1. Put a wedding ring into the _posset_, and after serving it out, the unmarried person whose cup contains the ring will be the first of the company to be married. 2. Make a common flat cake of flour, water, currants, &c., and put therein a wedding ring and a sixpence. When the company is about to retire on the wedding-day, the cake must be broken and distributed amongst the unmarried females. She who gets the ring in her portion of the cake will shortly be married, and the one who gets the sixpence will die an old maid. T.T.W. Burnley, July 9. 1850. * * * * * FRANCIS LENTON THE POET. In a MS. obituary of the seventeenth century, preserved at Staunton Hall, Leicestershire, I found the following:-- "May 12. 1642. This day died Francis Lenton, of Lincoln's Inn, Gent." This entry undoubtedly relates to the author of three very rare poetical tracts: 1. _The Young Gallant's Whirligigg_, 1629; 2. _The Innes of Court_, 1634; 3. _Great Brittain's Beauties_, 1638. In the dedication to Sir Julius Cæsar, prefixed to the first-named work, the writer speaks of having "once belonged to the _Innes of Court_," and says he was "no usuall poetizer, but, to barre idlenesse, imployed that little talent the Muses conferr'd upon him in this little tract." Sir Egerton Brydges supposed the copy of _The Young Gallant's Whirligigg_ preserved in the library of Sion College to be _unique_; but this is not the case, as the writer knows of _two_ others,--one at Staunton Hall, and another at Tixall Priory in Staffordshire. It has been reprinted by Mr. {118} Halliwell at the end of a volume containing _The Marriage of Wit and Wisdom_, published by the Shakspeare Society. In his prefatory remarks that gentleman says, "Besides his printed works, Lenton wrote the _Poetical History of Queene Hester_, with the translation of the 83rd Psalm, reflecting upon the present times. MS. dated 1649." This date must be incorrect, if our entry in the Staunton obituary relates to the same person; and there is every reason to suppose that it does. The _autograph_ MS. of Lenton occurred in Heber's sale (Part xi. No. 724.), and is thus described: _Hadassiah_, or the _History of Queen Hester_, sung in a sacred and serious poeme, and divided into ten chapters, by F. Lenton, the Queen's Majesties Poet, 1638. This is undoubtedly the _correct_ date, as it is in the handwriting of the author. Query. What is the meaning of Lenton's title, "the Queen's Majesties Poet"? Edward F. Rimbault. * * * * * Minor Notes. _Lilburn or Prynne?_--I am anxious to suggest in "Notes and Queries" whether a character in the Second Canto of Part iii. of _Hudibras_ (line 421), beginning, "To match this saint, there was another, As busy and perverse a brother, An haberdasher of small wares, In politics and state affairs,"