man, and I think his hair was the longest I ever saw." He denied all participation in the murder, but he was committed and tried with the principals, as an accessory before the fact; and although acquitted by the jury, a perusal of the trial produces a strong persuasion that he was privy to the purpose of the assassins. A fact much pressed against him was his inquiry of the Swedish envoy, "Whether or no, if he should kill Mr. Thynne in a duel, he could, by the laws of England, afterwards marry the Lady Ogle?" a question which showed beyond all doubt that he had in some form entertained a design against Mr. Thynne's life, and also that the attainment of the lady was the motive. But whatever may have been the intention of the Count, and whatever may have been the nature of his intercourse with the Lady Ogle, it is quite clear that they were not married. On the contrary, this lady of early nuptial experience, and of romantic but somewhat suspicious adventure,—who was married three times, and twice a widow, before she was sixteen years old,—was married on the 30th of May, 1682, and within four months after the murder of Mr. Thynne, to Charles Seymour, Duke of Somerset. (Collins's Peerage, vol. i. p. 191.) Thus early practised in matrimonial intrigue, we find her thirty years afterwards the accomplished organ of political intrigue; the favourite and friend of Queen Anne, and the zealous partisan of the Whig party. In that character she became the object of Swift's pasquinade, the "Windsor Prophecy," which, though aimed at the Duchess of Somerset, and the destruction of her influence at court, recoiled upon the head of the author, prevented the queen from making him a bishop, and banished him from her favour for the remainder of her reign. The meaning of the "Prophecy," and the keenness of its sarcasm, were of course readily understood and appreciated by cotemporaries. Swift himself seems to have been highly pleased with it. He says, in one of his letters to Stella, "The Prophecy is an admirable good one, and the people are mad for it." The above recital of the early history of the Duchess of Somerset will render it fully intelligible at the present day. After mentioning some incidents and characters of the time, the "Windsor Prophecy" ends thus:

[3] Alluding to the Duchess of Somerset's red hair.

[4] Anna Regina.

[5] Lady Masham.

[6] Lady Masham's maiden name.

D. JARDINE.

FOLK LORE.

The pages of "N. & Q." have given the most varied and valuable contributions to the "folk lore" of Britain; your contributors have unquestionably saved many a scrap from oblivion, illustrated many an obscure allusion, recorded many an old custom, and generally, by the interesting nature of their notes (throwing, as they do, the newest and strongest light on the darkest and most out-of-the-way nooks and corners of the house and field life, and general turn of thought of the great mass of the people), paved the way for a higher estimate being formed by literary men, and the general reading public, of the real worth and present available use of this hitherto despised branch of inquiry; and stimulating to some extended and systematic garnering-up of those precious fragments that still exist in unguessed abundance (sown broad-cast, as they are, from Land's End to John o'Groat's), though fast perishing. I am confident that there is no county or district in Great Britain that would not yield, to a careful, diligent, and qualified seeker, a rich and valuable harvest; and where quaint memorials of the people might not be unearthed, to be gathered together and stored up, ready to the moulding hand of some coming Macaulay, who may there find illustrations to make clear, and clues to guide the searcher in the darkest and most entangled mazes of history.

Pardon, sir, for this most prosy and long-winded preface. I have been induced to address you by observing what is being done in other countries, by a desire to point out an example, and stimulate to its emulation that able and tried body of inquirers in this country, who, for love of the subject, have already collected such valuable stores.

In the Morning Chronicle of Monday, the 23rd of February, 1852 (No. 26,571. p. 6.), under the heading Denmark, is the following:—

"Two young Finnish students are wandering through the districts round Tammerfors, for the purpose of collecting and preserving old Finnish folk-tales, legends, songs, runes, riddles, and proverbs, &c. Their names are B. Paldani and O. Palander. They are not assisted by the Finnish Literary Society, whose funds at this moment are not in a condition to bear any extra expenses, but by two divisions of the students at Helsingfors, namely, the West Finnish and the Wiborg students, each of which has subscribed fifty silver rubles for this purpose. The two literary pilgrims have already collected rich treasures of Finnish folk-lore. Why do we not follow their example? When will some of our accomplished young scholars wander over the hills and dales of merry England, rescuing from oblivion our rich traditions, before they pass for ever from among us? Surely the Society of Antiquaries might arrange similar visits for a similar purpose. There is no want of men able and willing to undertake the task, only the ARRANGING HAND is wanting. In the meantime let every man do what he can in his own neighbourhood."

In hopes that the "arranging hand" may, through the medium of "N. & Q.," start out of chaos ready