LITTLECOTT--SIR JOHN POPHAM. Every one knows the tradition attached to the manor of Littlecott in Wiltshire, and the alleged means by which Chief Justice Sir John Popham acquired its possession. It is told by Aubrey, Sir Walter Scott, and many others, and is too notorious to be here repeated. Let me ask you or your learned correspondents whether there exists any refutation of a charge so seriously detrimental to the character of any judge, and so inconsistent with the reputation which Chief Justice Popham enjoyed among his cotemporaries? See Lord Ellesmere's notice of him in the case of the Postnati (_State Trials_, ii. 669.), and Sir Edward Coke's flattering picture of him at the end of Sir Drew Drury's case (_Reports_, vi. 75.). Are there any records showing that a Darell was ever in fact arraigned on a charge of murder, and the name of the judge who presided at the trial? Is the date known of the death of the last Darell who possessed the estate, or that of Sir John Popham's acquisition of it? The discovery of these might throw great light on the subject, and possibly afford a complete contradiction. Sir Francis Bacon, in his argument against Sir John Hollis and others for traducing public justice, states that-- "Popham, a great judge in his time, was complained of by petition to Queen Elizabeth; it was committed {219} to four privy councillors, but the same was found to be slanderous, and the parties punished in the court."--_State Trials_, vol. ii. p. 1029. If this petition could be discovered, and it should turn out that the slander complained of in it had reference to this story, the investigation which it then underwent by the four privy councillors, and the chief justice's enjoyment of his high office for so many subsequent years, would go far to prove the utter falsehood of the charge. This is a "consummation devoutly to be wished" by every one who feels an interest in the purity of the bench, and particularly by the present possessors of the estate, who must be anxious for their ancestor's fame. Your useful publication has acted the part of the "detective police" in the elucidation of many points of history less interesting than this, and I trust you will consider the case curious enough to justify a close examination. EDWARD FOSS. * * * * * EARLY EDITION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. I should be greatly obliged if I could obtain through "N. & Q." when, where, and by whom an imperfect black-letter copy of the New Testament, lately come into my possession, was printed, and also who was the translator of it. It is bound in boards, has three thongs round which the sheets are stitched, seems never to have been covered with cloth, leather, or other material like our modern books, has had clasps, and is four inches long and two inches thick.