have elsewhere shown to be the proper objects of the 'faculty judging according to sense.'"

Does Coleridge mean that the inferior animals may have language?

Who, of your many able correspondents, will assist me in unravelling this complicated tissue?

C. Mansfield Ingleby.

Minor Queries.

Banning or Bayning Family.—I am desirous of knowing if there was a family of the name of Banning or Bayning seated in Ireland at the close of the sixteenth century; and whether there was any other branch in England excepting that in Essex.

K.

Ladies styled Baronets.—An ancestor of mine, Sir Anthony Chester, Bart., of Chichley Hall, Bucks, in his will, dated Nov. 26, 1635, and proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Dec. 9, 1635 [128 Sadler], desires "to be buried in the north part of Chichley Church, in the same vault with Dame Elizabeth Chester, Baronet, his first wife." Are there any other instances of ladies of the same rank being styled Baronet about this time? I may mention that this Lady Chester was daughter to Sir Henry Boteler, of Hatfield Woodhall, Herts, and sister to John Lord Boteler, of Bramfeld.

Tewars.

St. Christopher and the Doree.—Brand, in his Popular Antiquities, vol. iii. p. 194., says that the fish called the Doree is traditionally said to have derived the spots on its sides frown the fact of St. Christopher, in wading through the arm of the sea, having caught a fish of this description en passant, and having left as an eternal memorial of the fact an impression on its sides to be transmitted to all posterity.

Can any of your readers inform me from what source Brand derived this idea?

E. A. H. L.

Custom of Women wearing Masks in the Theatre.—When did this custom originate? It was not common before the civil wars, nor in fashion till some time after the Restoration. Masked ladies are often mentioned in the prologues and epilogues to the plays of Dryden, Lee, Otway, &c. The custom probably originated in France. A dispute which ended in a duel (concerning a Mrs. Fawkes) caused the entire prohibition of women's wearing masks in the playhouse. This was about the 5th of Queen Anne.

Edward F. Rimbault.

Brass of Abbot Kirton; Matrices.—When was the brass of Abbot Kirton, in Westminster Abbey, removed? Have there been any brasses taken away (of which the matrices have been also removed); and if so, in whose possession are they at the present time?

Unicorn.

Lines on Chaucer.—