255. Dead Letter.
—"If the editor of 'NOTES AND QUERIES' will accept an indirect suggestion, we should be glad if he, or some of his learned correspondents, would inform the public of the origin or antiquity of the popular saying by which a thing, under certain circumstances, is designated as a 'dead letter.'"
[Being unwilling that the foregoing Query, which we have taken from an admirable article on the Dead Letters of the Post Office, which appeared in The Times of Tuesday last, should itself become a dead letter, we have transferred it to our columns in hopes that some of our learned correspondents will explain the origin, and show the antiquity of the phrase by instances of its earliest use. We do not believe that it is a Post Office technicality transferred to the vocabulary of every-day life, but that it is in some way connected with "the letter" that "killeth.">[
256. Dominus Bathurst, &c.
—Who was "Dominus Bathurst," a Commoner of Winchester in 1688? "Dominus Anvers" and "Dominus Modyford" occur in 1694; who were they?
MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A.
257. Grammar Schools.
—The Editor of the Family Almanack would be glad if any of the readers of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" could inform him whether the Grammar Schools founded in the following places are still open to scholars:—
Neale's School, March, Cambridgeshire; Dilborne, Staffordshire; Kirton in Lindsay, Lincolnshire; Kirton in Holland, Lincolnshire; Nuneaton, Warwickshire; Pilkington School, Prestwich, Lancashire; Royston, Yorkshire; Bolton School, Scorton, Yorkshire; Lovel's School, Stickney, Lincolnshire; Stourbridge, Worcestershire; Tottenham, Middlesex.
Any letter on the subject can be forwarded to the publisher, 377. Strand.