pronounced. Months and years passed away, but no warrant for his execution arrived. In the interval a marked improvement in the man's conduct and bearing became apparent. His natural abilities were good, his temper mild, and his general desire to please attracted the attention and engaged the confidence of the governor of the prison, who at length employed him as a domestic servant; and such was his reliance on his integrity, that he even employed him in executing commissions not only in the city, but to places at a great distance from it. After a considerable lapse of time, however, the awful instrument, which had been inadvertently concealed among other papers, was discovered, and at once forwarded to the high sheriff, and by the proper authority to the unfortunate delinquent himself. My purpose is brief relation only; suffice it to say the unhappy man is stated under these affecting circumstances to have suffered the last penalty of the law.

Query, Can any of your readers inform me if this extraordinary story is founded on fact?

M. W. B.

139. Rhynsault and Sapphira.

—Whence did Steele derive the story of these personages in the Spectator (No. 491.)? A similar story is told by Jeremy Taylor, from John Chokier (Duct. Dubit., book iii. chap. ii. rule 5. quæst. 3.); and that of Colonel Kyrke furnishes another parallel.

A TR.

140. Mallet's Second Wife.

—I should be glad to know in what year the second wife of Mallet died. It is stated that he returned from abroad shortly before his death, without his wife.

F.

141. Proverb, what constitutes one?

—What distinguishes a proverb, and is essential to its being such, as distinct from a short familiar sentence?

QUERE.

142. Presant Family.

—Any information respecting the ancient family of Presant, which is now nearly extinct, will oblige

SYLLA.

143. The Serpent represented with a human Head.

—Is Raphael the only painter who depicts the serpent with a human head tempting Eve? and what is the origin of the legend?

G. CREED.

144. Dr. Wotton.

—Is there any genealogical connexion between Sir Henry Wotton, the Venetian ambassador, and the Rev. Henry Wotton of Suffolk, father of the eminent Dr. William Wotton? And where is the pedigree to be found?

S. W. RIX.

Beccles.

145.Κολοβοδάκτυλος.

—In the seventh book of Origen's Philosophumena, chap. xxx., speaking of Marcion, the writer says:

"When therefore Marcion, or any of his currish followers, barks at the Demiurgus, bringing forward these arguments about the opposition of good and evil, they must be told that neither the Apostle Paul, nor Mark ὁ κολοβοδάκτυλος (i.e. the stump-fingered), promulgated any such doctrines; for nothing of the kind is found written in the Gospel according to Mark."

Is this epithet of Mark the Evangelist mentioned by any other of the fathers, or is it known how it originated? It is also to be remarked that Luke, not Mark, according to the received opinion, was the evangelist whose authority Marcion admitted, and whose text he tampered with to suit his own views. Is Origen supported in his account of the matter by any other writer?

C. W. G.

146. Essex's Expedition to Ireland.

—It is a matter of history that the celebrated Earl of Essex in Queen Elizabeth's time left London in March 1599, in command of a great expedition against Ireland, accompanied by a numerous train of nobility and gentry and other retainers.

At what office and to what quarter is one to apply for the purpose of discovering the Muster Roll made upon that occasion? There must be some documents, bills, letters, &c., relating to that expedition, the object of the querist being to ascertain whether his own name, "Jackson," can be found in any of these documents, as he has reason to think that any ancestor of his was one of the battle-axe guards in Dublin at that period.

J.

147. Decretorum Doctor.

—Is this title given at either of our universities? And what is its precise meaning? It not uncommonly occurs in the documents of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and that it is not the same as Doctor of Laws may be concluded from the following examples:—The publication of a Pope's Bull by the Bishop of London, in the chapel of his palace in London on May 16, 1503, is stated to have been made "Præsentibus tunc ibidem, Venerabilibus viris, Willielmo Mors, et Johanne Younge, Legum, et Thoma Wodyngton, Decretorum, Doctoribus, Testibus," &c. (Rymer, xiii. 61.) And in Wood's Athen., 1845 (ii. 728.), we find the same "Tho. Wodynton, decr. doctor," collated to the church of St Mary le Bow, on the resignation of the same "Joh'is Yonge, LL.D." on May 3, 1514.

Φ.

148. Grimsdyke or Grimesditch.

—If you do not deem the following Query too trifling for your most invaluable publication, I should be much obliged if you would insert it, in hopes some of your antiquarian correspondents may find something to say on the point.

From near Great Berkhampstead, Hants, to Bradenham, Bucks, about fifteen miles (I write from memory), runs a vallum or ditch, called Grimsdyke, Grimesditch, or the Devil's Dyke: it is of considerable boldness of profile, being in some places twelve or fourteen feet from the crest of the parapet to the bottom of the ditch; it keeps within two miles of the crest of the Chiltern Hills, and is passingly mentioned in Lipscombe's History of Bucks, and in the commencement of Clutterbuck's History of Hertfordshire. Are there other earthworks of the same name (Grimsdyke) in England; and what was their former use? This one in question, from its total want of flank defence, could hardly hold an enemy in check for long; nor does it seem to have been a military way connecting detached forts, as, though there are earthworks (camps) on either side, it seems to hold a tolerably straight course independent of them. And, lastly, about the etymology of the word:—I find, in Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, among a host of other meanings:

"GRIMA, ghost, phantom, witch, hag."

I may mention that there is the tradition about the dyke, common to most works of the sort, that it was "done by the Devil in a night."

NAUTICUS.

H.M.S. Phaiton, Lisbon, Aug 25.

149. Passage in Luther.

—In Luther's Responsio ad librum Ambrosii Catharini, where he attacks the confessional, he says:

"Cogit etiam papa peccata suarum legum confiteri—ad hæc tot peccatorum differentiis, speciebus, generibus, filiabus, nepotibus, ramis, circumstantiis," &c.

Were these expressions merely jocular, or have any papal canonists or casuists given the title of filiæ, nepotes