It may be of use to D. (Rotherfield), to be referred to the _Justice of the Peace_ for 31st January, 1852, wherein, at p. 76., he will find an opinion given, that, for the search the clergyman has a right to charge 1_s._ and no more, whatever may be the number of names, unless the search extended over a period of more than one year, when he would be entitled to 6_d._ extra for every additional year.
_Ornamental Hermits_ (Vol. v., p. 123.).--Some fancy of this kind at Mr. Weld's of Lulworth Castle, in Dorsetshire, exaggerated or highly coloured by O'Keefe, was supposed to afford the title and principal incident of his extravagant but laughable comedy of _The London Hermit; or, Rambles in Dorsetshire_, first played in 1793, with great success, and revived (cut down to a two-act farce) in 1822. I, too, have heard the story as told of Mr. Hamilton and Payne's Hill; but I a little doubt it, because in the elaborate and somewhat pompous description of Payne's Hill there is no mention of the _Hermitage_; and when I saw it as a show place a great many years ago, I saw no building of that description; but, after all, this may have been the original story which O'Keefe transported into Dorsetshire.
_Collars of SS._ (Vol. v., pp. 81. 183.).--Allow me to correct one or two errors into which your correspondent H. L. has fallen.
In the first place, my letter was not intended (nor, I conceive, was that of your correspondent LLEWELLYN) either to support a favourite theory, or to combat a long-established prejudice; but simply to furnish a contribution to MR. FOSS'S list of monumental effigies decorated with this "much-vext" ornament.
As to the mistakes (if mistakes they be) which H. L. assumes, they are not mine, but those of persons whose authority on these subjects H. L. (like the celebrated reviewer who criticised Pindar's Greek without knowing it) might find it awkward to impugn.
I may as well inform him, by the way, that the _corf de mailles_, which originally covered the whole head, as a sort of cowl, was diminished in size until it became little more than a gorget of mail; and appears at last to have formed a portion of the hauberk. The name also changed its orthography: passing, as has been suggested, through the intervening stage of _cap-mail_, until it was corrupted into _camail_. There is, therefore, no ground for "assuming" the ignorance of persons who use the _original_, instead of the _corrupted_ form of a word.