Of the many stories told of the King's visit to the Duchy of Cornwall, the first that any King has paid since Charles I, I rather like that of Mrs.
Emma Coote, of Bath, She is 107 years old, and, the weather being atrocious, her nurse and great-great niece with whom she lives, said she really could not go out to see the King. But go she would, in her best mantle and bonnet (such things may still be seen in Bath and Cheltenham, and they do say Gloucester, though it is denied) and was presented to the King and shook hands and conversed with him.
"Which shows that there is somethingawrong with the popular conception of Bath as a place where no one ever dies but no one is ever alive, Cornwall, distinguished for its handsome men, its saints whom no one else ever heard of, and its language which no one else can speak, produced several other peculiarities which even most Cornishmen had forgotten. When the King's tenants waited on him dt Launceston Castle, each one presented gifts prescribed by the tradition of many centurfes—one, 100 shillings and a pound of pepper; another, a silver tipped alder bow; another, a pair of greyhounds; another, a salmon spear and "one carriage of wood"; while yet another appeared in a mantle of goatskin.
There was formerly a law—was it called the law of heriot?—by which the "best beast" on a farm had to be surrendered to the lord of the manor, In one instance the best beast was a famous race horse, and the ensuing lawsuit as to whether it was to be surrendered ate up much more than the value of the beast, But I believe the King did not actually. take away the greyhounds, the pepper and bundle of wood, but having formally received them gave them back to the tenants, with, to each man, a small white wand tipped with silver.
Mhe weather, as mentioned above, was shocking. Onsthe second day in Somerset, the King's car had to drive through floods in places two foot deep.
And more than one football ground round London is under water, and there will be no match to-day. It is a hard life Working Hours of Nurses A Bill introduced by a Socialist member in the House of Commons yesterday, to limit the working hours of nurses, was rejected by the small difference of 122 votes to 111. The Bill would have applied only to nurses employed by municipal authorities, restricting hours of outdoor nurses to 48 a week and of indoor nurses to 96 a fortnight, and giving extra pay for overtime, The rejection of the Bill does not imply any lack of sympathy with the nurses, alt hour one member who opposed it infuriated the Socialists by saying we must not introduce among nurses the trade union spirit of owning tools" when the clock strikes. But it appeared. from the debate, that no local authority, not even the London County. C: unoil which employs 4000 nurses, had been asked their advice before the Bill was introduced; and it is obvious that the proposed restriction of hours must aggravate the present shortage of nurses before proper arrangements have been made for filling up the ranks.
But the principal objection to the Bill is that a Government Commission of Inquiry into the whole position of the nursing profession has begun its work this week, so that any legislation, until the inquiry is ended, would probably be lopsided.
In recent letters I have mentioned the discussions raised by the grievances of nurses and the growing reluctance of girls to enter the profespion. The "Times" describes the Com-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.