Will MR. GOLE oblige me and your readers with a reference to the _Golden Legend_, from which he has sent a quotation bearing on bells and storms.
_Exercise Day_ (Vol. vii., p. 205.).--The extract from the borough chamberlain's accounts, referred to by your correspondent LEICESTRIENSIS, relates rather to a religious assembly or meeting established by authority in the reign of Elizabeth, and designed as a check on the growing tendency towards Puritanism, which marked that period. In this diocese (at that time the diocese of Chester) Bishop Downham instituted a "monthly exercise," which was confirmed by his successor Dr. Chadderton, in an injunction bearing date Sept. 1, 1585. (See Appendix to Strype's _Annals_, vol. i.) It is there decreed that all parsons, vicars, curates, and schoolmasters shall resort to this exercise, there either to speak or write; and certain penalties are enforced on any neglect of its observance. In the churchwardens' accounts of this parish is an entry of similar import to that quoted by LEICESTRIENSIS: "1656, Pd. for minister diner at the exercise day, 00.00.06," the only perceptible difference being in the degree of hospitality extended to the clergy by their entertainers.
_The Iron Mask_ (Vol. v., p. 474.; Vol. vii., p. 234.).--Your correspondent A. S. A. asks with much complacency, "What authority MR. JAMES CORNISH has for asserting (Vol. v., p. 474.) that the mysterious secret of the _Masque de fer_ has ever been satisfactorily explained?" MR. JAMES CORNISH does not make statements of historical facts without authority: he therefore begs to refer A. S. A. to Delort, _Histoire de l'Homme au Masque de fer_, Paris, 1825; and to _The True History of the State Prisoner, commonly called "The Iron Mask," &c._, by the Hon. George Agar Ellis: London, 1826.
I repeat "my sanguine" expectations that "Junius" will yet be "unearthed." "Matthias" made an equal boast with the "mighty shade," that he would be for ever unknown.
Your Journal "N. & Q." has left no doubt about the author of _The Pursuits of Literature_.
_Shakspeare's Use of the Word "Delighted"_ (Vol. ii., pp. 113. 139. 200. &c.).--The following passage from Douce's _Illustrations_ has not been referred to by any of your contributors on this point; to some it may be unknown: