Vincent Kidder (Vol. iv., p. 502.).
—The ancestors of this personage resided at a house called the "Hole," in the parish of Maresfield. In the time of Henry VII., and earlier, they held the office of bailiffs of the Forest of Ashdown, otherwise called Lancaster Great Park. I believe that most of the existing families of Kidder are branches of this parent stock. From a branch long settled at Lewes sprang Dr. Kidder, Bishop of Bath and Wells, who lost his life in the great storm of 1703. I believe that the Irish branch had previously been settled in London. A third branch settled in the American colonies in the seventeenth century, and has produced a highly respectable and wealthy progeny still resident in the New England states, and elsewhere. I have at hand materials for a complete pedigree of the Sussex or elder line of the family, down to the time of its extinction. Perhaps your correspondent will communicate with me on this subject by a private letter.
MARK ANTONY LOWER.
Lewes.
Tripos, What is the Origin of the Term? (Vol. iv., p. 484.).
—Tripos, a long piece of white and brown paper, like that on which the commonest ballads are printed, containing Latin hexameter verses, with the author's name, &c. The Cambridge tripos, it has been conjectured, was probably in old time delivered, like the Terræ Filius, from a tripod, a three-legged stool, in humble imitation of the Delphic oracle. It is mentioned in the statute De tollendis ineptiis in publicis disputationibus,[2] an 1626—ut prævaricatores, tripodes, alii que omnes disputantes veterum academia formam, &c.
[2] The following, from the facetious Fuller, will serve to show to what lengths they went formerly in ineptiis (See his Worthies, edit. 1684):—"When Morton, afterwards Bishop of Durham, stood for the degree of D.D. at Cambridge, he advanced something which was displeasing to the professor, who exclaimed, with some warmth, 'Commosti mihi stomochum.' To whom Morton replied, 'Gratulor tibi, Reverende Professor, de bono tuo stomacho, cœnabis apud me hâc nocte.' The English word stomach formerly signified 'passion, indignation.' Archbishop Cranmer appointed one Travers to a fellowship at Trinity College, who had been before rejected (says my author) on account of his 'intolerable stomach.' This would be thought a singular discommendation in the present day." To add another story from Fuller relating to Publicis Disputatianibus:—"When a professor of logic pressed an answerer with a hard argument, 'Reverende Professor,' said he, 'ingenue confiteor me non posse respondere huic argumento.' To whom the Professor, 'Recte respondis.'"—Holy and Profane State. Vide Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, a little book published by W. J. and J. Richardson, 1803.
JAMES CORNISH.
Monody on the Death of Sir John Moore (Vol. i., p. 445.).
—If any person entertains a doubt that the Rev. Charles Wolfe was the author, I trust that the following statement will have the effect of removing it. In the October number of the Dublin University Magazine, 1851, there is a short biographical notice of the late much lamented Rev. Samuel O'Sullivan, which contains the following passage: