C. H.
Burial Service Tradition (Vol. ix., p. 451.).—The only cases in which a clergyman is legally justified in refusing to read the entire service over the body of a parishioner or other person admitted to burial in the parochial cemetery, are the three which are mentioned in the preliminary rubric, which, as expounded by the highest authorities, are as follows: 1. In case the person died without admission to the universal church by Christian baptism. 2. Or "denounced 'excommunicate majori excommunicatione' for some grievous and notorious crime, and no man able to testify of his repentance." (Canon 68.) 3. Or felo de se; for in a case of suicide the acquittal of the deceased by a coroner's jury entitles him to Christian burial. The extraordinary notion of the clergyman, mentioned by the Rev. S. Adams, is certainly erroneous in law. I can only suppose it originated from some case in which the severance of the deceased's right hand was regarded by the jury as a proof that he did not kill himself. Except in certain special cases, none but parishioners are entitled to burial in a parochial burying-place at all.
Advocatus.
Paintings of our Saviour (Vol. ix., p. 270.).—Your correspondent J. P. may hear of something to his advantage by visiting the church of Santa Prassede (Saint Praxedes?), not far from Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. In the former he will see, as usual, a list of wonderful relics preserved therein, and amongst them "A Portrait of the Saviour, presented by St. Peter to Santa Prassede." A valuable gift, truly, if only authentic. The name of the artist is not given, I believe, in the above veracious document. They had better have made the catalogue complete by putting in the name of St. Luke himself, whose pencil, I rather think, is stated to have furnished other such portraits elsewhere. "Credat Judæus!"
The Santa Prassede above alluded to is stated to have been a daughter of Pudens, mentioned in the Epistles of St. Paul.
M. H. R.
Widdrington Family (Vol. ix., p. 375.).—The church of Nunnington, near Helmsly, in the North
Riding of Yorkshire, contains two handsome marble monuments of Lords Preston and Widdrington. The old hall at Nunnington, now occupied by a farmer, was once the seat of Viscount Preston, and afterwards of Lord Widdrington. William, Lord Widdrington, who is said to be descended from the brave Witherington, celebrated in Chevy Chace for having fought upon his stumps, was of the very noble and ancient family of the Widdringtons of Widdrington Castle, in the county of Northumberland; and great-grandson of the brave Lord Widdrington who was slain gallantly fighting in the service of the crown at Wigan, in Lancashire, in 1651. William, his grandson, was unfortunately engaged in the affair of Preston in 1715, when his estate became forfeited to the crown, and he afterwards confined himself to private life. He married a daughter of the Lord Viscount Preston above mentioned, one of the co-heiresses of the estate at Nunnington, and was in consequence buried in the family vault in 1743, aged sixty-five. For other particulars of the family of Widdrington, see Camden's Britannia.
Thomas Gill.
Easingwold.