. 1851.

_Swearing by Swans, &c._ (Vol. ii., p. 392.; Vol. iii., pp. 70. 192.).--In
addition to what has already appeared on this subject, the following
extract from Tyrwhitt's _Glossary to Chaucer_ will, I hope, be acceptable.

"Ale and Bred. This oath of Sire Thopas on ale and bred was perhaps
intended to ridicule the solemn vows, which were frequently made in the
days of chivalrie, to a peacock, a pheasant, or some other _noble
bird_."--See M. de Sainte Palaye, _Sur l'anc. Cheval._, Mem. iii^{me}.

This practice is alluded to in "Dunbar's Wish that the King were Johne
Thomsonnis man" (MS. Maitland, st. v.):

"I would gif all that ever I have
To that condition, so God me saif,
That ye had VOWIT TO THE SWAN
Ane yeir to be John Thomsonnis man."

And so in the _Prol. to the Contin. of the Canterb. T._, ver. 452., the
Hosteler says:

"I MAKE A VOWE TO THE PECOCK, ther shall wake a foule mist."

The instance given in Vol. iii., p. 192., is recorded by Monstrelet, _Hist.
de France, Charles VII._

T. J.

_Edmund Prideaux and the Post-office_ (Vol. iii., pp. 186. 266.).--In a MS.
on parchment, now {309} before me, are contained entries of the dates of
the various letters patent and grants connected with the post-office, to
the latter end of the reign of Charles I., and the names of the persons to
whom the grants were made. The earliest date is the 37th of Henry VIII.,
and the last the 13th of Charles I. If an extract from the MS., which gives
a similar index to the appointments in the Courts of Law, the Customs, the
Forests, and a great variety of other offices, will assist your
correspondent, I shall be happy to supply it. I may notice, what seems to
have been overlooked by your two correspondents who have replied to the
inquiry, that some account of Prideaux is given by Wood (Vid. _Fast._ vol.
i. p. 424., edit. Bliss), from which it appears that he was M.A. of
Cambridge, Member of the Inner Temple, Member of Parliament for Lyme in
Dorsetshire, and Recorder of Exeter; and that his death took place on the
19th Aug., 1659 (misprinted 1569 in this edit.), and that--

"From his employments gaining a vast estate, he left at the time of his
death an incredible mass of gold (as the credible report then went),
besides lands of very great demesnes."

JAS. CROSSLEY.

_Small Words and "Low" Words_ (Vol. ii., pp. 305. 349. 377.).--Apropos to
Pope's use of "low words," in the sense of