Unlucky Days.—The subjoined lines on certain days of the several months, I copied some years ago from a MS. on the fly-leaf of an old Spanish breviary, then in the possession of an Irish priest. Though neither their grammar nor prosody are first-rate, yet they may be worthy of preservation as a curiosity. I may add that they appear to have been written by a Trinitarian Brother of Redemption, in the early part of the sixteenth century.

W. Pinkerton.

Ham.

The Pancake Bell.—At the Huntingdonshire village from which I now write, the little bell of the church is annually rung for ten minutes on Shrove Tuesday, at eleven o'clock in the morning: this is called "the Pancake Bell."

Cuthbert Bede, B.A.

Quoits.—The vulgar pronunciation of the irons used in this game is quaits. From the following passage in a letter from Sir Thomas Browne to Ashmole, it is probable that the word was formerly thus spelt: "Count Rosenberg played at quaits, with silver quaits made by projection as before."

Uneda.

Philadelphia.

The Family of Townerawe.—One great advantage of "N. & Q." is not only that inquiries may be made and information obtained by those who are engaged in any research, but also that such persons as happen to possess information on a particular subject may make it known before it is sought or asked for. I therefore beg to inform any person that may be interested in the family of Townerawe, that there is in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, a Latin MS. Bible, which belonged to "Raufe Townerawe," who on the 17th of June, 1585, was married to Anne Hartgrane, at Reavesbye, in Lincolnshire, and that at the end of this Bible are recorded the births, deaths and marriages of his children and other members of his family, from the date above mentioned to 1638.

James H. Todd.

Trin. Coll. Dublin.

"History of Formosa."—The writer of the fictitious History of Formosa, inquired about at Vol. vii., p. 86., was George Psalmanazar, himself a fiction, almost. And this reference to Wiseman's Lectures reminds me that your correspondent Rt. (Vol. vii., p. 62.), who discovered the metrical version of that passage of St. Bernard in Fulke Greville's poem, was (to say the least) anticipated by the Cardinal, in the magnificent peroration to the last of those Lectures upon Science and Revealed Religion.

B. B. Woodward.

Notes on Newspapers.—The following may be worth a place among your Notes. I copied it from the Evening Mail (a tri-weekly issue from The Times office), but unfortunately omitted to take the date, and the only authority I can offer is Evening Mail, No. 12,686. p. 8. col. 2. (leader):

"The Times has its share of antiquities. Our office stands upon the foundations of Blackfriars, where for centuries Plantagenets, Yorkists, Lancastrians, and Tudors, held court. We have reason to believe that just about where we sit was heard that famous cause for annulling the marriage of Catherine, which led to the English Reformation. Under these foundations others still older are now open to view. First we have under us the Norman wall of the city, before it was extended westward to give more room to Blackfriars, and under that presents itself the unmistakeable material and composition of the old Roman wall."

Tee Bee.