JOHANN BAPTIST**, an eminent metal-founder of Munich, was the son of a poor blacksmith, and was born at Fürstenfeldbrück, near Munich, on the 18th October 1791. The boy originally acquired the art of drawing by copying some illustrative wood-cuts of an old convent in possession of his father. Having been placed with a goldsmith of Munich, he by his industry and good conduct recommended himself to the director of the Bavarian mint, who procured him admission into the academy in 1810. This was the means of introducing him to the notice of the king, who in 1819 sent him to Italy to complete his studies. While in Rome Stiglmayer's attention was drawn to the art of metal-founding by Ludwig, then crown-prince of Bavaria. After spending a year or two in the study of metal castings he returned to Munich in 1822, and set to work in 1826 at the royal bronze-foundry, and turned out more extensive castings than any other man of modern times. He executed numerous monuments of his own planning, but generally he preferred following the designs of Schwanthalcr, Thorwaldsen, and Rauch. He died on the 2d of March 1844, the day on which his nephew, assistant and successor, Ferdinand Miller, cast the colossal statue of Goethe, designed by Schwanthalcr, for the city of Frankfort.

**STILL, JOHN**, said to be the author of *Gammer Gurton's Needle*, was a native of Grantham in Lincolnshire, and was born in 1543. He became a student of Christ's College, Cambridge, where he duly graduated and took orders. He was appointed in 1570 Lady Margaret's professor in his university, subsequently held livings in Suffolk and Yorkshire, and was master successively of St John's College and of Trinity College. Still was elevated to the bishopric of Bath and Wells in 1592, and after enjoying considerable fame as a preacher and disputant, he died, leaving a large fortune from lead-mines discovered in the Mendip Hills.

To Bishop Still is ascribed the authorship, on somewhat slight grounds, of the earliest comedy but one in the English language. This is *Gammer Gurton's Needle*, which bears on the title-page, "Made by Mr S., Master of Arts," which was first published in 1575. Perhaps the introduction to the second act of that coarse play, which consists of the oldest drinking-song in the English language, has made the jolly bishop more widely known than his loudest disputations would ever have rendered him. This exquisite old song, commencing,

"I cannot eat but little meat, My stomach is not good,"

has been found, on more recent research, to belong to an earlier date than the era of Bishop Still. (See Dyce's *Life of Skelton*, vol. i., pp. 7–9.)