G.K.

* * * * *


SINGULAR TENURE.


King John gave several lands, at Kepperton and Atterton, in Kent, to
Solomon Attefeld, to be held by this singular service--that as often as
the king should be pleased to cross the sea, the said Solomon, or his
heirs, should be obliged to go with him, to _hold his majesty's head_,
if there should be occasion for it, "that is, if he should be sea-sick;"
and it appears, by the record in the Tower, that this same office of
_head-holding_ was actually performed in the reign of Edward the First.

J.R.S.

* * * * *


"AS BAD AS PLOUGHING WITH DOGS."

(_To the Editor_.)


Famed as your miscellany is for local and provincial terms, customs, and
proverbs, I have often wondered never to have met with therein this old
comparative north country proverb--"As bad as ploughing with dogs;"
which evidently originated from the Farm-house; for when ploughmen