The troops were disembarked, and took possession of a height comnanding the tower; and their battering was as unsuccessful, till a hot shot fell and set fire to the bass-junk, with which, to the depth of five feet, the immensely thick parapet wall was lined.  This induced the small garrison, of whom two were mortally wounded, to surrender.  The tower mounted only one 6 and two 18-pounders, and the carriage of one of the latter had been rendered unserviceable during the cannonade. (See James’ Naval History, vol. i. p. 285.) The towers along the English coast extend from Hythe to Seaford, where the last tower is numbered 74, at intervals of about a quarter of a mile, except where the coast is protected by the cliffs.  The tower at Seaford is 32 feet high, with a circumference of 136 feet at the base, and gradually tapering to 90 feet at the top.  The wall is 6 feet thick at the top next the sea, and 2 feet on the land side.  The cost of each tower was very large,—­from 15,000l. to 20,000l.  I am not aware of any blue book on the subject; blue books were not so much in vogue at the time of their erection, or perhaps a little less would have been spent in these erections, and a little more pains would have been taken to see that they were properly built.  Some have been undermined by the sea and washed down already; in others, the facing of brick has crumbled away; and in all the fancied security which the original tower taught us to expect would be probably lessened were the English towers subjected to an attack.

WM. DURRANT COOPER.

“A Frog he would a-wooing go” (Vol. ii., p. 75.).—­I know not whether this foolish ballad is worth the notice it has already received, but I can venture to say that the supposed Irish version is but a modern variance from the old ballad which I remember above sixty years, and which began—­

  “There was a frog lived in a well,
      Heigho crowdie! 
  And a merry mouse in a mill,
    With a howdie crowdie, &c. &c. 
  This frog he would a-wooing go,
      Heigho crowdie! 
  Whether his mother would let him or no,
    With a howdie crowdie,” &c.

Of the rest of the ballad I only remember enough to be able to say that it had little or no resemblance to the version in your last Number.

C.

William of Wykeham (Vol. ii., p. 89.).—­1.  I believe that there is no better life of this prelate than that by Bishop Lowth.

2.  The public records published since he wrote give several further particulars of Wykeham’s early career, but a proper notice of them would be too extended for your columns.

3.  When W.H.C. recollects that New College, Oxford, the first of the works he names, was not commenced till 1380, and that Wykeham had then enjoyed the revenues of his rich bishopric for nearly fourteen years, and had previously been in possession of many valuable preferments, both lay and ecclesiastical, for fourteen years more, he will find his third question sufficiently answered, and cease to wonder at the accumulation of that wealth which was applied with wise and munificent liberality to such noble and useful objects.