Stanzas in Childe Harold 323 Replies to Minor Queries:--MS. Note in a Copy of Liber Sententiarum--Naturalis Proles--Print cleaning--Story referred to by Jeremy Taylor--Anagrams--Battle of Brunanburgh--Praed's Works--Sir J. Davies--Coins of Constantius Gallus--Passage in Sedley--Buxtorf's Translation of Elias Levita's "Tub Taam"--Stonehenge--Glass in Windows formerly not a Fixture--Fortune, infortune, fort une--Matthew Paris's "Historia Minor"--Sanford's "Descensus"--Death of Pitt--History of Hawick--"Prophecies of Nostradamus"--Bourchier Family--William III. at Exeter--Passage in George Herbert--Suicides buried in Cross Roads--Armorial Bearing--"Life of Cromwell"--Harris, Painter in Water Colours--"Son of the Morning"--Grimsdyke or Grimesditch--Cagots--The Serpent represented with a human Head--Fire Unknown--Plant in Texas--Copying Inscriptions--Chantrey's Statue of Mrs. Jordan--Portraits of Burke--Martial's Distribution of Hours 326 MISCELLANEOUS:-- Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 332 Books and Odd Volumes wanted 333 Notices to Correspondents 333 Advertisements 333 Notes. THE OLD COUNTESS OF DESMOND, NO. 1. The various notices and inquiries at times in your publication respecting this lady, including, as they do, some sceptical doubts of her existence, induce me to trouble you with several particulars upon this subject, of which I have at sundry times, according to the admirable suggestion of your motto, "when found, made a note." Some of them, derived from local antiquarian opportunities, will be new; of all I shall endeavour to make an intelligible arrangement; and as the subject will probably extend itself too much for a single article suited to your pages, I propose to place it under these distinct headings:--Was there an _old_ Countess of Desmond? Is there _really_ a portrait of her? And, Who was she? In reference to the first inquiry, I would observe that the _fact_ of the existence of such a personage rests upon no modern or uncertain tradition. This aged lady, according to an account I shall mention presently, is supposed to have lived to the latter end of the reign of James I. or beginning of that of Charles I.; and mention is made of her by Sir Walter Raleigh, in his _History of the World_ (bk. i. p. i. c. 5.), as "personally known to him" as having been married in the reign of Edward IV. (who died A.D. 1485); and who was living in 1589, and "many years afterwards, as all the noblemen and gentlemen of Munster can witness." Lord Bacon, in his _Natural History_ (cent. viii. sect. 755.) refers to her thus: