Legend of a Saint and Crozier (Vol. ii., p. 267.)—The incident is related of St. Patrick and one of the kings of Cashel, and formed the subject of the first picture exhibited by James Barry. In the

Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties, London, 1831, (art. Barry, p. 159.) it is stated that:

"The picture was painted in his twentieth or twenty-first year, on the baptism by St. Patrick of one of the kings of Cashel, who stands unmoved while the ceremony is performed, amidst a crowd of wondering spectators; although the saint, in setting down his crosier, has, without perceiving it, struck its iron point through the royal foot."

Este.

Becket (Vol. ii., pp. 106. 270. 364.).—It so happens that, before seeing, Mr. Venables' communication, with his quotations from the Monasticon (Vol. ii., p. 364), I had taken an opportunity of looking into a friend's copy of that work, and had there found what seems to be a key to the origin of the designation "St. Thomas of Acon or Acres." It is stated, in a quotation from Bp. Tanner, that

"The hospital [in Cheapside] consisted of a master and several brethren, professing the rule of St. Austin, but were of a particular order, which was about this time instituted in the Holy Land, viz. Militiæ Hospitales S. Thomæ Martyris Cantuariensis de Acon, being a branch of the Templars."—Monast. vi. 646.

and the same title occurs in the charter of Edward III. (ibid.) Now it appears to me that the words de Acon here relate, not to the saint, but to the order which took its name from him; and this view is confirmed by the passage which Mr. Venables quotes from Matthew of Westminster, as to the foundation of a chapel in honour of St. Thomas, at Acre, in Syria, A. D. 1190. It is easy to suppose that in course of time, especially when the origin of the designation had been cast into the shade by the cessation of the Crusades, and the ruin of the great order to which the brethren of St. Thomas were at first attached, the patron himself may have come to be styled de Acon or of Acres: and this seems to be the case in the Act of 23 Hen. VI. (Monast. vi. 247.)

Allow me to ask a question as to another point in the history of Becket. Among his preferments is said to have been the parish of "St. Mary Littory or ad Litters," which is commonly supposed to mean St. Mary-le-Strand.[[3]] My friend Mr. Foss, in his elaborate work on The Judges of England, contradicts this, on the ground that there was then no parish of that name; and he supposes St. Mary-at-Hill to be intended. Now the words ad Litters would be alike applicable as a description in either case but it appears to me that, if the city church were meant, it would be styled, as it usually is, ad Montem, and that ad Litters is Latin for le Strand. Was there not then an ancient church so called, until the demolitions of Protector Somerset in that quarter? And is not the common belief as to Becket's parish correct? I ask in great ignorance, but not without having vainly searched some books from which information might have been expected.

J. C. R.

Footnote 3:[(return)]