probable that King David lost _two_ crosses at
Durham, one a military cross, carried with his army, and taken from the
Abbey of Holyrood; and the other the famous Black Rood found on his person,
and made an offering to the shrine of St. Cuthbert? This would reconcile
some apparent discrepancies.

8. I find it noticed by Richardson in his _Table Book_ (Newcastle, 1846,
vol. i. p. 123.), that "there is a letter in the British Museum (Faustina,
A 6. 47.) from the prior of Durham to the Bishop (then absent), giving an
account of the battle of Neville's cross." Has this letter been printed,
and where? If not so, will any of your correspondents have the {105}
kindness to examine it, and say if it gives any information as to a cross
or crosses captured with the King of Scots?

J. D. N. N.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

_The "Tanthony."_--When the porteress at the principal entrance to
Kimbolton Park opens the gates for the admission of a visitor, she rings a
bell to give warning to the servants at the castle of his approach. This
bell is popularly called the "Tanthony," in reference, I presume, to some
legend of Saint Anthony. Will one of your readers be good enough to
enlighten me?

ARUN.

"_Beauty Retire._"--Will the noble editor of Pepys's _Diary_ permit me to
ask him whether he has seen, in the Pepysian library, or elsewhere, a copy,
either in print or MS., of Pepys's song, "Beauty Retire," words and music;
or is it to be found in any miscellaneous collection of songs?

I. H. M.

_The Soul's Dark Cottage._--Being called on to reply to matters as plain as
those to which I replied last week, I am less reluctant to acknowledge my
own ignorance or obliviousness, respecting a couplet of which, I doubt not,
hundreds of your readers know the original _habitat_, but which cannot be
recalled to my own memory, nor to that of several friends to whom I have
referred. The couplet is--

"The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed,
Lets in new light through chinks that time hath made."

EFFARESS.

London, Jan. 4, 1851.

"_Small by degrees and beautifully less._"--This is a very common
quotation, but, although I have made frequent inquiries, I have never yet
been able to find out the author of it. Perhaps some of your readers can
inform me.

W. H. B.

_Musical Plagiarism._--I think I remember to have heard, two or three years
ago, of an action for damages brought against an eminent