Notes and Queries, Number 14, February 2, 1850 | Page 2

extremely clear and pertinent. I shall not go over the thirty-nine other errors; but I shall just quote the passage as it stands in the (as far as I know) unique copy, now deposited at Devonshire House, and supply in italics the necessary line. It occurs in a speech by the Pardoner, near the end, where he is praising one of his relics:-- {210}
"I wyll edefy more, with the syght of it Than wyll all the pratynge of holy wryt; For that except that the precher, hym selfe lyue well, His predycacyon wyll helpe neuer a dell, And I know well, that thy lyuynge is nought: _Thou art an apostata, yf it were well sought_, An homycyde thou art I know well inoughe," &c.
The line omitted is the more remarkable, because it contains an instance of the employment of a word very old in our language, and in use in the best periods of our prose and poetry: "apostata" is explained in the _Promptorium_, is found in Skelton and Heywood, and so down to the time of Massinger, who was especially fond of it.
How many copies were issued of Smeeton's reprint of _The Pardoner and the Frere_, I know not; but any of your readers, who chance to possess it, will do well to add the absent line in the margin, so that the mistake may be both rectified and recorded. I was not aware of Mr. Child's intention to re-publish the interlude in the United States, or I would long ago have sent him the correction, as indeed I did, a day or two after I received his volume. It was, nevertheless, somewhat ungracious to thank him for his book, and at the same time to point out an important error in it, for which, however, he was in no way responsible.
J. PAYNE COLLIER.
Kensington, Jan. 28. 1850.
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CATACOMBS AND BONE-HOUSES.
Without attempting to answer the queries of MR. GATTY, (No. 11. p. 171.) I venture to send a note on the subject. I believe it will generally be found that the local tradition makes such collections of bones to be "the grisly gleanings of some battlefield." One of the most noteworthy collections of this kind that I have seen is contained in the crypt of Hythe Church, Kent, where a vast quantity of bones are piled up with great regularity, and preserved with much care. According to a written statement suspended in the crypt, they are the relics of Britons and Saxons slain in a battle fought on the beach in the sixth century; the local tradition is nearly to the same effect, but of course is of little value, as it has most likely arisen from or been conformed to this "written chronicle;" both writing and tradition must indeed be regarded with distrust. It is affirmed in the neighbourhood that the bones were dug up from the beach; but I, at least, could hear of no tradition as to the period when they were exhumed. Perhaps some resident will ascertain whether any such exists.
The bones have all the appearance of considerable antiquity; yet they are in excellent preservation. The skulls are remarkably white and perfect, and are altogether a very curious collection, differing greatly in size, form, and thickness. The holes and fractures in many of them (made evidently during life) leave no doubt that they belonged to persons who met with a violent death.
I will not pretend to reply to the concluding queries of your correspondent, but I would just remark that, from what we know of the feeling of our ancestors respecting the remains of the dead, it appears probably that if from any cause a large quantity of human bones were found, or were from any cause obliged to be disturbed, some ecclesiastic or pious layman would take measures to have them removed to some consecrated spot where they might be safe from further molestation. They would hardly be treated in any such manner as Dr. Mantell states the bones removed by the railway engineers from the Priory ground at Lewes were treated. I remain, sir, your very obedient servant,
J.T.
Syndenham, Jan. 21. 1850.
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LINES ATTRIBUTED TO HUDIBRAS.
Perhaps the following extract from a volume entitled _The Relics of Literature_, published by Boys and Co., Ludgate Hill, 1820, may prove interesting, as further illustrating the so frequently disputed passage which forms the subject matter of your first article in No. 12.:--
"Few popular quotations have more engaged the pens of critics than the following:--
'For he that fights and runs away Will live to fight another day.'
"These lines are almost universally supposed to form a part of _Hudibras_; and, so confident have even scholars been on the subject, that in 1784 a wager was made at Bootle's, of twenty to one, that they were