These early traces of heraldic usage appear to deserve more notice than
I believe they have received.

O.


_Burning the Dead._--Can any of your readers, who may have attended
particularly to the funeral customs of different peoples, inform me
whether the practice of burning the dead has ever been in vogue amongst
any people excepting inhabitants of Europe and Asia? I incline to the
opinion that this practice has been limited to people of Indo-Germanic
or Japetic race, and I shall be obliged by any references in favour of
or opposed to this view.

T.


_Meaning of "Shipster."_--Can any of your correspondents inform me what
is the business or calling or profession of a Shipster? The term occurs
in a grant of an annuity of Oct. 19. 2 Henry VIII., 1510, and made
between "H.U., Gentilman, and Marie Fraunceys de Suthwerk, in com Surr
_Shipster_."

JOHN R. FOX.

55. Welbeck Street, Jan. 22. 1850.


_Why did Dr. Dee quit Manchester?_--In the _Penny Cyclopædia_, art. DEE,
JOHN, I find the following statement:--