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Falces strong, straight, and directed a little backwards, colour yellow-brown.

Abdomen dark brown, of a regular oval form, and thinly clothed with fine hairs. The genital aperture is very characteristic in size and form.

Though somewhat obscure, I believe this spider to be of the genus Araeoncus, Sim., and have conjectured that it might possibly be the female of A. longiusculus, Cambr.. of which I formerly described the male from Corsica, but have never as yet seen an authentic female. Meanwhile, it is certainly, I think, distinct from any of our British species, and on the whole it is perhaps safer to describe it as new rather than to relegate it to an already described species without a type of the latter with which to compare it.

A single example was sent to me in April, 1909, from Rams' Head, Cornwall, where it was found in a nest of the ant Tetramorum cæspitum by Mr. H. Donisthorpe.

CORRECTION OF A FORMER PAPER.

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The following corrections should be made of one or two mistakes in the paper on "British Arachnida (Proc. Dors. Nat. Hist. and Antiq. Field Club, Vol. XXX., p. 97, 1909).

Page 104, under heading of Mengea Warburtonii, Camb., instead of "by Mr. W. Falconer," read " and has been received by," etc.

Page 106, under heading Erigone arctica, White-Cambr., instead of Sunderland, read North Sunderland.

Page 107, under heading Cornicularia valida, Jackson, line 9, from top of page for "longer " read "larger."

Page 113, under heading Hyctia Nivoyi, Lucas, for “ Saltend Common, near Hull," read "Spurn;" and instead of "Mr. W. Falconer has met with it here," read Mr. W. F. "has not himself met with it," etc., etc.

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The Birthplace of Matthew Prior,

SCHOLAR, POET, AND DIPLOMATIST.

By the Rev. JAS. M. J. FLETCHER, M.A.
(Read Dec. 14th, 1909.)

To Matthew Prior, Poet and Scholar,
Born at Eastbrook in this Town
Anno 1664. Died September 18, 1721,
In the Fifty Seventh Year of His Age,
Weld Taylor, Esq., has placed this Brass
To His Memory.

(Perennis et Fragrans.)

80

O runs the inscription on a modern brass, which was placed against the South Wall of the West Porch, beneath the Belfry, at Wimborne Minster, some quarter of a century ago, by Mr. Weld Taylor, an artist, who for a long period acted as drawing master at Wimborne Grammar School. An article by him in "Longman's Magazine" for October, 1884, entitled 'Was Matthew Prior a Dorsetshire be known to some of our members. There has, we believe, always been a tradition in Wimborne that Matthew Prior was a native of the town, and that his father was a carpenter. Various houses or sites are pointed out as places where at one time or other his parents lived, or

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where he was born. We have some old cottages in Wimborne, but the life of a small house in a country town does not always amount to 2 centuries; and my own impression is that the original home of his childhood's days does not now exist, though I feel sure that its locality is known, although the house itself has been pulled down. And the passage which connects East Boro' with West Boro', called in the old maps of Wimborne Luke's Lane, has, of recent years, had its name changed to that which it is said to have sometimes borne, from the use which the poet made of the street in question in the days of his childhood,-" Prior's Walk."

Weld Taylor, in his article in "Longman's," speaks of an old lady, a Miss Knott (at the time when she gave the information, ninety years of age), who told him that her father and grandfather often spoke of the Priors' occupancy of the house alluded to, and of Matthew frequently coming out of the door which there then was in the wall. It was on the South side of the lane, where it joins East Boro'.

Hutchins, in his original edition of the " History of Dorset " (1774, Vol. II., p. 75), points out that it is highly probable that Matthew Prior was born at Wimborne, but that no entry of his baptism could be found in the Registers his parents presumably being Dissenters.

The tradition in Wimborne that Prior was born there has been spoken of. We now turn to another tradition

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Amongst the many objects of interest which are to be seen in the Minster at Wimborne is a copy of Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World, which has now a place in the large glasscase in the centre of the room, commonly called the Library, in which the celebrated collection of chained books is deposited. It is not the distinguished author's name, nor yet the subject matter of the volume, nor even the antiquity of this particular edition of Sir Walter's great work (A.D. 1614), which makes it such an object of attraction to the multitude of visitors who, during the course of the year, come to inspect the treasures of the Minster. But its special interest arises from the fact that a hole has been burnt through a considerable portion

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