Amsterdam, the 16th of December, 1850. When by the publication of "NOTES AND QUERIES" we laid down those telegraphic lines of literary communication which we hoped should one day find their way into every library and book-room in the United Kingdom, we little thought that, ere fifteen months had passed, we should be called upon, not to lay down a _sub_marine telegraph, but to establish a _super_marine communication with our brethren in the Low Countries. We do so most gladly, for we owe them much. From them it was that Caxton learned the art, but for which "NOTES AND QUERIES" would never have existed; and of which the unconstrained practice has, under Providence, served to create our literature, to maintain our liberties, and to win for England its exalted position among the nations of the earth. Heartily, therefore, do we bid God speed to "DE NAVORSCHER;" and earnestly will we do all we can to realize the kindly wish of our Amsterdam brethren, that the "two neighbourly nations of Holland and England, connected by religion, commerce, and literary pursuits, may be more and more united by the mail-bearing sea which divides them." * * * * * Notes. SIR JOHN DAVIES AND HIS BIOGRAPHERS. Sir John Davies, the "sweet poet" and "grave lawyer"--rather odd combinations by the bye,--according to Wood, was "born at Chisgrove, in the parish of Tysbury in Wiltshire, being the son of a wealthy _tanner_ of that place!" This statement is repeated in Cooper's _Muses' Library_, p. 331.; Nichols's _Select Poems_, vol. i., p. 276.; Sir E. Brydges's edition of Philips's _Theatrum Poetarum_, 1800, p. 272.; Sir Harris Nicolas's edition of Davison's _Poetical Rhapsody_, vol. i. p. cii., &c. And Headley, in his _Select Beauties of Poetry_, ed. 1787, vol. i. p. xli., adds, "he was a man of _low_ extraction!" Wood's assertion concerning Davies's parentage, was made, I believe, upon the authority of Fuller; but it is undoubtedly an error, as the books which record the admission of the younger Davies into the Society of the Middle Temple, say the father was "late of New Inn, _gentleman_." Mr. Robert R. Pearce, in a recent work, entitled _A History of the Inns of Court and Chancery_, 8vo. 1848, p. 293., gives the following sketch of the leading facts in the life of our "poetical lawyer:"--