REGEDONUM.
Ornamental Hermits (Vol. v., p. 123.).
—Some fancy of this kind at Mr. Weld's of Lulworth Castle, in Dorsetshire, exaggerated or highly coloured by O'Keefe, was supposed to afford the title and principal incident of his extravagant but laughable comedy of The London Hermit; or, Rambles in Dorsetshire, first played in 1793, with great success, and revived (cut down to a two-act farce) in 1822. I, too, have heard the story as told of Mr. Hamilton and Payne's Hill; but I a little doubt it, because in the elaborate and somewhat pompous description of Payne's Hill there is no mention of the Hermitage; and when I saw it as a show place a great many years ago, I saw no building of that description; but, after all, this may have been the original story which O'Keefe transported into Dorsetshire.
C.
Collars of SS. (Vol. v., pp. 81. 183.).
—Allow me to correct one or two errors into which your correspondent H. L. has fallen.
In the first place, my letter was not intended (nor, I conceive, was that of your correspondent LLEWELLYN) either to support a favourite theory, or to combat a long-established prejudice; but simply to furnish a contribution to MR. FOSS'S list of monumental effigies decorated with this "much-vext" ornament.
As to the mistakes (if mistakes they be) which H. L. assumes, they are not mine, but those of persons whose authority on these subjects H. L. (like the celebrated reviewer who criticised Pindar's Greek without knowing it) might find it awkward to impugn.
I may as well inform him, by the way, that the corf de mailles, which originally covered the whole head, as a sort of cowl, was diminished in size until it became little more than a gorget of mail; and appears at last to have formed a portion of the hauberk. The name also changed its orthography: passing, as has been suggested, through the intervening stage of cap-mail, until it was corrupted into camail. There is, therefore, no ground for "assuming" the ignorance of persons who use the original, instead of the corrupted form of a word.
Perhaps H. L. has never heard of a helmet being worn over a bascinet. I can furnish him with a few instances of monumental effigies where both appear. He should study the monument in question before he pronounces the use of the word "helmet" to be a mistake.