SPES.

June 28. 1850.


_The Lass of Richmond Hill._--I should be much obliged by being informed
who wrote the _words_ of the above song, and when, if it was produced
originally at some place of public entertainment. The Rev. Thomas
Maurice, in his elegant poem on Richmond Hill, has considered it to have
been written upon a Miss Crop, who committed suicide on that spot, April
23rd, 1782; but he was evidently misinformed, as it appeared some few
years later, and had no reference to that event. I have heard it
attributed to Leonard Mac Nally, a writer of some dramatic pieces, but
on no certain grounds; and it may have been a Vauxhall song about the
year 1788. The music was by James Hook, the father of Theodore Hook.

QUÆRO.


_Curfew._--In what towns or villages in England is the old custom of
ringing the curfew still retained?

NABOC.


_Alumni of Oxford, Cambridge, and Winchester._--Are the alumni of the
various colleges of Oxford, Cambridge, and Winchester, published from an
early period, and the various preferments they held, similar to the one
published at Eton.