_Arabic Numerals_ (Vol.ii., pp. 27. 61. 339.).-- In a work in Arabic, by Ahmad ben Abubekr bin Wahshih, on Ancient Alphabets, published in the original, and accompanied with an English translation, by Von Hammer, your correspondent on the subject of Arabic numerals will find that these numerals were not invented as arbitrary signs, and borrowed for various alphabets; but that they are actually taken from an Indian alphabet of nine characters, the remaining letters being made up at each decimal by repeating the nine characters, with one or two dots. The English Preface states that this alphabet is still in use in India, not merely as a representative of numbers, but of letters of native language. The book is a neat quarto, printed in London in 1806; and the alphabet occurs in page 7. of the Arabic original. E.C.H. Athenaeum. _Luther's Hymns_ (Vol. ii., p. 327.).--If F.Q. will turn to Mr. Palmer's _Origines Liturgicae_, vol. ii. p. 238. 4th edit., he will find that the sentence in the Burial Service, "In the midst of life we are in death," &c., is taken from the _Salisbury Breviary Psalter_. The Salisbury Use was drawn up by Bishop Osmund in the eleventh century. N.E.R. (a Subscriber.) _Bolton's Ace._--What is the meaning of "_Bolton's Ace_," in the following passage in the address to the reader prefixed to Henry Hutton's _Follies Anatomie_, 8vo. Lond. 1618? It is passed over by DR. RIMBAULT in his reprint of the work for the Percy Society in 1842: "Could ye attacke this felon in's disgrace, I would not bate an inch (not _Bolton's ace_) To baite, deride, nay, ride this silly asse." J. CT. ["_Bate me an ace quoth Bolton_" is an old proverb of unknown origin. Ray tells us that a _Collection of Proverbs_ having been presented to Queen Elizabeth, with an assurance that it contained all the proverbs in the English language. "Bate me an ace, quoth Bolton," said the queen, implying that the assertion was too strong; and, in fact, that every proverb was not in the collection. See Nares' _Glossary_, who quotes the following epigram by H.P., to show the collection referred to "_Secundae Cogitutiones meliores._ "A pamphlet was of proverbs penned by Polton, Wherein he thought all sorts included were; Untill one told him _Bate m' an ace quoth Bolton_, 'Indeed,' said he, 'that proverb is not there.'"] _Hopkins the Witchfinder_ (Vol. ii., p. 392.).--If the inquiry of CLERICUS relates to Mathew Hopkins the witchfinder general, my friend W.S. Fitch of Ipswich has some manuscript account of his residence in that town, as a lawyer of but little {414} note, and his removal to Manningtree, in Essex; but whether it gives any further particulars of him I am unable to state, as I have not seen the manuscript. J. CLARKE. _Sir Richard Steel_ (Vol. ii., p.375.).--The death and burial-place of Sir Richard Steel is thus noticed in Cibber's _Lives of the Poets_, vol. iv. p.120.:--