Eton, Nov. 26. 1849. _Letters of Mrs. Chiffinch._ The Chafins, of Chettle, in Dorsetshire, possessed at one time some interesting family memorials. In the third volume of Hutchins's _Dorset_, pp. 166, 167., are printed two or three letters of Thomas Chafin on the battle of Sedgemoor. In a manuscript note, Hutchins alludes to letters, written by a female member of the family, which contain some notices of the court of Charles II. Can your Dorsetshire correspondents inform me whether these letters exist? I suspect that the lady was wife of the notorious Chiffinch; and she must have seen and heard strange things. The letters may be worthless, and it is possible that the family might object to a disclosure of their contents. The manuscript memorandum is in Gough's copy of the _History of Dorset_ in the Bodleian Library. J.F.M. _Sangred--Dowts of Holy Scripture._ In the will of John Hedge, of Bury St. Edmund's, made in 1504, is this item:-- "I beqweth to the curat of the seid church iiij_s_. iiij_d_. for a _sangred_ to be prayed for in the bedroule for my soule and all my good ffrends soulls by the space of a yeer complete." In the same year Thomas Pakenham, of Ixworth Thorpe, bequeathed 6 hives of bees to the sepulchre light, "to pray for me and my wyffe in y'e _comon sangered_;" and in 1533, Robert Garad, of Ixworth, bequeathed to the high altar ij_s_. "for _halfe a sangred_." Can any of your reader explain what the _sangred_ is? or give me any information about the book referred to in the following extract from the will of William Place, Master of St. John's Hospital, Bury St. Edmund's, made in 1504:-- "Item. I beqweth to the monastery of Seynt Edmund forseid my book of the _dowts of Holy Scryptur_, to ly and remain in the cloyster," &c. BURIENSIS. _Catsup, Catchup, or Ketchup._ Will any of your philological readers be so obliging as to communicate any _note_ he may have touching the original or definition of the word _Catchup?_ It does not appear in Johnson's _Dictionary_. Mr. Todd, in his edition, inserts it with an asterisk, denoting it as a new introduction, and under _Catsup_ says, see _Catchup_. Under this latter word he says--"Sometimes _improperly_ written _Ketchup_, a poignant liquor made from boiled mushrooms, mixed with salt, used in cooking to add a pleasant flavour to sauces." He gives no _derivation_ of the word _itself_, and yet pronounces the very common way of spelling it improper. What reference to, or connexion with, _mushrooms_ has the word?--and why _Catsup_, with the inference that it is synonymous with _Catchup_? G. "_Let me make a Nation's Ballads, who will may make their Laws!_"