Saviour, but Judas his betrayer. Judas is
said to have hanged himself on an _elder_ tree. Sir John Maundeville, in
his description of Jerusalem, after speaking of the Pool of Siloe, adds,

"And fast by is still the elder tree on which Judas hanged
himself for despair, when he sold and betrayed our Lord."--P.
175., Bohn's edit.

To return to the wood of the cross. In Sir John Maundeville's time a
spot was pointed out at Jerusalem as the spot where the tree grew:

"To the west of Jerusalem is a fair church, where the tree of
the cross grew."--P. 175.

and he speaks of the wood of this tree as having once been used as a
bridge over the brook Cedron (p. 176.). Henry Maundrell describes a
Greek convent that he visited, about half an hour's distance from
Jerusalem:

"That which most deserves to be noted in it, is the reason of
its name and foundation. It is because there is the earth that
nourished the root, that bore the tree, that yielded the
timber, that made the cross. Under the high altar you are
shown a hole in the ground where the stump of the tree
stood."--P. 462.

These are some of the legendary traditions regarding the history and
site of the wood of the cross, up to the time of the Passion of Christ.

CEYREP.

* * * * *

EDMUND CHALONER.

(Vol. vi., p. 292.)

I have been waiting for several months in expectation of seeing some
satisfactory reply to URSULA'S Query. It seems, however, that, in common
with myself, your numerous correspondents are quite at a nonplus. Wood,
in his _Athenae Oxoniensis_, vol. ii. p. 163., mentions this Edmund
Chaloner as being about nineteen (URSULA says twenty-one) years old at
the death of his father, James Chaloner, in 1660. Wood, Granger, as also
Burke in his _Extinct Baronetage_, represent James as being the fourth
son of Sir Thomas Chaloner of Gisborough, in the county of York, and
this appears to be the general impression as to his parentage. In a
_History of Cheshire_, however, written, I believe, by Cowdray, and
published in 1791, the author claims him as a native of that county, and
makes him to be of much {335} humbler birth and descent than any of his
other biographers. Hear him in his own words:

"Our succeeding (Cheshire) collectors form a family harmonic
trio, a father, son, and grandson, of the surname of Chaloner,
and of the several Christian names, Thoma