e of any class. My recollection would
lead me to assign the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries as the period
of its use. But still the question remains--Has it any, and what
signification? I have always considered it to have been a contrivance to
strengthen the substance of the seal itself. The earliest instances I have
seen were "applique" seals, such as the royal privy seals, and with these
it would seem to have originated. Their frail nature suggested the use of
some substance to protect the thin layer of wax from damage by the
crumpling of the parchment on which they were impressed. For some time its
use was confined to this kind of seal; and fashion may perhaps have
extended the practice to pendent seals, where, however, it was often
efficacious in neutralising the bad quality of the wax so general in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The plaiting of the hay or straw
sometimes assumed a fanciful shape. Although the impressions of seals of
the time of Henry VII. are often very bad, there are generally traces of
their existence; these may perhaps be discovered in MR. LOWER'S seals if he
looks more to the enclosure than to the substance forming it.

JOSEPH BURTT.

_Haybands in Seals._--M. A. LOWER thinks that MR. T. HUDSON TURNER has
misapplied his description of the seals in his possession. The seals are
not _impressed upon haybands_, neither do "some ends of the hay or straw
protrude from the surface." The little fillet or wreath of hay, about equal
in diameter to a shilling, is _inlaid_ upon the pendent lump of wax, and
forms the ornament or device of the seal, rather than an integral portion
of it, like that in the specimens referred to by MR. TURNER.

M. A. LOWER begs, under favour, to add, that the very fact of a Query being
inserted in the pages of this invaluable--one might almost say
indispensable--publication, implies a candid avowal _pro tanto_ of
ignorance on the part of the Querist, who might reasonably expect a plain
answer, unaccompanied by any ungracious reflection on the side of the more
highly-gifted _savant_ that furnished the reply. As a simple matter of
taste, many other correspondents besides MARK ANTONY LOWER may probably
object, like the latter's eminent namesake, Mr. Tony Weller, to being
"pulled up so wery short," especially in cases where there is a clear
misapprehension on the part of the respondent.

_Haybands in Seals._--It is impossible for one moment to doubt the
correctness