“Q.  We read in our public papers of the Pope’s Bull and the
    Pope’s Brief; pray, Gentlemen, what is the difference between
    them?

“A.  They differ much in the same manner as the Great Seal and Privy Seal do here in England.  The Bull being of the highest authority where the papal power extends; the Brief is of less authority.  The Bull has a leaden seal upon silk affixed to the foot of the instrument, as the wax under the Great Seal is to our letters patent.  The Brief has sub annulo piscatoris upon the side.”

Query.  Is this answer complete and correct?

Now for another specimen: 

  “Q.  Wise Oracle show,
        A good reason why,
      When from tavern we go,
        You’re wel_come_ they cry.

  “A.  The reason is plain,
       ’Cause doubtful to know,
      Till seeing their gain,
        If you came well or no.”

The following is an example of unanswerable refutation.  To show why a man has not one rib less than a woman, it is stated that imperfections are not hereditary; as in the case of

“One Mr. L——­, an honest sailor not far from Stepney, who has but one arm, and who cannot walk himself without the assistance of a wooden leg, and yet has a son, born some years after the amputation of is own limbs, whom he has bred both a fiddler and a dancing master.”

One more, not for the wretched play upon words, but because it may make a new Query,—­What does it all mean?

“Q.  Gentlemen, in the preamble to the late Earl of Oxford’s patent, I observed, ’And whom they have congratulated upon his escape from the rage of a flagitious parricide.’  I desire to know by whom, at what time, and in what manner, the said parricide was to have been committed.

    “A.  Was to have been!  He actually was committed—­to Newgate.”

So much for some of the “Notes and QUEERIES” (as the word ought to be spelt) of a century ago.

M.

* * * * *

Collar of SS.

  “All the ensigns and marks of honour appertaining
  to persons of highest distinction, are equestrian.”—­Sabnasins.

The interest which attaches to this very ancient and distinguished ensign of chivalrous honour will excuse the introduction into your pages of a fuller dissertation upon the subject than what appears in “Notes and queries,” Nos. 39. and 41., in answer to the several questions put by your correspondents B. and [Greek:  Ph].

After referring to the papers on the Collar of SS., and other collars of livery, published a few years ago in the Gentleman’s Magazine, and his intention to arrange them, and other additional collections on the same subject, in the shape of a small volume, Mr. J.G.  Nichols proceeds to say: