"The _canker-blooms_ have full as deep a dye, As the perfumed tincture of the roses."
In _King Henry IV._, Act I. Sc. 3., Hotspur says:
"Shall it for shame be spoken in these days, Or fill up chronicles in times to come, That men of your nobility and power, Did 'gage them both in an unjust behalf, (As both of you, God pardon it! have done) To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose And plant this thorn, this _canker_ Bolingbroke."
And again, Don John, in _Much Ado about Nothing_, Act I. Sc. 3.:
"I had rather be a _canker_ in a hedge, than a rose in the grave."
"_Short red, god red._"--In Roger of Wendover's _Chronicle_, Bohn's edition, vol. i. p. 345., is a story how Walchere, Bishop of Durham, was slain in his county court, A.D. 1075, by the suitors on the instigation of one who cried out in his native tongue "Schort red, god red, slea ye the bischop."
Sir Walter Scott, in his _Tales of a Grandfather_ (vol. i. p. 85.), tells the same story of a Bishop of Caithness who was burned for enforcing tithes in the reign of Alexander II. of Scotland (about 1220).
What authority is there for the latter story? Did Sir Walter confound the two bishops, or did he add the circumstance for the amusement of Hugh Littlejohn? Was this the formula usually adopted on such occasions? How came the Caithness people to speak such good Saxon?
_Overseers of Wills._--I have copies of several wills of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, in { 501} which one set of persons are appointed _executors_ and another _overseers_. What were the rights and duties of these latter?
_Lepel's Regiment._--Can your correspondent MR. ARTHUR HAMILTON inform me what is the regiment known in 1707 as _Lepel's Regiment_? It was a cavalry regiment, I believe.
_Vincent Family._--Can any of your correspondents give me any information respecting the descendants of Francis Vincent, grandson of Augustine Vincent, Rouge Croix Pursuivant at Arms. His sister Elizabeth has, or had very lately, a representative in the person of Francis Offley Edmunds of Worsborough, Yorkshire; but nowhere have I been able to obtain any information respecting himself. If you could give any information on this subject, you would much oblige
"_Faust._ Es Klopft? Herein! Wer will mich wieder plagen? _Mephistopheles._ Ich bin's. _Faust._ Herein! _Mephis._ Du musst es dreimal sagen. _Faust._ Herein denn! _Mephis._ So gefällst du mir."