I will conclude with asking, Is there any evidence to confirm the tradition of the Benedictines?
_Vavasour of Haslewood.--Bells in Churches._--It is currently reported in Yorkshire that three curious privileges belong to the chief of the ancient Roman Catholic family of Vavasour of Haslewood:
1. That he may ride on horseback into York Minster.
2. That he may specially call his house a castle.
3. That he may toll a bell in his chapel, notwithstanding any law prohibiting the use of bells in places of worship not in union with the Church of England.
Is there any foundation for this report; and what is the real story? Is there still a law against the use of bells as a summons to divine services except in churches?
_Alteration of Title-pages._--Among the advertisements in the last _Quarterly_ and _Edinburgh Reviews_, is one which replies to certain criticisms on a work. One of these criticisms was a stricture upon its title. The author states that the reviewer had a _presentation copy_, and ought to have inquired into the title under which the book was sold to the _public_ before he animaverted upon the connexion between the title and the work. It seems then that, in this instance, the author furnished the Reviews with a title-page differing from that of the body of his impression, and thinks he has a right to demand that the reviewers should suppose such a circumstance probable enough to make it imperative upon them to inquire what the real title was. Query, Is such a practice common? Can any of your readers produce another instance?
_Weights for Weighing Coins._--A correspondent wishes to know at what period weights were introduced for weighing coins.
He has met with two notices on the subject in passages of Cottonian manuscripts, and would be glad of farther information.
In a MS. Chronicle, Cotton. Otho B. xiv.--
"1418. Novæ bilances instituuntur ad ponderanda aurea Numismata."
In another Cottonian MS., Vitell. A. i., we read--
_Shunamitis Poema._--Who was the author of a curious small 8vo. volume of 179 pages of Latin and English poems, commencing with "Shunamitis Poema Stephani Duck Latine redditum?"
The last verse of some commendatory verses prefixed point out the author as the son of some well-known character: