; and for this purpose did
invite many rich godfathers, who were to touch the rope while
the bell was exorcised, and its name invoked (unto which all
the people must answer). And that a banquet was used to be
made thereupon, at the cost of the layicks, amounting in
little towns to a hundred florins, whither the godfathers were
to come, and bring great gifts, &c., whereas they desired that
the said bels might be baptized not onely by suffragans, but
by any priest, with holy water, salt, herbs, without such
costs."

H. T. ELLACOMBE.

Clyst St. George.

Will MR. GOLE oblige me and your readers with a reference to the _Golden
Legend_, from which he has sent a quotation bearing on bells and storms.

H. T. ELLACOMBE.

Clyst St. George.

_Exercise Day_ (Vol. vii., p. 205.).--The extract from the borough
chamberlain's accounts, referred to by your correspondent
LEICESTRIENSIS, relates rather to a religious assembly or meeting
established by authority in the reign of Elizabeth, and designed as a
check on the growing tendency towards Puritanism, which marked that
period. In this diocese (at that time the diocese of Chester) Bishop
Downham instituted a "monthly exercise," which was confirmed by his
successor Dr. Chadderton, in an injunction bearing date Sept. 1, 1585.
(See Appendix to Strype's _Annals_, vol. i.) It is there decreed that
all parsons, vicars, curates, and schoolmasters shall resort to this
exercise, there either to speak or write; and certain penalties are
enforced on any neglect of its observance. In the churchwardens'
accounts of this parish is an entry of similar import to that quoted by
LEICESTRIENSIS: "1656, Pd. for minister diner at the exercise day,
00.00.06," the only perceptible difference being in the degree of
hospitality extended to the clergy by their entertainers.

JOHN BOOKER.

Prestwich.

_The Iron Mask_ (Vol. v., p. 474.; Vol. vii., p. 234.).--Your
correspondent A. S. A. asks with much complacency, "What authority MR.
JAMES CORNISH has for asserting (Vol. v., p. 474.) that the mysterious
secret of the _Masque de fer_ has ever been satisfactorily explained?"
MR. JAMES CORNISH does not make statements of historical facts without
authority: he therefore begs to refer A. S. A. to Delort, _Histoire de
l'Homme au Masque de fer_, Paris, 1825; and to _The True History of the
State Prisoner, commonly called "The Iron Mask," &c._, by the Hon.
Geor