HENRY H. BREEN.
St. Lucia.
Deaths from Fasting.
—In the church of St. Mary, Bury St. Edmund's, is a fine table-tomb, surmounted by a corpse in a winding-sheet, to the memory of John Bant, whose very curious will has been printed by the Camden Society. Tradition says that the death of this pious church decorator arose from the vain attempt to imitate Our Lord in fasting forty successive days and nights. This tradition has no foundation in fact, but owes its origin to the figure on the tomb, which would appear to have been made in the lifetime of the deceased. There are similar traditions in other parts of the kingdom. Can any of your correspondents state where, and whether accompanied by similar wasted figures?
BURIENSIS.
Ad Viscum.
—It has not been unusual among antiquaries of a certain class to cite the following Latin hexameter:—
"Ad viscum Druidæ! Druidæ clamare quotannis."
Two or three times I have seen it accompanied by a general reference to one Ovidius. But having met with a copy of that author, to which an index of all his words is annexed, I collect therefrom that the said Ovidius never expressed himself to that effect.
I should wish to learn whether any body else ever did, and who; or whether the knave who first coined that false reference also coined the line.