_Unde derivatur Stonehenge_ (Vol. iv., p. 57.).--Your correspondent P. P. proposes to interpret this word, _horse-stones_, from _hengst_, the Saxon for a horse; and to understand thereby large stones, as the words _horse-chesnut_, _horse-daisy_, _horse-mushroom_, &c., mean large ones. But, if he had duly considered the arguments contained in Mr. Herbert's _Cyclops Christianus_, pp. 162-4., he would have seen the necessity of showing, that in Anglo-Saxon and English the description can follow, in composition, the thing described; which it seems it can do in neither. In support of his stone-horse, he should have produced a chesnut-horse in the vegetable sense; a daisy-horse, or a mushroom-horse. Till he does that, the grammatical canon appealed to by that author, will remain in as full force against the stone-horse as against the stone-hanging.
_Nick Nack_ (Vol. iii., p. 179.).--A rude species of music very common amongst the boys in Sheffield, called by them _nick-a-nacks_. It is made by two pieces of bone, sometimes two pieces of wood, placed between the fingers, and beaten in time by a rapid motion of the hand and fingers. It is one of the periodical amusements of the boys going along the streets.
"And with his right drew forth a truncheon of a white ox rib, and two pieces of wood of a like form; one of black Eben, and the other of incarnation Brazile; and put them betwixt the fingers of that hand, in good symmetry. Then knocking them together, made such a noise, as the lepers of Britany use to do with their clappering clickets; yet better resounding, and far more harmonious."--_Rabelais_, book ii. c. 19.
_Meaning of Carfax_ (Vol. iii., p. 508.).--E. J. S. says "Carfoix reminds me of Carfax in Oxford. Are the names akin to each other?" When at Oxford I used to hear that Carfax was properly Quarfax, a contraction for _quatuor facies_, four faces. The church, it will be remembered, looks one way to High Street, another to Queen Street, a third to the Cornmarket, and the fourth to St. Aldates's.
_Hand giving the Benediction_ (Vol. iii., p. 477.).--Rabbi Bechai tells us of the solemn blessing in Numbers vi. 25, 26, 27., in which the name Jehovah is thrice repeated, that, when the high priest pronounced it on the people, "elevatione manuum _sic digitos composuit ut_ TRIADA _exprimerent_."