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NOTES AND QUERIES. 9 th s. x. JULY 19, 1902.

The churchyard cross being the place where prayer for the dead was at all times wont to be offered, the affixing of the "palm" to its shaft was naturally regarded as associating the souls of the faithful departed with the solemn rites of Palm Sunday, and easily led to the custom of similarly honouring their graves. The addition, and finally the sub- stitution, of flowers, perhaps grew out of the custom of tying up a bunch of flowers with the box which ornamented the churchyard cross. The flowers must have come in at a very early period, as the Welsh name "Sul y Blodau " '(Sunday of the Flowers) for Palm Sunday is the earliest and only native term for that festival ; but in any case there can be no doubt that the present elaborate floral decorations have been evolved out of the ritual of the Palm Sunday procession.

JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS. Town Hall, Cardiff.

YARROW UNVISITED (9 th S. ix. 386, 477 : x. 18). The records of the Presbytery of Edin- burgh help very little in the clearing up of the actual cause of Logan's resignation. A plea of ill health is often tendered when other causes are also at work, rendering de- mission necessary. It may be well, however, to give here the substance of what these records contain on this case.

Mr. Logan's letter, giving ill health as the reason of his absence from his parish, was dated London, 13 October, 1786. It was laid before the Presbytery on 25 October. The Presbytery ordered him to appear before them on 29 November. On 29 November the matter was delayed till next meeting. On 27 December Mr. Logan sent a letter resign- ing absolutely. "Whereupon the Presbytery, being well informed of the circumstances as they regard Mr. Logan in the parish of South Leitn, were unanimously of opinion that Mr. Logan's demission be accepted." And it was accepted at that meeting. Mr. Logan had been absent from his parish for about a year. Nothing but the mere fact of absence is mentioned. A. M. MCDONALD.

I can remember seeing in Edinburgh, as far back as 1859, several beautiful pictures by Sir J. Noel Pa ton, depicting scenes in the ballad ' The Dowie Dens of Yarrow.' Tradition says that the combat took place in a field, still pointed out near the Kirk of Yarrow, on the road from Selkirk to St. Mary's Loch. The original pictures are now, I suppose, in pri- vate collections, but they have been beauti- fully engraved for the Royal Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Scot- land, 1860. The events depicted are said to

have occurred in the early part of the seven- teenth century. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

SAMUEL FOLLETT (9 th S. x. 7). I have looked through Roberta's 'History of Lyrne Regis,' 1834, but find no mention of this name. I am going to Lyme Regis for a month or so, and shall be pleased to make search. If you like to put me in commu- nication witn G. F. R. B. I may be of use to him free of charge, of course. I am inter- ested in a similar inquiry, which I hope will shortly appear. S. S. HASLUCK.

The Cottage, Lyme Regis.

KING'S CHAMPION (9 th S. ix. 507). It is tolerably certain that the so-called Champions were nothing more than faineants. The late Canon Lodge (Reetor of Scrivelsby) writes in his ' Scrivelsby, the Home of the Champions,' the most authentic and exhaustive book on the matter, second edition, 1894, p. 110 :

"With regard to the execution of the office of Champion on a Coronation day, it will be remem- bered that the right moment for his appearance, in full armour and mounted on his charger, was in the middle of the Coronation banquet, the right place being Westminster Hall. The challenge to all gainsayers was in the orthodox fashion, by fling- ing down the knight's gauntlet, in the tolerable certainty that no one would venture to take it up in token of acceptance. As a matter of fact, the challenge never has been accepted, although there have been occasions when the sovereign's title

might have been fairly questioned Happily for

our Champions, this task has always been a blood- less one."

Some of the suits of burnished armour, and one discoloured pair of gauntlets, I have recently seen preserved in a small enclosure to the right of the chief entrance of Scri- velsby Court, called the armoury. Scott's story in ' Red gauntlet ' of the maiden bear- ing the glove away at the coronation of George III. is, of course, purely imaginary. Lodge states that the Dymokes have acted as Champions on twenty-one occasions, and gives a list of seven of that family who, though Champions, never officiated as such at a coronation. That of George IV., on 19 July, 1821 (not 1820, as stated in MR. PICKFORD'S excellent article on ' The Office of Champion '), saw the last exercise of the office.* Lodge adds :

"Though its duties are no longer exacted, the Championship still remains as an appanage of the

1863, appears a full-page wood engraving (not at all a bad one) of Sir Henry Dympke's appearance in Westminster Hall in his official capacity on that
 * In Cassell's ' History of England,' vol. iii. p. 42,