_Blind taught to read._--Burnet, in the postscript of his _Letter from Milan_, dated Oct. 1, 1685 (ed. Rotterdam, 1687, p. 114.), speaking of Mistress _Walkier_, who had been accidentally blinded in infancy, states, that her father "ordered letters to be carved in wood;" and that "she, by feeling the characters, formed such an idea of them, that she writes with a crayon so distinctly, that her writing can be well read." What is the earliest known instance of the blind being taught to read or write by the instrumentality of raised letters? J. SANSOM. _Hyrne, Meaning of._--During my recent investigations into our local history, I met with three places in this town with this word affixed--such as North _Hirne_, now called North Street; also Cold _Hyrne_, now called All Saints' Street, in South Lynn; and a place called Clink's _Heven_, in North Lynn. I have also met with another village, "Guy_hirn_," in Cambridgeshire, of which most of your readers are aware; and my present object is to learn the meaning of this word? JOHN NURSE CHADWICK. King's Lynn. _The fairest Attendant of the Scottish Queen._--Mary (of Guise), Dowager Queen of Scots, passed through England, on returning from a visit to France, in November 1551: she was lodged at the Bishop's Palace in London, and on her departure "divers lords and ladies brought her on her way; and when she came without Bishopsgate, _the fairest lady that she had with her of her country was stolen away from her_; and so she went forth on her journey." This passage is from _The Chronicle of the Grey Friars of London_, now printing for the Camden Society. Can any one tell me whether "the fairest lady's" elopement has been elsewhere recorded? JOHN GOUGH NICHOLS. "_Soud, soud, soud, soud!_"--In the _Taming of the Shrew_, Act IV. Sc. 1., Petruchio, on arriving at his house, says to his bride: "Sit down, Kate, and welcome. Soud, soud, soud soud!" The word _soud_ puzzles the commentators. Johnson takes it for _soot_ or _sooth_, sweet. Mason supposes it to denote the humming of a tune, or an ejaculation, for which it is not necessary to find out a meaning. Malone conjectures it to be a word coined to express the noise made by a person heated and fatigued. This seems a proper subject for a Query. T. C.