_Berefellarii_ (Vol. vii., p. 207.).--JOHN WEBB mentions the _berefellarii_ as a distinct kind of mongrel dependents or half-ecclesiastics of the Middle Ages, dirty, shabby, ill-washed attendants, whose ragged clothes were a shame to the better sort of functionaries. He gave excellent and just reasons for his opinion, and a very probable construction of the sense of the word. But the etymon he proposes is rather unsatisfactory. Anglo-Saxonism is a very good thing; simplicity and common sense are very good things too. May not {421} _berefellarius_, the dirty raggamuffin with tattered clothes, be good monkish Latin for _bare-fell_ (i.e. _bare-skin_), or rather _bare-fellow_? the most natural metamorphosis imaginable. _Bere_ is the old orthoepy of _bare_; and every one knows that in London (east) a fell_ow_ naturally becomes a fell_ar_. P.S.--Excuse my French-English. PHILARETE CHASLES, Mazarinaeus. Paris, Palais de l'Institut. _"To know ourselves diseased," &c._ (Vol. viii., p. 219.).-- "To know ourselves diseased is half our cure." This line is from Young's _Night Thoughts_, Night 9th, line 38. J. W. THOMAS. Dewsbury. _Gloves at Fairs_ (Vol. viii., p. 136.).--As an emblem of power and an acknowledgment of goodness, "Saul set up a hand" after his victory over the Amalekites, 1 Sam. xv. 12., (Taylor's _Hebrew Concordance_, in voce ¤YDH¤), 2 Sam xviii. 18., Isaiah lvi. 5. The Ph[oe]nician monuments are said to have had sculptured on them an arm and _hand held up_, with an inscription graven thereon. (See Gesenius and Lee.) If, as stated by your correspondents in the article referred to, the glove at fairs "denotes protection," and indicates "that parties frequenting the fair are exempt from arrest," it is at least a remarkable coincidence. The Phoenicians were the earliest merchants to the west of England that we have any account of; can any connexion be traced historically between the Phoenician traffic and the modern practice of setting up a hand, or glove, at fairs? I well remember the feelings of awe and wonder with which I gazed when taken in childhood to see "the glove brought in" and placed over the guildhall of my native city (Exeter) at the commencement of "Lammas Fair." Has the glove been associated with this fair from its commencement? and if not, how far back can its use be traced? The history of the fair is briefly this: it existed before the Norman Conquest, and was a great mart of business; the tolls had belonged to the corporation, but King John took one-half, and gave them to the priory of St. Nicholas. Henry VIII. sold the fair with the priory; and anno second and third of Philip and Mary it was made over to the corporation, who have ever since been lords of the fair. (Izacke's _Memorials_, p. 19.; Oliver's _History of Exeter_, pp. 83. 158., &c.) J. W. THOMAS. Dewsbury.