"1628. In this interim I received certain intelligence of the great loss of my son John, his ship and all his company, who foundered in the sea about the Seames in a great storm, about the beginning of November; not one man saved to bring the doleful news, nor no ship near them to deliver the certainty but a small pinnace belonging to the fleet that was within ken of her, and saw her shoot nine pieces of ordinance hoping of succour."--_Journal of Phineas Pett. MSS. in Brit. Mus._ 9298. "At the return of this fleet (from Rochel) two of the _whelps_ were cast away, and three ships more, and some five ships who had some of those great stones, that were brought to build Pauls, for ballast and for other uses within them, which could promise no good success, for I never heard of any thing that prospered which being once designed for the honour of God was alienated from that use."--Howel's _Letters_, sect. v. lett. 9. The name _whelp_ was probably given them facetiously in reference to their designation as barks. EDW. HAWKINS. _Cowley or Cowleas_. Your correspondent W. asks the etymon of "Cowley;"--probably "Cow leas," or Cow pasture. In ancient records it is written "Couelee." I have before me a survey or "extent" of the Hospitalers' lands in England, including those formerly belonging to the Templars. In this record, as in most that I have seen, it is written, "Templecouelee," and it is entered as a limb of the commandry of Saunford or Sandford. L.B.L. _Cowley or Coverley--Statistics of Roman Catholic Church--Whelps--Discovery of America_. I can answer pretty confidently the query II. in Number 4, p. 59, about the etymon of _Cowley_, for I have, on a farm of my own, two denominations of land, called _Ox-ley_ and _Cow-ley_, and I believe that both these names are common all through England. Like _Horseley, Ashley, Oakley_ and a thousand other _leas_ or _leys_ distinguished from each other by some local characteristic. _Coverley_ was probably not _Cowley_, but, like _Woodley_, _Orchardleigh_, &c., derived from its local position. In answer to the query as to the statistics of the Roman Catholic Church, p. 61. Number 4, I think I may say there is no such _general_ work, though the _Propaganda_ of Rome was said to register something of that sort. The information is only to be picked up from various and (as far as I know) all imperfect publications. The least so that I can just now refer to is the _Statistics of the Roman Catholic Church of Ireland_, in Thom's _Dublin Almanack_--a very curious and useful compilation. In reply to the inquiry as to a _priest's wife_, p. 77 Number 5, I would suggest that married persons may have separated, and retired each into the celibacy of a convent, yet might join, when necessary, in a legal conveyance; but I should examine closely the word deciphered _clericus_.