Jeremy Taylor and Christopher Lord Hatton (Vol. vii., p. 305.).—Bishop Taylor uses the word relative in the sense of a dependent or humble friend in several places in his works; a fact which his editor, Bishop Heber, missed observing, as appears from a passage in the Preface to Taylor's Works.
M. E.
Philadelphia.
Burial on the North Side of Churches (Vol. vi., p. 112. &c.).—The opinion of your correspondent Seleucus, that the avoidance of burial on the north side of a churchyard is to be attributed to its being generally the unfrequented side of the church, is borne out by the fact, that in the rare cases where the entrance to the church is only on the north side, the graves are also to be found there in preference to being on the south, which in such a case would of course be "the back of the church." Seleucus mentions one instance of a church entered only from the north. To this example may be added the little village church of Martin Hussingtree, between Worcester and Droitwich, where the sole entrance is on the north, and where all the burials are on the same side of the church.
Cuthbert Bede, B. A.
Rubrical Query (Vol. vii., p. 247.).—The contradiction of the two rubrics is purely imaginary. Both are to be closely construed. The first enjoins notice to be given of Communion as of any other festival; the second provides that in the same service (notice having been so given) the Exhortation shall be the last impression on the thoughts of the congregation.
S. Z. Z. S.
Stone Pillar Worship (Vol. vii., p. 383.).—The Rowley Hills near Dudley, twelve in number, and each bearing a distinctive name, make up what may be called a mountain of basaltic rock, which extends for several miles in the direction of Hales Owen. From the face of a precipitous termination of the southern extremity of these hills rises a pillar of rock, known as the "The Hail Stone." I conjecture that the word hail may be a corruption of the archaic word haly, holy; and that this pillar of rock may have been the object of religious worship in ancient times. The name may have been derived directly front the Anglo-Saxon Haleg stan, holy stone. It is about three quarters of a mile distant from an ancient highway called "The Portway," which is supposed to be of British origin, and to have led to the salt springs at Droitwich. I have no knowledge of any other place bearing the name of Hail Stone, except a farm in the parish of West Fetton in Shropshire, which is called "The Hail Stones." No stone pillars are now to be found upon it: there is a quarry in it which shows that the sand rock lies there very near the surface. Dr. Plot, in his History of Staffordshire (p. 170.), describes the rock on the Rowley Hills as being "as big and as high on one side as many church steeples are." He relates that he visited the spot in the year 1680, accompanied by a land-surveyor, who, ten years before that time, had noticed that at this place the needle of the compass was turned six degrees from its due position. The influence which the iron in basaltic rocks has on the needle was not known at that period, and the Doctor makes two conjectures in explanation of the phenomenon observed. First, he says, "there must be in these lands that miracle of Nature we call a loadstone;" and he adds, "unless it come to pass by some old armour buried hereabout in the late civil war." The sonorous property of the rock led him to conjecture "that there might be here a vault in which some great person of ancient times might be buried under this natural monument; but digging down by it as near as I could where the sound directed, I could find no such matter."
Plot does not mention the name by which this rock was known. It is not mentioned at all by either Erdeswick, Shaw, or Pitt, in their Histories of Staffordshire.
N. W. S.