Yorkshire Ballads.—Any of your readers would confer a great favour by referring me to any early Yorkshire ballads, or ballads relating to places in Yorkshire, not reprinted in the ordinary collections, such as Percy, Evans, &c. I am of course acquainted with those in the Roxburghe collection.
H.
Ringing a Handbell before a Corpse.—Is it true that whenever an interment takes place in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, the corpse is preceded on its way to the grave by a person who rings a small handbell at intervals, each time giving a few tinkling strokes? My informant on this subject was an Oxford undergraduate, who said that he had recently witnessed the burials both of Mr. ——, a late student of Christ Church, and of Miss ——, daughter of a living bishop: and he assured me that in both cases this ceremony was observed. Certainly it is possible to go through the academical course at Oxford without either hearing the bell, or knowing of its use on such occasions: but I should now be glad to receive some explanation of this singular custom.
A.G.
Ecclesfield.
Church of St. Saviour, Canterbury.—Tradition, I believe, has uniformly represented that an edifice more ancient, but upon the present site of St. Martin's, Canterbury, was used by St. Augustine and his followers in the earliest age of Christianity in this country. St. Martin's has, on that account, been often spoken of as the mother-church of England. Lately, however, in perusing the fourth volume of Mr. Kemble's Codex Diplomaticus, p. 1. I find a charter of King Canute, of the year 1018, which states the church of ST. SAVIOUR, Canterbury, to be the mother-church of England:
"Æcclesia Salvatoris in Dorobernia sita, omnium Æcclesiarum regni Angligeni mater et domina."
In none of the histories of Kent or of Canterbury can I find any mention of a church dedicated to St. Saviour. May I beg the favour of you to insert this among your Notes?
HENRY ELLIS.
Mock Beggar's Hall.—What is the origin of this name as applied to some old mansions? One at Wallasey, in Cheshire, was so named, and another near Ipswich, in Suffolk. And what is the earliest instance of the title?