2. "C'était le jour de Noel [1759]. Je m'étais levé d'assez bonne heure, et avec une humeur plus gaie que de coutume. Dans les idées de vieille femme, cela présage toujours quelque chose do triste.... Pour cette fois pourtunt le hasard justifia la croyance."--_Mémoires de J. Casanova_, vol. iii p. 29. 3. "Upon Saturday last ... the Duke did rise up, in a well-disposed humour, out of his bed, and cut a caper or two.... Lieutenant Felton made a thrust with a common tenpenny knife, over Fryer's arm at the Duke, which lighted so fatally, that he slit his heart in two, leaving the knife sticking in the body."--_Death of Duke of Buckingham_; Howell. _Fam. Letters_, Aug. 5, 1628. 4. "On this fatal evening [Feb. 20, 1435], the revels of the court were kept up to a late hour ... the prince himself appears to have been in unusually gay and cheerful spirits. He even jested, if we may believe the cotemporary manuscript, about a prophecy which had declared that a king should that year be slain."--_Death of King James I_.; Tytler, _Hist. Scotland_, vol. iii. p. 306. 5. "'I think,' said the old gardener to one of the maids, 'the gauger's _fie_;' by which word the common people express those violent spirits which they think a presage of death."--_Guy Mannering_, chap. 9. 6. "H.W.L." said: "I believe the bodies of the four persons seen by the jury, were those of G.B., W.B., J.B., and T.B. On Friday night they were all very merry, and Mrs. B. said she feared something would happen before they went to bed, because they were so happy."--_Evidence given at inquest on bodies of four persons killed by explosion of firework-manufactory in Bermondsey_, Friday, Oct. 12, 1849. See _Times_, Oct. 17, 1849. Nos. 1, 2, 5, 6, are evidently notices of the Belief; Nos. 3, 4, are "what you will." Many of your correspondents may be able to supply earlier and more curious illustrations. C. FORBES June 19. * * * * * THE HYDRO-INCUBATOR. Most, if not all, of your readers have heard of the newly-invented machine for hatching and rearing in chickens, without the maternal aid of the hen; probably many of them have paid a visit (and a _shilling_) at No. 4. Leicester Square, where the incubator is to be seen in full operation. The following extract will, therefore, be acceptable, as it tends to show the truth of the inspired writer's words, "There is no new thing under the sun:"--