Thus arose in our own land the custom respecting which W.J. makes inquiry, and also our statute fairs, or statutes; thus called on account of their reference to the various “Statutes of Labourers.”  I was not aware that any usage to hire on all festivals (for to such, I take it, your correspondent refers) still existed in England.  As to France, I am unable to speak; but it is not improbable that a similar custom in that country may be due to causes nearly similar.

Arun.

George Herbert.—­J.R.  FOX (Vol. ii., p. 103.) will find in Major’s excellent edition of Walton’s Lives the information he requires.  At p. 346. it is stated that Mrs. Herbert, the widow of George Herbert, was afterwards the wife of Sir Robert Cook, of Highnam, in the county of Gloucester, Knt., eight years, and lived his widow about fifteen; all which time she took a pleasure in mentioning and commending the excellences of Mr. George Herbert.  She died in the year 1653, and lies buried at Highnam; Mr. Herbert in his own church, under the altar, and covered with a gravestone without any inscription.

And amongst the notes appended by Major to these Lives, is the following additional notice of Herbert’s burial-place.  The parish register of Bemerton states that

    “Mr. George Herbert, Esq., parson of Inggleston and Bemerton,
    was buried the 3rd day of March, 1632.”

“Thus he lived and thus he died,” says Walton, “like a saint, unspotted of the world, full of almsdeeds, full of humility, and all the examples of a virtuous life, which I cannot conclude better than with this borrowed observation: 

  “’—­All must to their cold graves;
  But the religious actions of the just
  Smell sweet in death, and blossom in the dust.’”

Altered from a dirge written by Shirley, attached {158} to his Contention of Ajax and Ulysses for the Armour of Achilles, Lond. 1659, 8vo.  See Percy’s Reliques of English Poetry, vol. i. p. 284.

J.M.G.

Worcester, July 22.

Lord Delamere (Vol. ii., p. 104.).—­In Mr. Thomas Lyte’s Ancient Ballads and Songs, 12mo. 1827, is a ballad, taken down from tradition, entitled Lord Delamere.  It begins as follows, and though different from the opening lines given by Mr. Peacock, I am inclined to think that it is another version of the same ballad: 

  In the parliament house,
  A great rout has been there,
  Betwixt our good king
  And the Lord Delamere;
  Says Lord Delamere
  To his Majesty full soon,
  Will it please you, my liege,
  To grant me a boon?

After nine more stanzas, the editor remarks,

“We have not, as yet, been able to trace out the historical incident upon which the ballad appears to have been founded, yet those curious in such matters may consult, if they list, Proceedings and Debates in the House of Commons for 1621 and 1622, where they will find that some stormy debatings in these several years have been agitated in Parliament regarding the corn laws, which bear pretty close upon the leading features of the above.”

Edward F. Rimbault.