S. L. P.
Oxford and Cambridge Club.
Can Bishops vacate their Sees? (Vol. iv., p. 293.)—As an instance of bishops vacating their sees I find in the account of Twysden's Hist. Anglicanæ Scrip. decem, that, speaking of the Epistle of Simeon Archbishop of York, it says, inter alia, "the names after Thurstan, who resigned A.D. 1139, must have been added," &c.
E. H. B.
Demerary.
Sleekstone, Meaning of (Vol. iii., p. 241.; Vol. iv., p. 394.; Vol. v., p. 140.).—I can confirm what R. C. H. says respecting this word, having had one in my possession. It was of glass, of the same shape as described by R. C. H., and was used for giving a gloss to silk stockings. It is called here (Demerary) a sleeking stone.
E. H. B.
Demerary.
Poems in the Spectator (Vol. v., p. 439.).—The three poems mentioned are unquestionably by Addison. Captain Thompson, in the Preface to his edition of Andrew Marvell's works in three vols. 4to., 1766, states that he found them in a manuscript collection of Marvell's poems; but the fact no doubt was, that the manuscript he refers to was a miscellaneous collection by different writers, and not by Marvell exclusively (see Preface, p. xiv.) Thus, "William and Margaret," Mallet's ballad, was found in the same manuscript, and is likewise ascribed by Capt. Thompson to Marvell, and with as little reason. Hartley Coleridge observes (Biog. Borealis, p. 64.) with respect to the three poems alluded to:
"As to their being Marvell's, it is just as probable that they are Chaucer's. They present neither his language, his versification, nor his cast of thought."