Edward Charlton.
The Ring Finger (Vol. v., p. 492.).—I have met with the following passage in Adam's Antiquities (8vo. ed., p. 429.), which seems to assign another origin to this custom than the one lately proposed in "N. & Q.":
"On this occasion" (i. e. the signing of the marriage contract) "there was commonly a feast: and the man gave the woman a ring (annulus pronubus) by way of pledge, Juvenal, vi. 27., which she put on her left hand, on the finger next the least; because it was believed a nerve reached from thence to the heart: Macrob. Sat. vii. 15."
Eryx.
Brass of Lady Gore (Vol. v., p. 412.).—This brass still exists, and commemorates Maria Gore, Priorissa, 1436, attired simply as a widow. Owing to its actual existence having been but recently known to collectors of rubbings, no mention was made of it in the Oxford Manual. For the same reason there is no notice of a very interesting brass of a bishop or abbot, date end of fourteenth century, at Adderley, Salop. The editor of the above work would take this opportunity of thanking Mr. W. S. Simpson for his corrections ("N. & Q.," Vol. v., p. 369.). The rubbing, or rather smudging, from which the inscription was copied being nearly wholly illegible, accounts for the mistakes. Any further corrections will oblige
The Editor of the "Oxford Manual of Brasses."
Gloucester.
Gospel Trees.—Several Numbers of "N. & Q." have contained interesting notices of trees which are traditionally reported to indicate the standing-places of out-door preachers. To me, there is something very pleasing and picturesque—if nothing better—in these narrations; and I shall therefore be glad to find them recurring in your pages, whether their claims are of ancient or later date. Every reader of the vigorous poetry of Ebenezer Elliott, a true member of the genus irritabile, will recollect Miles Gordon "the Ranter" preacher, and how, in the poet's lines,—
"——The great unpaid! the prophet, lo!