C. F. S.
Ascension Day Custom.—What is the origin of the custom which still obtains in St. Magnus and other city churches, of presenting the clergy with ribbons, cakes, and silk staylaces on Ascension Day?
C. F. S.
Sawbridge and Knight's Numismatic Collections.—In Snelling's tract on Pattern Pieces for English Gold and Silver Coins (1769), p. 45., it is stated, in the description of a gold Coin of Elizabeth, that it is "unique, formerly in the collection of Thomas Sawbridge, Esq., but at present in the collection of Thomas Knight, Esq., who purchased the whole cabinet."—Can any of your readers inform me who this Mr. Knight was, and whether his collection is still in existence; or if it was dispersed, when, and in what manner? I am not aware of any sale catalogue under his name.
J. B. B.
"The spire whose silent finger points to heaven."—I have met with, and sometimes quoted, this line.
Who is its author, and in what poem does it occur?
J. W. T.
Dewsbury.
Lord Fairfax.—In the Peerage of Scotland I find this entry: