s, tell me the origin or first user of the literary
"smelling of the lamp?" I know that it is commonly attributed to
Demosthenes? but if it is his, I want chapter and verse for it.

_Gourders of Rain._--Will any of your correspondents be kind enough to
suggest the etymology of the word "gourders" (= torrents)? It occurs
in the following passage of _Harding against Jewel_ (p. 189., Antv.
1565):

"Let the _gourders_ of raine come downe from you and all other
heretikes, let the floudes of worldly rages thrust, let the
windes of Sathan's temptations blowe their worst, this house
shall not be overthrowen."

C.H.

St. Catherine's Hall, Cambridge.

The _Temple or_ a _Temple_.--I am happy to see that your
correspondent, Mr. Thoms, is about to illustrate some of the
obscurities of Chaucer. Perhaps he or some of your learned
contributors may be able to remove a doubt that has arisen in my mind
relative to the poet's well-known description of the Manciple in his
Prologue to the _Canterbury Tales_.

You are aware that the occupation of the Temple by students of the
law in the reign of Edward III. has no other authority than tradition.
Dugdale, Herbert, Pearce, and others who have written on the Inns of
Court, adduce this passage from Chaucer in support of the assertion;
and they all quote the first line thus:

"A manciple there was of _the_ Temple."

In Tyrwhitt's edition of _Chaucer_, however, and in all other copies
I have seen, the reading is

"A gentil manciple was ther of _a_ temple."

Now the difference between "the Temple" and "a temple" is not
inconsiderable. I should feel obliged, therefore, by any explanation
which will account for it. If Chaucer was, as he is sometimes
pretended to be, a member of the Temple, it is somewhat extraordinary
that he should have designated it so loosely. The words in the real
passage would seem to have a more general signification, and not to
be applied to any particular house of legal resort.

Edward Foss.

_Family of Steward or Stewart of Bristol_.--I have in my possession a
drawing, probably of the time of James or Charles I., of the following
arms. Azure a lion rampant or, with a crescent for difference,
impaling argent a cross engrailed flory sable between four Cornish
choughs proper--Crest, on a wreath of the colours a Saracen's head
full-faced, couped at the shoulders proper, wreathed round the temples
and tied or and azure.

On removing the