ng attempt has been made by a
correspondent in the _Lowestoft Standard_ (25th August 1900) to
identify Pakefield Church as the 'Raxton' Church of the story, and
the writer of the letter mentions the most remarkable, and to me
quite new fact, that although the guide-books of Lowestoft and the
district are quite silent as to a curious crypt at the east end of
Pakefield Church, there is exactly such a crypt as that described in
_Aylwin_, and that in the early days of the correspondent in question
it was used as a storehouse for bones. The readers of _Aylwin_ will
remember the author's words: 'The crypt is much older than the
church, and of an entirely different architecture. It was once the
depository of the bones of Danish warriors killed before the Norman
conquest.'

THOMAS ST. E. HAKE.

In _Notes and Queries_ [9th S., ix. 369, 450; x. 16] a letter had
appeared, signed 'Jay Aitch,' inquiring as to the school of mystics
founded by Lavater, alluded to on page 83 of the _Illustrated
Aylwin_. This afforded Mr. Thomas St. E. Hake another opportunity of
unloading his wallet of Rossetti and _Aylwin_ lore. And in the same
journal, for 2nd August 1902, he wrote as follows:

The question raised by Jay Aitch as to the school of mystics founded
by Lavater, and the large book _The Veiled Queen_, by 'Philip
Aylwin,' which contains quotations that Jay Aitch affirms have
haunted him ever since he read them, are certainly questions about as
interesting as any that could have been raised in connexion with the
story. And in answering these queries I find an opportunity of saying
a few authentic words on a subject upon which many unauthentic ones
have been-uttered--that of the occultism of D. G, Rossetti and some
of his friends. It has been frequently said that Rossetti was a
spiritualist, and it is a fact that he went to several _seances_; but
the word 'spiritualism' seems to have a rather elastic meaning. A
spiritualist, as distinguished from a materialist, Rossetti certainly
was, but his spiritualism was not, I should say, that which in common
parlance bears this name. It was exactly like 'Aylwinism,' which
seems to have been related to the doctrines of the Lavaterian sect
about which Jay Aitch inquires. As a matter of fact, it was not the
original of 'Wilderspin' nearly so much as the original D'Arcy who
was captured by the doctrine of what is called in the story the
'Aylwinian.'

With regard to Johann Kaspar Lavater, Jay Aitc