SWEET BRIAR.--You should learn the Roman numerals. MDCCCXXVII. means 1827. M means a thousand, D five hundred, and C one hundred; X ten, V five, and I one. There are many nice books for girls, from Sir Walter Scott's downwards. Mrs. Craik, Miss Beale, Miss Rosa N. Carey, Miss Sarah Doudney, are all writers for girls. NELL.--There are twenty-one colleges at Oxford, and about 3000 members of the university in residence. At Cambridge there are seventeen colleges, and the members on the boards amounted to 13,079 in 1897, while 887 students matriculated. The earliest university was at Bologna, and that at Paris was the most important. These both rose into notice in the twelfth century, and Oxford and Cambridge in the thirteenth. The system of degrees and the names of the chief officers were introduced into England, as well as into other countries, from Paris. The distinguishing characteristic of Oxford or Cambridge is the existence of a number of separate corporations or colleges within the universities themselves. The origin of the colleges was due to benevolent persons who desired to relieve a certain number of poor scholars from the hardship of their lives at the mediæval universities, and so provided a building where they could have a common life, and an endowment for their maintenance. DOLLY.--The first steamer that crossed the Atlantic was the _Rising Sun_, built in 1818 by Lord Cochran. We do not know how long her voyage was, but the following year an American ship left New York and arrived at Liverpool after a run of twenty-six days. Her engines propelled her during eighteen days, but the rest of the voyage was accomplished with the assistance of her sails. She was called the _Savannah_, of 300 tons. Now the transit may be made in about five days. LIZZIE.--We remember seeing an account of the so-called language of stamps, but we hope no one will adopt it, as it would give extra trouble to the Post Office employés, who ask us to put them always in the right-hand upper corner. Besides, we do not see the use of it when, by opening the letter itself, you would acquire the knowledge you want; and it is a vulgar idea, and "bad form." HIGH CHURCH.--Your bookseller would inform you. The Church of England does not hold the first two dogmas you mention. * * * * * Transcriber's note--the following changes have been made to this text: Page 147: Shorncliff to Shorncliffe. Page 151: disburbed to disturbed. Page 154: acepted to accepted. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. XX, No. 988, December 3, 1898, by Various