to be able to lay before the public the documents out of which I draw this opinion, in a note to the third and forthcoming volume of The Church of our Fathers.

D. ROCK.

Collar of SS.—To your list of persons now privileged to wear these collars, I beg to add her Majesty's serjeant trumpeter, Thomas Lister Parker, Esq., to whom a silver collar of SS. has been granted. It is always worn by him or his deputy on state occasions.

THOMAS LEWIS,

Acting Serjeant Trumpeter. 34. Mount Street.

JOACHIN, THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR.

(Vol. ii., p. 229.)

Your correspondent AMICUS will I fear find very little information about this mysterious person in the writers of French history of the time. He is thus mentioned in Cavendish's Life of Wolsey (ed. 1825, vol. i. p. 73.):—

"The French king lying in his camp, sent secretly into England a privy person, a very witty man, to entreat of a peace between him and the king our sovereign lord, whose name was John Joachin; he was kept as secret as might be, that no man had intelligence of his repair; for he was no Frenchman, but an Italian born, a man before of no estimation in France, or known to be in favour with his master, but to be a merchant; and for his subtle wit, elected to entreat of such affairs as the king had commanded him by embassy. This Joachin, after his arrival here in England, was secretly conveyed unto the king's manor of Richmond, and there remained until Whitsuntide; at which time the cardinal resorted thither, and kept there the said feast very solemnly. In which season my lord caused this Joachin divers times to dine with him, whose talk and behaviour seemed to be witty, sober, and wondrous discreet."

My note on this passage says:—

"The name of this person was Giovanni Joacchino Passano, a Genoese; he was afterwards called Seigneur de Vaux. The emperor, it appears, was informed of his being in England, and for what purpose. The cardinal stated that Joacchino came over as a merchant; and that as soon as he discovered himself to be sent by the lady regent of France, he made De Præt (the emperor's ambassador) privy thereto, and likewise of the answer given to her proposals. The air of mystery which attached to this mission naturally created suspicion; and, after a few months, De Præt, in his letters to the emperor, and to Margaret, governess of the Netherlands, expressed his surmise that all was not right, alleging his reasons. His letters were intercepted by the cardinal, and read before the council. Charles and Margaret complained of the insult, and the cardinal explained as well as he could: at the same time protesting against the misinterpretation of De Præt, and assuring them that nothing could be further from his wish than that any disunion should arise between the king his master and the emperor; and notwithstanding the suspicious aspect of this transaction, his dispatches, both before and after this fracas, strongly corroborate his assertions. Wolsey suspected that the Pope was inclined toward the cause of Francis, and reminded him of his obligations to Henry and Charles. The Pope had already taken the alarm, and had made terms with the French king, but had industriously concealed it from Wolsey, and at length urged in his excuse that he had no alternative. Joacchino was again in England upon a different mission, and was an eye-witness of the melancholy condition of the cardinal when his fortunes were reversed. He sympathised with him, and interested himself for him with Francis and the queen dowager, as appears by his letters published in Legrand, Histoire du Divorce de Henry VIII."

I think it is from this interesting book, which throws much light upon many of the intricate passages of the history of the times, that I derived my information. It is in all respects a work worth consulting.

S.W. SINGER.

REMAINS OF JAMES II.

(Vol. ii., p. 243.).

The following passage is transcribed from a communication relative to the Scotch College at Paris, made by the Rev. H. Longueville Jones to the Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, 1841, vol. vii. p. 33.:—

"The king left his brains to this college; and, it used to be said, other parts, but this is more doubtful, to the Irish and English colleges at Paris. His heart was bequeathed to the Dames de St. Marie at Chaillot, and his entrails were buried at St. Germain-en-Laye, where a handsome monument has been erected to his memory by order of George IV.; but the body itself was interred in the monastery of English Benedictine Monks that once existed in the Rue du Faubourg St. Jacques, close to the Val de Grace. In this latter house, previous to the Revolution, the following simple inscription marked where the monarch's body lay:—

"'CI GIST JACQUES II. ROI DE LA GRANDE BRETAGNE.'"

A monument to the king still exists in the chapel of the Scotch College (which is now leased to a private school), and the inscription, in Latin, written by James, Duke of Perth, is printed in the same volume of Collectanea, p. 35., followed by all the other inscriptions to James's adherents now remaining in that chapel.

In a subsequent communication respecting the Irish College at Paris, made by the same gentleman, and printed in the same volume, at p. 113. are these remarks:—

"It is not uninteresting to add, that the body of James II. was brought to this college after the destruction of the English Benedictine Monastery adjoining the Val de Grace; and remained for some years in a temporary tomb in one of the lecture halls, then used as the chapel. It was afterwards removed; by whose authority, and to what place, is not exactly known: but it is considered not improbable that it was transported to the church of St. Germain-en-Laye, and there buried under the monument erected by George IV. Some additional light will probably be thrown on this subject, in a work on the Stuarts now in course of compilation."

Has this work since appeared?

J.G.N.

Interment of James II.—I remember reading in the French papers, in the year 1823 or 1824, a long account of the then recent exhumation and re-interment in another spot of the remains of James II. I was but a boy at the time, and neglected to make a "Note", which might now be valuable to you. I have not the least doubt, however, that the fact will be discovered on reference to a file of the Etoile, or any other of the Paris papers of one or other of the years above named.

There is a marble monument erected in memory of James, in the chapel of the old Scotch College, in the Rue des Fossés Saint Victor. An urn of bronze, gilt, containing the king's brains, formerly stood on the crown of this monument. The urn was smashed and the contents scattered over the ground, during the French Revolution. A much more important loss to posterity was incurred by the destruction of the manuscripts entrusted by James to the keeping of the brotherhood he loved. The trust is alluded to with mingled pride and affection in the noble and touching inscription on the royal monument.

J.D.

Earl's Court, Kensington.

HANDFASTING.

(Vol. ii., p. 151.)

Your correspondent J.M.G. has brought forward a curious subject, and one well deserving attention and illustration. A fair is said to have been held at the meeting of the Black and White Esks, at the foot of Eskdalemuir, in Dumfriesshire, when the singular custom of Handfasting was observed. The old statistical account of the parish says: