Can any of your correspondents inform me when this most interesting relic disappeared?  Sandford, whose Genealogical History was published some sixty or seventy years later, says, “On an iron barr over the Tombe are placed the Healme and Crest, Coat of Maile, and Gantlets, and, on a pillar near thereunto, his shield of Armes, richly diapred with gold, all which he is said to have used in Battel;” but he neither mentions the missing “Pavoise,” engraved in Bolton, or the scabbard of the sword which yet remains, the sword itself having been taken away, according to report, by Oliver Cromwell.  Did that unscrupulous Protector(?) take away the “Pavoise” at the same time, or order his Ironsides to “remove that bauble?”—­and how came he to spare the helmet, jupon, gauntlets, shield, and scabbard?  I have strong doubts of his being the purloiner of the sword.  The late Mr. Stothard, who mentions the report, does not quote his authority.  I will add another query, on a similar subject:—­When did the real sword of Charles the First’s time, which, but a few years back, hung at the side of that monarch’s equestrian figure at Charing Cross, disappear?—­and what has become of it?  The question was put, at my suggestion, to the official authorities, by the secretary of the British Archaeological Association; but no information could be obtained on the subject.  That the sword was a real one of that period, I state upon the authority of my lamented friend, the late Sir Samuel Meyrick, who had ascertained the fact, and pointed out to me its loss.

J.R.  PLANCHE.

* * * * *

FRATENRNITYE OF VAGABONDES—­REV.  MR. GENESSE—­RED MAIDS.

[We have for some time past been obliged, by want of space, to omit all the kind expressions towards ourselves, in which friendly correspondents are apt to indulge; but there is something so unusual in the way in which the following letter begins, that we have done violence to our modesty, in order to admit the comments of our kind-hearted correspondent.  We have no doubt that all his questions will be answered in due course.]

Never, during my life (more than half a century), do I remember hailing the appearance of any new publication with such unfeigned delight.  I had hugged myself on having the friendship of a certain “BOOKWORM,” possessing a curious library, of some three or four thousand volumes; how much must I have rejoiced, therefore, at finding that, through the medium of your invaluable journal, my literary friends were likely to be increased one hundred-fold; and that, for the small sum of three pence weekly, I could command the cordial co-operation, when at a loss, of all the first scholars, antiquaries, and literary men of the country; that without the trouble of attending meetings, &c., I could freely become a member of the “Society of Societies;” that the four thousand volumes, to which I had, previously, access, were increased more than ten thousand-fold.  It is one of the peculiar advantages of literary accumulation, that it is only by diffusing the knowledge of the materials amassed, and the information gained, that their value is felt.  Unlike the miser, the scholar and antiquary, by expending, add to the value of their riches.