account, it was several years before the late earl's claim was fully
confirmed, as it was thought that some of the descendants of the elder
branches might come forward. This would have attracted my attention earlier
had I not been abroad.

AN HIBERNIAN.

Mivart's Hotel, London.

_Dryden's "Absolom and Achitophel"_ (Vol. ii. p. 423.).--The passage in
_Absolom and Achitophel_ is taken from Fuller's _Profane State_, speaking
of Alva:

"He was one of a lean body and visage, as if his eager soul, biting for
anger at the clog of his body, desired to fret a passage through it;"

and from Carew, p. 71.,

"The purest soul that ere was sent
Into a clayey tenement."

C. B.

_Cabalistic Author_ (Vol. ii., p. 424.).--"W. C. or twice five hundred."
The meaning is very evident. V. signifies five, and C. one hundred. W. is
two V's, therefore W. C. twice five hundred.

TERRA MARTIS.

\[ [Another correspondent points out that W. C., the author, may probably
be _William_ Cooper the printer.] \]

_Twickenham--Did Elizabeth visit Bacon there?_ (Vol. ii., p. 408.).--

"At Twickenham Park, either in this [1592] or the following year,
through the immediate interest of his steady patron, the Earl of Essex,
Mr. Francis Bacon had the honour of entertaining Queen Elizabeth, where
he presented her with the sonnet in honour of that generous
nobleman."--Nichols's _Progresses of Queen Eliz._, 2d ed. iii. p. 190.

J. I. D.

_Legend of a Saint and Crozier_ (Vol. ii., p. 267.)--The incident is
related of St. Patrick and one of the kings of Cashel, and formed the
subject of the first picture exhibited by James Barry. In the {469}
_Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties_, London, 1831, (art. Barry, p.
159.) it is stated that:

"The picture was painted in his twentieth or twenty-first year, on the
baptism by St. Patrick of one of the kings of Cashel, who stands
unmoved while the ceremony is performed, amidst a crowd of wondering
spectators; although the saint, in setting down his crosier, has,
without perceiving it, struck its iron point through the royal foot."

ESTE.

_Becket_ (Vol. ii., pp. 106. 270. 364.).--It so happens that, before
seeing, MR. VENABLES' communication, with his quotations from the
_Monasticon_ (Vol. ii., p. 364), I had taken an opportunity of looking into
a friend's copy of that work, and had there found what seems to be a key to
the origin of the designation