William Handy, by will dated the 10th of March, 1622, bequeathed to the parish of St. Giles’, Oxford, £40, upon condition that, upon the 10th of March for ever, in the morning, about 5 o’clock, they should ring one peal with all the bells, and about 8 or 9 o’clock should go to service, and read all the service, with the Litany and the Communion, as it is commanded to be read in the cathedral church, and after that to have a sermon, and in it to give God thanks for His great blessings in delivering and bringing the giver from Papistry and idolatry to the light and truth of the blessed Gospel; and he desired that the preacher might have 10_s._ for his sermon, and the minister 5_s._ for leading service, and the poor to have given them in bread or money 10_s._ This sum, with other money, was laid out in 1633, in purchasing a tenement, garden, and one acre of pasture ground, situated in Corn Street, Witney, to the uses of the donor’s will; of the rent, 15_s._ a year was accordingly commanded to be paid to the minister for reading prayers and preaching a sermon on the 10th of March, 5_s._ to the clerk, 5_s._ to the ringer, and 15_s._ to be distributed at the church, with other money in small sums to the poor.[23]--_Old English Customs and Charities_, 1842, p. 249. [23] There was a similar gift of the same donor to the parish of St. Mary Magdalen, Oxford; but since 1800 nothing has been paid in respect of this charity. MARCH 11.] NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. Formerly, there lived at Newark one Hercules Clay, a tradesman of considerable eminence, and an alderman of the borough of Newark. During the siege, in the night of the 11th of March 1643, he dreamed three times that his house was on fire; on the third warning he arose much alarmed, awoke the whole of his family, and caused them to quit the premises, though at that time all appeared to be in perfect safety. Soon afterwards, however, a bomb from a battery of the Parliamentarian army on Beacon Hill, an eminence near the town, fell upon the roof of the house, and penetrated all the floors, and happily did little other execution. The bomb was intended to destroy the house of the governor of the town, which was in Stadman Street, exactly opposite Clay’s house. In commemoration of this extraordinary deliverance, Mr. Clay, by his will, gave £200 to the Corporation in trust to pay the interest of £100 to the Vicar of Newark, for a sermon to be preached every 11th of March. The interest of the other £100 he directed to be given in bread to the poor. Penny loaves were, accordingly, given to every one who applied, and the day on which they were distributed, was called “Penny Loaf Day.”--Hone’s _Year Book_, 1838, p. 301. MARCH 12.] ST. GREGORY’S DAY. IRELAND.