_Hardening Steel Bars._--Can any of your readers inform me how thin, flat, steel bars (say three feet long) can be prevented from "running" crooked when hardened in water?
_Pierrepont._--Who was John Pierrepont of Wadworth, near Doncaster, who died July, 1653, aged 75.
_Ceylon._--I should be much obliged to SIR JAMES TENNENT, if he would kindly inform me where the best map of Ceylon is to be got? such as are to be found in the atlases within my reach are only good enough to try a man's temper, and no more.
May I also take the liberty of asking how soon we may expect the appearance of SIR JAMES TENNENT'S book on the history, &c. of Ceylon? a work which will be a great work indeed, if we have at all a fair specimen of its author's learning and powers in the _Christianity in Ceylon_.
_Flemish and Dutch Schools of Painting._--Would any of your correspondents direct me to some work giving me some information about the painters of the Dutch and Flemish schools, their biographers, their peculiarities, chefs-d'oeuvre, &c.?
"_To talk like a Dutch Uncle._"--In some parts of America, when a person has determined to give another a regular lecture, he will often be heard to say, "I will talk to him like a Dutch uncle;" that is, he shall not escape this time.
As the emigrants to America from different countries have brought their national sayings with them, and as the one I am now writing about was doubtless introduced by the Knickerbockers, may I ask if a similar expression is now known or used in Holland?
_Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Belgium_.--I want some work on this subject: can any one tell me of one?
_Charter of Waterford._--I have a copy of the English translation of this charter, published in Kilkenny, with the following note, written in an old hand, on the title-page:
"This was first translated by William Cunningham Cunningham (_sic_), a native of Carrick-on-Suir, born on Ballyrichard Road: his father and brother were blacksmiths; his grand-nephew Cunningham lives now a cowper (_sic_) in New Street in do. town."
I wish to know if this note is worth anything, and if the statement contained in it is true?
_Inscription on Penny of George III._--On an old penny of George III., on the reverse, I find the following inscription: