_William III. at Exeter_ (Vol. iv., p. 233.).--Jenkins, the historian of Exeter, in relating the prince's public entry into that city, states that he was preceded by the Earl of Macclesfield and two hundred horsemen, _most of whom_ were English nobles and gentlemen. There is in the Bodleian Library a fo. broadsheet entitled, _A True and Exact Relation of the Prince of Orange, his Publick Entrance into Exeter_, which, if I remember right, was reprinted in Somers' _Tracts_, but I do not think any names of those gentlemen are therein mentioned.
_Passage in George Herbert_ (Vol. iv., p. 231.).--Does not Herbert imply in these lines--
"Take one from ten, and what remains? Ten still, if sermons go for gains."
that the payer of _tithes_ receives an equivalent in the ministrations of the priest?
This passage alludes doubtless to the tithe of the parson, and maintains that the tithe-payer is no loser if the sermons for which tithe is paid produce their effects. In fact, it is a paraphrase of _Proverbs_, iii. 9, 10.:
"Honour the Lord with all thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine."
_Suicides buried in Cross Roads_ (Vol. iv., pp. 116. 212.).--This was formerly the general practice in the South of England, and it has occasionally been resorted to within the last thirty years. At Chalvington, in Sussex, there once resided, according to a popular tradition, the _only honest miller ever known_. About a century since, this person, finding it impossible to succeed in business, hanged himself in his own mill, and was buried in a neighbouring "crossways." An oaken stake, driven through his body, taking root, grew into a tree, and threw a singular shrivelled branch, the only one it ever produced, across the road. It was the most singular tree I ever saw, and had something extremely hag-like and ghostly in its look. The spot was of course haunted, and many a rustic received a severe shock to his feelings on passing it after nightfall. The tradition was of course received by the intelligent as a piece of superstitious _folk-lore_, and the story of the "only honest miller" was regarded as a mere _myth_, until about twenty-five years ago, when a labourer employed in digging sand near the roots of the scraggy oak tree, discovered a human skeleton. This part of the history I can vouch for, having seen, when a schoolboy, some of the bones. I must not omit to mention that the honest miller of Chalvington owned the remarkable peculiarity of a "tot" or tuft of hair growing in the palm of each hand!