_Smith._--Of what family was ---- Smith, confessor of Katherine of Braganza, buried in York Minster? and what are the arms on his tomb? Where can information be obtained as to a Judge Smith, supposed to have been of the same family? A. F. B. Diss. _Termination "-itis."_--What is the derivation of the termination "-itis," used principally in medical words, and these signifying inflammation, as Pleuritis, _vulgo_ pleurisy, inflammation of the pleura, &c.? ADSUM. _Loak Hen._--In two or more parishes in Norfolk was a custom, or modus, of paying a _loak hen_ in lieu of tythes of fowls and eggs. I shall feel obliged to any of your correspondents who can inform me what constituted a _loak hen_? G. J. _Etymological Traces of the Social Position of our Ancestors._--I remember reading an account of the traces of the social position of our Saxon ancestors yet remaining in our English customs, which interested me much at the time, and which I would gladly again refer to, as, Captain Cuttle's invaluable maxim not being then extant, I neglected "making a note of it." It described the Norman derivation of the names of all kinds of _meat_, as beef, mutton, veal, venison, &c.; while the corresponding _animals_ still retained their original Saxon appellations, ox, sheep, calf, &c.: and it accounted for this by the fact, that while the animals were under the care of the Saxon thralls and herdsmen, they retained of course their Saxon names; but when served up at the tables of their Norman lords, it became necessary to name them afresh. I think the word _heronsewes_ (cf. Vol. iii., pp. 450. 207.; Vol. iv., p. 76.) is another example, which are called _harnseys_ at this day in Norfolk; as it is difficult, on any other supposition, to account for an East-Anglian giving a French appellation to so common a bird as the heron. E. S. TAYLOR. _Locke's Writings._--In an unpublished manuscript of Paley's _Lectures on Locke's Essay_, it is stated that so great was the antipathy against the writings of this eminent philosopher, at the time they were first issued, that they were "burnt at Oxford by the hands of the common hangman." Is this fact recorded in any Life of Locke; or how may it be ascertained? There is no notice of it, I believe, in either Law's _Life_, or in that of Lord King. GEORGE MUNFORD. East Winch. _Passage in Göthe's "Faust."_--Has the following passage from the second part of _Faust_ ever been noticed in connexion with the fact that the clock in Göthe's chamber stopped at the moment that he himself expired? If it has not, I shall congratulate myself on having been the first to point out this very curious coincidence "_Mephistopheles._ Die Zeit wird Herr, der Gries hier liegt im Sand, _Die Uhr steht still_---- _Chorus._ Steht still! Sie schweigt wie Mitternacht _Der Zeiger fällt._ _Mephistopheles._ Er fällt, es ist vollbracht." _Faust_, der Tragödie Zweiter Theil, Fünfter Act. W. FRASER.