Fell,
"the clerk held out the book, and bid her pull off her glove, and lay her
hand on the book" (_H. M._, p. 285.). And directly after, when the oath had
been read to Fox, the following scene is described:

"'Give him the book,' _said they_; and so a man that stood by him held
up the book, and said, 'Lay your hand on the book.'

"_Geo. Fox._ 'Give me the book in my hand.' Which set them all
a-gazing, and as in hope he would have sworn."

And it appears from the case of Omychund v. Barker, that, at that time, the
usual form was by laying the right hand on the book, and kissing it
afterwards (1 Atk. 42.). It seems not improbable that Paley's suggestion,
in his _Moral Philosophy_, vol. i. p. 192. (10th edit.), may be correct. He
says:

"The kiss seems rather an act of reverence to the contents of the book,
as, in the Popish ritual, the priest kisses the gospel before he reads
it, than any part of the oath."

The Query respecting the Welsh custom I must leave to those who are better
informed respecting the judicial forms of that country; merely suggesting
whether the practice alluded to by your correspondent may not originally
have had a meaning similar to that of the three fingers on the book, and
two under, as described by Fox in the passage above quoted.

ERICA.

Warwick.

In the bailiwick of Guernsey the person sworn lifts his right hand, and the
presiding judge, who administers the oath, says "Vous jurez par la foi et
le serment que vous devez a Dieu que," &c. Oaths of office, however, are
taken on the Gospels, and are read to the person swearing by the greffier,
or clerk of the court. The reason of this difference may be accounted for
by the fact that the official oaths, as they now exist, appear to have been
drawn up about the beginning of the reign of James I., and that in all
probability the form was enjoined by the superior authority of the Privy
Council.

Which of the two forms was generally used before the Reformation, I have
not been able to discover; but in an account of the laws, privileges, and
customs of the island, taken by way of inquisition in the year 1331, but
more fully completed and approved in the year 1441, it appears that the
juries of the several parishes were sworn "sur Sainctes Evangiles de Dieu
par eulx et par chacun d'eulx corporellement touche,"--"par leurs
consciences sur le peril de la dampnation de leurs ames."

I remember to have seen men from s