“Super rumore Thomam nuper Comitem Lancastriae miraculis
    corruscuri.”—­Rym.  Foed. iii. p. 1033.  A.D. 1323. 
   “Quod,” adds the king, “moleste gerimus.”

But Edward III. was of quite another mind, and urged his canonization of the Holy See.  Witness Rymer:—­

   “Ad Papam; pro canonisatione Thomae nuper Comitis
    Lancastriae.”—­Foed. iv. p. 2.  A.D. 1326.

And again—­

   “Pro custodi” (Weryngton mentioned by Mr. Milnes),
   “Capellae ad montem ubi nuper comes Lancastriae decollatus
    fuit.”—­Ib. p. 291.

It seems that the bodies of some of Thomas’s accomplices were also supposed to have worked miracles; for we find an ordinance—­

   “Contra Fingentes miracula fieri per inimicos Regis.” 
    —­Rym.  Foed. iv. p. 20.  A.D. 1323.

Andrews says (Hist. i. 342.) that Richard II. renewed the application for Thomas’s canonization; but he does not give his authority, and I have not time to look further through Rymer.

p. 184. Jhon-John.—­I wonder Mr. Williams does not see that the h is not “introduced” for any purpose; it is an integral part of the original name Johannes, which was contracted into Johan, and in French into Jehan.

p. 185. Slang Phrases.—­“A Rowland for an Oliver” is no slang phrase of the eighteenth century; it is a proverbial expression as old as the days of the romances of Roland and Olivier.  The other two were phrases put into the mouths of two characters (Dr. Ollapod, in Colman’s Poor Gentleman, and Young Rapid, in Morton’s Cure for the Heart-ache), which grew into vogue only from the success of the actors Fawcett and Lewis, and had no meaning or allusion beyond what the words obviously meant.

C.

{235}_Full of Rain in England._—­“ROYDON” (No. 11. p. 73) will find the average quantity of rain fallen at Greenwich, for twenty-five years, 1815 to 1839, in a very useful and clever pamphlet, price 1s., by J.H.  Belville, of the Royal Observatory, published by Taylor, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, called Manual of the Mercurial and Aneroid Barometers.

HENRY WILKINSON

Judas Bell—­(No. 13, p. 195).  In the “Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie,” a singular Scotch Poem, composed in the former half of the 16th century, and printed in Ramsay’s Evergreen, the following passage occurs (Everg. vol. ii. p. 74.):—­

   “A Benefice quha wald give sic a Beist,
      But gif it were to jingle Judas bells? 
    Tak thee a Fiddle or a Flute to jest,
      Undocht thou art, ordained for naithing ells.”

The Judas bells may probably have been used in the Easter-eve ceremonies, in connexion with which we find Judas candles mentioned.  See Brand’s Popular Antiq. by Sir H. Ellis, vol. i. p. 29.