_Wraxen._--Rax or Wrax is a very common word in the north of England, meaning to stretch, so that when the old Kentish woman told MR. SKYRING'S friend her children were wraxen, she meant their minds were so overstretched during the week, that they required rest on Sunday. W. * * * * * Miscellaneous. NOTES OF BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC. Of the various changes which have been made of late years in public education, there is not one so generally admitted to be an improvement as that which has made the study of "The tongue Which Shakspeare spake," an essential part of the system and probably no individual has so effectually contributed towards this important end as Dr. Latham, the third edition of whose masterly and philosophical volume, entitled _The English Language_, is mow before us. Dr. Latham has ever earnestly and successfully insisted on the _disciplinal_ character of grammatical studies in general, combined with the fact, that the grammatical study of one's own language is exclusively so; and having established this theory, he has, by the production of various elementary works, exhibiting a happy combination of great philological acquirements with the ability to apply them in a logical and systematic manner, enabled those who shared his views to put that theory into practice. Hence the change in our educational system to which we have alluded. His volume entitled _The English Language_ is, however, addressed to a higher class of {367} readers, and this third edition may justly be pronounced the most important contribution to the history of our native tongue which has yet been produced; and, as such every student of our early language and literature must, with us, bid it welcome. We have received the following Catalogues;--Cole's (15. Great Turnstile, Holborn) List No. XXIX. of curious Old Books; Kerslake's (3. Park Street, Bristol) Valuable Books containing Selections from Libraries at Conishead Priory; of Prof. Elrington; T. G. Ward, &c. * * * * * BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES WANTED TO PURCHASE. _Odd Volumes_ CAMDEN'S BRITANNIA, ed. by Gough, Vol. I. WARTON'S Edition of POPE. 8vo. 1797 Vol. IX. In boards. *** Letters, stating particulars and lowest price, _carriage free_, to be sent to Mr. BELL, Publisher of "NOTES AND QUERIES," 186. Fleet Street. * * * * * Notices to Correspondents. V. F. S. _will find an answer to his Query respecting_ "Auster Tenements" _in our first Vol_., p. 307. J. C., _who inquires respecting the author of the oft-quoted saying_, "Quem Deus vult perdere," _is referred to our first Vol._, pp. 347. 351. 421. 476.; _and to a further illustration of it in_ No. 50., p. 317. _We have received_ "A Plan for a Church-History Society," _by the Rev. Dr. Maitland, to which we will call the attention of our readers next week._