_Straw-bail_ (Vol. vii., pp. 85. 342.).--The origin of the expression "a man of straw" may be traced to those mannikins or effigies representing the human figure, which are (or used to be) paraded in the streets during the Carnival in most continental countries. These mannikins were {465} generally stuffed with _straw_; and hence, in legal phraseology, "a man of straw" denotes the semblance of a man--a person of neither substance nor responsibility, who is put forward to screen a real delinquent, or bear the brunt of a prosecution. Such, at least, is the origin commonly assigned by the French to their "homme de paille," the prototype of our "man of straw." HENRY H. BREEN. St. Lucia. _How to stain Deal_ (Vol. vii., p. 356).--If C. will apply by letter or otherwise to Mr. Henry Stevens, 54. Stamford Street, Blackfriars Road, he will learn every particular, and be furnished with samples of its effect on common deal, as now very extensively used in churches, school-rooms, &c. _Detached Belfry Towers_ (Vol. vii., pp. 333. 416.).--Add to the list, Marston Morteyne in Bedfordshire, not far from Ampthill, and Gunwalloe, in Cornwall, about five miles south of Helston. Gunwalloe tower appears to be much older than the church, and faces the south-west angle of the nave, from which it is distant about fourteen feet. J. M. B. Tunbridge Wells. CAMBRENSIS has forgotten that the _cloich teachs_ (bell-houses), or round belfries, peculiar to Ireland, and which have become famous as "round towers," are almost always separate from the churches. JAMES GRAVES. Kilkenny. To your instances of detached belfries in England add Magdalene College and New College in Oxford, and Woburn in Bedfordshire. H. C. Thurles. Detached church-towers exist at Beccles, Suffolk, and at East Dereham, Norfolk. G. J. C. Oxford. * * * * * Miscellaneous. NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. The anniversary of the Camden Society on Monday last, when Mr. Peter Cunningham, Sir F. Madden, and Sir C. Young were elected on the Council, was distinguished by two departures from the usual routine: one, a special vote of thanks to Sir Harry Verney for placing his family papers at the service of the Society; and the other, a general expression of satisfaction on the part of the members at the steps taken by the Council to bring under the consideration of the Commission appointed to inquire into the laws regarding matters testamentary, the great impediments thrown in the way of all historical and literary inquirers by the authorities in the Prerogative Office. It does not require the skill of an Oedipus to divine that in giving us so graphic a picture of _The Vicar and his Duties_, the Rev. A. Gatty has had the advantage of sketching from the life, and that his portraiture of "A good man of religioun That as a poore Persone of a toun; But riche he was of holy thought and werke."