SIR,—In your article on "Shakespearian Studies" in the Spectator of
November 5th you quote with approval the words of Mr. Churton Collins about the "minute and undeviating accuracy" of the poet's references to legal matters. There is, however, one of those references which has always worried me ; on which you may perhaps be able to set my mind at rest. What I should like to know is,—by what form of legal process did the soi-disant Brook attach the horses of Sir John Falstaff for the £20 which he had given him for the most immoral consideration possible ? Are we to understand that the jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor's Court extended to Windsor in the days of Henry IV. ? or did the good Shake- speare nod for once ? Perhaps you can explain to me, also, by what law of heraldry Master Silence proposed to quarter his cousin's "old coat" by marrying. If—failing Sweet Ann Page—he had taken the "black ousel" to wife, he would have impaled it, white louses and all, but quarter !—not if I read my Gwillim right.—I am, Sir, &c., LEGULEIUS QUIDAN.
THE UNEMPLOYED.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR." _I
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