nation, lately flourishing on the Continent, the ancient title of Forsooth instead of Dame or Madam (which Johnson only supposes to have once been " a word of honour in address to women"), continued to be applied to the senior nuns at a certain period from the time of their profession.--N. B. The said word Nun, of which Johnson gives no etymology at all, is derived from the above repeated word Nonnus (in fœmineo genere Nonna), quasi Donnus, or Domnus, instead of Dominus. The monks of the ancient orders are still addressed by the title of Domni (by contraction Dom.) in the place of Domini; and the nuns of the ancient orders are still called Dames. 1796, Aug. Yours, &c. J. MILNER. CXXVIII. St. Paul's Church supposed to be built on the site of Diana's Temple. MR. URBAN, TRADITION, or ancient chronicle, or some other source of information, mentions St. Paul's church as built on the site of an ancient temple of Diana. Was it with regard to this legendary record that the curious offering took place, of which Mr. Pennant takes notice? I transcribe the passage from the second edition of his interesting account" Of London," p. 367. "The most singular offering was that of a fat doe in winter, and a buck in summer, made at the high altar, on the day of the commemoration of the saint, by Sir William de Baude and his family, and then to be distributed among the Canons resident. This was in lieu of 22 acres of land in Essex, which did belong to the canons of this church. Till Queen Elizabeth's days, the doe or buck was received solemnly, at the steps of the high altar, by the dean and chapter, attired in their sacred vestments, and crowned with garlands of roses. They sent the body of the bucke to baking, and had the head, fixed on a pole, borne before the crosse in the procession, until they issued out of the West doore, where the keeper that brought it blowed the deathe of the bucke, and then the horners, that were about the citie, presently answered him in like manner; for which paines they had each man, of the dean and chapter, fourpence in money, and their dinner, and the keeper that brought it was allowed, during his abode there, for his service, meate, drinke, and lodging, and five shillings in money at his going away, together with a loafe of breade having the picture of St. Paul upon it*.'” I cannot help imagining, Mr. Urban, that the custom here detailed, or some appendage to it, is referred to by Erasmus, in his Ecclesiasta, lib. 1. He says, "Apud Anglos mos est Londini, ut certo die populus in summum templum, Paulo sacrum, inducat longo hastili impositum CAPUT FERÆ (damas illi quidem appellant, vulgus capros, quum re vera sit hircorum genus cornibus palmatis in ea insula abundans), cum ina ceno sonitu cornuum venatoriorum. Hac pompa præceditur ad summum altare-dicas omnes afflatos furore Delio!" Either the account of Erasmus is, however, inaccurate, or it has an allusion to some sportive addition to the homage described by Pennant, probably made by the choristers, who were the lordlings of misrule, and masters of revelry in that their day, and under whose direction the theatrical interludes and entertainments, consisting in general of mixed or unmixed buffoonery, were exhibited. But we cannot help recollecting the ancient ceremonies of the Latonian huntress, as probably passing on this very spot, at which boys might officiate. "Setosi caput hoc apri tibi, Delia, parvus, Stow, in his Survey of London (black-letter edition, 1618), speaks of the crosse in Cheape as ornamented with the statue of the goddess, to which the adjoining cathedral had been formerly dedicated. This cross had in old times been ornamented with symbols of Popery, which the zeal of reformation mutilated in the time of Edward the sixth. On the subject of this cross, Stow observes, that "there was set up a curious wrought tabernacle of grey marble, and in the same an alabaster image of Diana, and water, conveyed from the Thames, trilling from her naked breast for a time, but now decayed." P. 484. Another passage is more directly applicable to the subject of this letter: "Some have noted that, in digging the foundation of this new worke, namely, of a chappel on the South side of * Stow's Survey of London. Paul's church, there were found more than an hundred scalpes of oxen or kine, in the yeere one thousand three hundred and sixteene; which thing, say they, confirmed greatly the opinion of those which have reported, that (of old time) there had been a temple of Jupiter, and that there was dayly sacrifice of beasts. "Other some, both wise and learned, have thought the buck's head, borne before the procession of Paul's, on Saint Paul's day, to signify the like. But, true it is, I have read an ancient deede to this effect: "Sir William Baud, knight, the third of Edward the First, in the yeere 1274, on Candlemas-day, granted to Harry de Borham, deane of St. Paul's, and to the chapter there, that, in consideration of 22 acres of ground or land by them granted within their manor of Westley, in Essex, to be inclosed into his park of Curingham, he would for ever, upon the feast day of the Conversion of Paul, in winter, give unto them a good doe, seasonable and sweete, and, upon the feast of the Commemoration of Saint Paul, in summer, a good bucke, and offer the same at the high altar, the same to bee spent among the canons residents: the doe to be brought by one man at the houre of procession; and thorow the procession to the high altar, and the bringer to have nothing: the bucke to be brought by all his meyneyt in like manner, and they to have paid unto them, by the Chamberlaine of the church, twelve pence onely, and no more to be required. "This graunt he made; and for performaunce, bound the lands of him and his heires to be distrained on: and, if the lands should be evicted [resumed by a court of judicature], that yet he and his heires should accomplish the gift. Witnesses, Richard Tilberie, William de Wockendon, Richard de Harlowe, knight, Peter of Stamford, Thomas of Walden, and some others. "Sir Walter Baude, sonne to William, confirmed this gift in the thirtieth of the said king; and the witnesses thereunto were Nicholas de Wockendon, Richard de Rokeley, Thomas de Mandeville, John de Rochford, knights, Richard de Bromford, William de Markes, William de Fulham, and others. Thus much for the graunt. *Surely, Mr. Urban, with much more probability, as having reference to the worship of Diana? The many read the skies with loud applause." + Subst. DRYDEN. "Now, what I have heard by report, and partly seene, it followeth. "Upon the feast-day of the Commemoration of Saint Paul, the bucke being brought up to the steps of the high altar in Paul's church, at the houre of procession, the deane and chapter being apparrelled in coapes and vestments, with garlands of roses on their heads, they sent the body of the bucke to baking. [See Pennant, as above]. "" Then follows: "There was belonging to the church of St. Paul, for both the dayes, two special sutes of vestments, the one embroidered with buckes, the other with does, both given by the said Bauds (as I have heard). Thus much for that matter." Pp. 640, 1. This festival of the commemoration of St. Paul is distinct from that of his passion; which, falling on the same day with that of St. Peter [June 29], is called bis festa dies. This commemoration was appointed for the 30th of June; because, in former times, the Bishop of Rome had been accustomed to officiate upon one and the same day, in pontificalibus, in the churches dedicated to both of the Apostles; but, when it appeared that this could not well be performed, by reason of the too far distance of the places one from the other, without too much, and almost intolerable, labour, it was thought better, that on the first day the solemnity of them both should be celebrated in the Vatican church, and the next day following the same duties should be performed in the church of St. Paul, in which place might be more fully completed what in that behalf might fortune to be omitted on the day before. This account I find in Seymour, p. 652; with whose observation on the site of the cathedral of St. Paul, I shall conclude my remarks. "This stately church of St. Paul," says he, "stands in or near the place where once had been a temple of Diana, the goddess worshipped by the Londoners, as Apollo was by the people of Thorney, or Westminster. This appeared from the tusks of boars, horns of stags, and of oxen, and from the representation of deer, and even of Diana herself, upon the sacrificing-vessels found in digging the foundation of it, which was begun by Ethelbert, king of Kent, about the year of Christ 610." 1796, Sept. Yours, &c. E. E. A. CXXIX. Tyttenhanger.-Chapel Wainscot at Luton. MR. URBAN, May 20, 1788. IN the year 1547, Sir Thomas Pope, founder of Trinity college, Oxford, bought of King Henry the Eighth the ancient stately mansion-house of Tyttenhanger, in the parish of Ridge, in Hertfordshire, being the country seat of the abbots of St. Alban's; and which, but for this purchase, would have been destroyed as an appendage to the abbey. This house was so large, that, in 1528, King Henry the Eighth, with his queen Catharine, and their retinue, removed hither during the continuance of the sweating sickness in London. In this house Sir Thomas Pope made great improvements. It became his favourite place of residence, and the statutes of his college are dated thence. He erected over the vestibule of the great hall a noble gallery for wind-music, The chapel was a spacious edifice, and beautifully decorated. The windows were enriched with painted glass, which Sir Thomas Pope brought hither from the choir of St. Alban's abbey, when that church, by his interposition with the king, was preserved from total destruction. The wainscot behind or over the stalls was finely painted with a series of the figures of all the saints who bore the name of John, in memory of John Moot, one of the abbots. But Sir Thomas Pope put up a new piece of wainscot, of Spanish oak, on a very large scale, at the East end, most exquisitely sculptured, beginning at the end of the stalls, and continued towards the altar. This was to adorn that part of the chapel which was usually called the Presbytery, or the space about and near the altar. After Sir Thomas Pope's death, in 1559, Tyttenbangerhouse continued to be inhabited by the relations of his second wife, bearing the name of Pope-Blount. In the year 1620 it began to be lessened, or pulled down in part; about which time the family of Napier, then tenants to Trinity college (Oxford), at Luton, by the mediation of the college, removed the wainscot (above mentioned), put up by Sir Thomas Pope in the chapel of Tyttenhanger-house, in entire preservation, to the chapel of the mansion-house, at Luton. John, Earl of Bute, about the year 1768, pulled down this old mansion-house at Luton, to build a new house in its place; but, with great taste and judginent, retained |