Inscriptions in Churches (Vol. vii., p. 25.).—Norris Deck's extract, assigning these inscriptions to the reign of Edward VI., is valuable; but he need not have dissented from your account of the colloquy between Elizabeth and Dean Nowell, as you clearly hinted that "similar inscriptions had been previously adopted" (Vol. vi., p. 511.). The colloquy occurred in the fourth year of Elizabeth's reign; but, from the following extract, her Majesty's proclamation was observed in Ireland two years previously:
"In 1559, orders were sent to Thomas Lockwood, Dean of Christ Church, Dublin, to remove out of this church all relics and images, and to paint and whiten it anew; putting sentences of Scripture on the walls instead of pictures, which orders were observed, and men set to work accordingly on the 25th May of the same year, which was the second of Queen Elizabeth's reign."—Lynch's Life of St. Patrick, p. 208., edit. 1828.
J. Y.
Hoxton.
Macaulay's Young Levite (Vol. i., pp. 26. 167. 222. 374., &c.).—I find another, and an apt illustration of more recent date, to be added to those already given from Burnet, Bishop Earle, and Beaumont and Fletcher. Betty Hint, the "waiting wench" in Macklin's Man of the World, entertains matrimonial designs on Sidney, the chaplain:
"I wish she was out of the family once; if she was, I might then stand a chance of being my lady's favourite myself; ay, and perhaps of getting one of my young masters for a sweetheart, or at least the chaplain: but as for him, there would be no such great catch, if I should get him. I will try for him, however," &c.
W. T. M.
Hong Kong.
Passage in Wordsworth (Vol. vii., p. 85.).—I can refer your Edinburgh correspondent, who asks for "an older original for Wordsworth's graceful conceit," to the following lines by Henry Constable, an Elizabethan poet, who published, in 1594, a volume of sonnets entitled Diana; and whose "ambrosiac muse" is lauded by Ben Jonson in his Underwoods (Gifford, vol. viii. p. 390.):
"The pen wherewith thou dost so heavenly singe,