"It appears by the communications from the stewards of the late Mr. Sawkins, that his customary descent is extended to younger brothers in the manors of-- "Surrey. Dorking, in Dorking and Capel-Milton and Westcott, in the parishes of Dorking Capel and Ockley "To all collateral males in the manors of-- "Middlesex. Isleworth Syon Ealing, otherwise Zealing Acton "To females, as well as males, lineal and collateral, in the manors of-- "Middlesex. Fulham Wimbledon, including Putney, Mortlake, Rochampton, and Sheen "Surrey. Battersea and Wandsworth Downe Barnes Richmond "Nottinghamshire. Southwell "Hertfordshire. Much Hadham." G. R. C. Southwark, Sept. 24, 1851. The accompanying extract is from the History of the borough of Stafford, in White's _Directory and Gazetteer of Staffordshire_, which is just published:-- "The ancient custom of _Borough-English_ formerly prevailed here, by which the youngest son succeeded to property, as heir-at-law, in preference to the elder children. The origin of this part of our common law is not very well ascertained, but it is generally supposed to have arisen from the ancient system of _vassalage_, which gave the lord of the manor certain rights over his _vassal's bride_, and thus rendered the legitimacy of the eldest born uncertain; or perhaps it may have originated in the natural presumption, that the youngest child was least capable of providing for itself." F. J. M. PASSAGE IN VIRGIL. (Vol. iv., pp. 24. 88.) Permit me to make a few remarks on the passage of Virgil, "Viridesque secant," &c., and its attempted elucidation, Vol. iv., pp. 88, 89. It is stated that the translation is not correct, and also that Servius was a very illiterate, ignorant, and narrow-minded man, &c. In the short notice of Servius and his works in the _Penny Cyclopædia_, we have a very different character of him. Which is to be believed, for both cannot be right? Harles, in his _Introd. in Notitiam Lit. Rom._, speaks thus of the _Commentaries of Servius_: "Quæ in libris Virgilii sub nomine Servii circumferuntur Scholia, eorum minima pars pertinet ad illum; sed farrago est ex antiquioribus commentariis Cornuti, Donati, &c., et aliorum; immo vero ex recentioris ætatis interpretibus multa adjecta sunt et interpolata." Thus condemning the interpolations, but leaving intact the matter really belonging to Servius. For a refutation of the impertinent comparison with a Yorkshire hedge schoolmaster, and the erroneous appreciation of the _Commentaries_, I must refer to the above-mentioned notice in the _Penny Cyclopædia_. In the next place, with respect to the meaning of the passage:--the word _seco_, when applied to the movements of ships, is usually rendered by "sulco;" _e.g._: "Jamque fretum Minyæ Pegasæâ puppe secabant." Ovid, _Met._ vii. 1.