terrible tempest, it is said the
"death-bell" is often distinctly heard amid the storm-wind. And in tales of
what is called Gothic superstition, it assists in the terrors of the
supernatural.

Sir W. Scott perhaps alluded to the superstition in the lines:

"And the kelpie _rang_,
And the sea-maid sang
The dirge of lovely Rosabelle."

EIRIONNACH.

_Porter Family_ (Vol. viii., p. 364.).--Full particulars of the existing
branch of this ancient family can be afforded by the Rev. Malcom Macdonald
of South End, Essex, chaplain to Lady Tamar Sharpe, the aunt and guardian
of the representatives of Sir R. K. Porter.

M. H. J.

Thavies Inn.

_The Mitred Abbot in Wroughton Church, Wilts_ (Vol. viii., p. 411.).--The
figure was painted in fresco, not on a pillar, but on the spandril-space
between two arches. The vestments, as far as I can make out, are an alb, a
tunicle and a cope, and mitre. The hands do not appear to hold anything,
and I see nothing to show it to represent a mitred abbot rather than a
bishop. The colours of the cope and tunicle were red and green, the
exterior of the cope and the tunicle being of one colour, the interior of
the cope of the other. The figure was the only perfect one when I visited
the church, and the rain was washing it out even as I sketched; but there
had been one between every two arches, and there were traces of colour
throughout the aisle, and the designs appeared to me unusually elegant. I
believe my slight sketch to be all that now remains; and shall be glad to
send a copy of it to your correspondent if he wishes for it, and will
signify how I may convey it to him.

_Passage in Virgil_ (Vol. viii., p. 270.).--Is this the passage referred to
by Doctor Johnson?

"Nunc scio, quid sit Amor: duris in cotibus illum
Aut Tmarus, aut Rhodope, aut extremi Garamantes,
Nec generis nostri puerum, nec sanguinis, edunt."
Virgil: _Bucolica_, Ecl. viii. l. 43.

"The shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a
native of the rocks." Dr. Johnson found his reward not in vain
solicitations to patrons, but in the fruits of his literary labours.

The famous lines in Spenser's "Colin Clout's come home again,"[3] on the
instability and hollowness of patronage, may occur to the reader:

"Full little knowest thou, that hast not tride,
What hell it is in suing long to bide:
To lose good days that might be better spent,
To waste long nights