Fleet Street (No. 136),
under the title of instrument-maker to his Majesty. In an edition of Harris
(the 8th, 1767), which I lately met with, the above is described as "late
the shop of Thomas Wright," &c. By the advertisements which this work
contains, Wright must have had an extensive business as a philosophical
instrument-maker. The omission in the biography is a strange one. Possibly
some farther information may fall in the way of some of your readers.

A. DE MORGAN.

_A Funeral Custom_.--At Broadwas, Worcestershire, in the valley of the
Teame, it is the custom at funerals, on reaching "the Church Walk," for the
bearers to set down the coffin, and, as they stand around, to bow to it.

CUTHBERT BEDE, B. A.

* * * * *

Queries.

LITTLECOTT--SIR JOHN POPHAM.

Every one knows the tradition attached to the manor of Littlecott in
Wiltshire, and the alleged means by which Chief Justice Sir John Popham
acquired its possession. It is told by Aubrey, Sir Walter Scott, and many
others, and is too notorious to be here repeated. Let me ask you or your
learned correspondents whether there exists any refutation of a charge so
seriously detrimental to the character of any judge, and so inconsistent
with the reputation which Chief Justice Popham enjoyed among his
cotemporaries? See Lord Ellesmere's notice of him in the case of the
Postnati (_State Trials_, ii. 669.), and Sir Edward Coke's flattering
picture of him at the end of Sir Drew Drury's case (_Reports_, vi. 75.).
Are there any records showing that a Darell was ever in fact arraigned on a
charge of murder, and the name of the judge who presided at the trial? Is
the date known of the death of the last Darell who possessed the estate, or
that of Sir John Popham's acquisition of it? The discovery of these might
throw great light on the subject, and possibly afford a complete
contradiction.

Sir Francis Bacon, in his argument against Sir John Hollis and others for
traducing public justice, states that--

"Popham, a great judge in his time, was complained of by petition to
Queen Elizabeth; it was committed {219} to four privy councillors, but
the same was found to be slanderous, and the parties punished in the
court."--_State Trials_, vol. ii. p. 1029.

If this petition could be discovered, and it should turn out that the
slander complained of in it had reference to this story, the investigation
which it then underwent