The Tatler, No. 220., in describing his "Ecclesiastical Thermometer" which gave indication of the changes and revolutions in the Church, and of the different degrees of heat in religion throughout the country, says:

"To complete the experiment, I prevailed upon a friend of mine, who works under me in the occult sciences, to make a progress with my glass through the whole island of Great Britain; and after his return, to present me with a register of his observations. I guessed beforehand at the temper of several places be passed through by the characters they have had time out of mind. Thus that facetious divine, Dr. Fuller, speaking of the town of Banbury near a hundred years ago, tells us, it was a place famous for cakes and zeal, which I find by my glass is true to this day as to the latter part of this description; though I must confess it is not in the same reputation for cakes that it was in the time of that learned author."

In Gough's Camden, vol. i. p. 298., there is rather an amusing account of the manner in which the town of Banbury gained a proverbial reputation for zeal; and the following note by Mr. Camden, in his MS. supplement to the Britannia, is added:

"Put out the word zeale in Banbury, where some think it a disgrace, when as zeale with knowledge is the greater grace among good Christians; for it was first foysted in by some compositor or pressman, neither is it in my Latin copie, which I desire the reader to hold as authentic."

And Ray gives as a proverbial saying:

"Banbury veal, cheese, and cakes."

and refers to the mistake in Camden.[[3]] Now it is

possible, that Dr. Fuller derived his estimation of the town of Banbury from Camden; still, as we know that Banbury in the seventeenth century had a character for Puritanism, he may have intended by the word zeal to refer to the sectarian spirit of the inhabitants. But what I would ask is, whether any events occurred in Banbury in the eighteenth century, which justify The Tatler in classing it among those places which were hot in the cause of the Church; and giving to the words of the "facetious divine," whom he quotes, a signification entirely different to that which must have been intended?

Also, where is the first mention of Banbury cakes? Did their reputation decline in the eighteenth century, and revive again afterwards; or had they a celebrity in early days to which the present age can present no parallel? The Banbury people would hardly assent to The Tatler's disparaging remark.

Erica.