_Water-buckets given to Sheriffs._--Can any of your readers inform me the origin of the delivery of water-buckets, glazed and painted with the city arms, given to the sheriffs of London and Middlesex at the expiration of the year of their shrievalty? J. B. K. Temple. _A Cracow Pike._--Can any of your readers tell me what _a Cracow pike_ is? I have searched Meyrick's works on _Ancient Armour_ without finding any notice of such a weapon; but as those works have no indexes one cannot be certain that there may not be some mention of it. I shall be obliged by a description of the Cracow pike, or a reference to any authorities mentioning it, or its use. I. H. T. _Meaning of Waste Book._--Can you or any of your readers inform me the origin of the term used in book-keeping, viz., _"Waste" book_? I am the book-keeper and cashier in an extensive firm, and I know there is very little _wasted_ that goes into our books bearing that name. ONE WHO OFTEN RUNS FOR THE GREAT LEDGER. _Machell's MS. Collections for Westmoreland and Cumberland._--In the library of the dean and chapter at Carlisle, are preserved six volumes in folio, which purport to be _Collections for the History of Westmoreland and Cumberland, made in the Reign of Charles II., by the Reverend Thomas Machell_. Have these collections been carefully examined, and their contents made use of in any topographical publication? EDWARD F. RIMBAULT. _Decking Churches at Christmas._--Does the custom of dressing the churches at Christmas with holly, and other evergreens, prevail in any country besides England? L. _Coinage of Germany._--I should wish to be referred to the names of the principal works on the coinage of Germany; not merely the imperial, but that of sovereign prelates, abbeys, &c., that struck money. A. N. _Titles of Peers who are Bishops_ (Vol. iii., p. 23.).--Why is Lord Crewe always called so, and not Bishop of Durham, considering his spiritual precedency? Was not Lord Bristol (who was an Earl) always called Bishop of Derry? Cx. _At Sixes and Sevens._--Shakspeare uses the well-known adage--"at sixes and sevens;" Bacon, Hudibras, Arbuthnot, Swift, all use the proverb. Why should sixes and sevens be more congruous with disorder than "twos and threes?" and whence comes the saying? D. C. _Shaking Hands._--What is the origin of the custom of _shaking hands_ in token of friendship? And were the _clasped hands_ (now the common symbol of Benefit Clubs) ever used as a signet, prior to their adoption as such by the early Christians in their wedding rings; or, did these rings {119} bear any other motto, or posy, than "Fides annulus castus" (i. e. _simplex et sine gemma_)? J. SANSOM.