_Sir James Hayes, of Bedgebury, Kent._--It is mentioned in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1792, p. 21., that on the foundation stone of Old Bedgebury House in Kent, was found, many years ago, an inscription recording the building of that house in 1688 by Sir James Hayes, and Rachel Viscountess Falkland, his wife. Allusion is made in the inscription to his having attained _great wealth from the depths of the ocean_; and there was a tradition that he had made his fortune by _diving_. Can any of your readers supply information upon this subject? Was he one of the party who under Phipps (the ancestor of the house of Mulgrave) recovered 200,000_l._ out of a Spanish vessel, sunk of the coast of Hispaniola in 1687? and where can the full particulars of that adventure be met with? J. E. T. _Authorship of the Song "Oh Nanny," &c._--A question as to the nationality, if not the authorship, of this celebrated song was discussed (if I remember aright) not long ago in letters printed in one of the literary periodicals, probably the _Gentleman's Magazine_, but I have not a reference at hand. It may be, that the facts I am about to mention were adverted to in that discussion, and that the words are admitted to be of English origin, and to have been written by Dr. Percy, yet I am induced to send you this communication. In the drawing-room at Ecton House, the mansion of Sam. Isted, Esq., at Ecton, a village about five miles from Northampton, there was, in 1814, a portrait of the wife of Thomas Percy, Bishop of Dromore (father of Mrs. Isted), holding in her hand a scroll, on which is the celebrated song "Oh Nanny!" she being the original, and the lines having been addressed to her before marriage by the bishop. (_Account of a Tour, &c., published in the Scarborough Repository_, by Cole, 1824.) Perhaps some correspondent of yours in that vicinity would kindly say whether the picture remains at Ecton; or, if not, what has become of it? W. S. G. Newcastle-on-Tyne. _Hexameter Poem on English Counties._--Will any of your correspondents be kind enough to furnish me with a copy of a poem in _hexameter_ verse, and in an abbreviated form, enumerating the shires or counties in England? In my early days it was very common in public schools, and I am enabled to give a portion of one verse, viz.------"Dev. Dors. Gl. Oxfo. Buck. Hart. Ess." M. Dublin. _Wild Oats, Origin of the Phrase._--Can any of your correspondents favour me with the origin and definition of the phrase "To sow your wild oats?" It has never been very clear to me why "oats" should be the grain selected as emblematical of the dissipations and excesses of youth. They constitute the food of the inhabitants of the poorest regions only, and where the absence of all aid from climate and sunshine, renders almost unceasing toil necessary, in order to obtain a meagre subsistence.