beautifully described in his _Essays_, xlv. and xlvi., "Of Building" and "Of Gardens"? I cannot but think that if such an attempt was never made, the failure is discreditable to us as a nation; and that this work ought yet to be executed, as well for its own intrinsic beauty and excellence, as in honour of the name and fame of its great proposer. EFFARESS. June 24. 1850. _"Dies Irae, Dies Illa."_--Will any of your correspondents oblige me by answering the following Queries. Who was the author of the extremely beautiful hymn, commencing--