"_Pinece with a stink._"--In Archbishop Bramhall's _Schism Guarded_ (written against Serjeant) there is a passage in which the above curious expression occurs, and of which I can find no satisfactory, nor indeed any explanation whatever. The passage is this (_Works_, vol. ii. p. 545., edit. Ox.): "But when he is baffled in the cause, he hath a reserve,--that Venerable Bede, and Gildas, and Foxe in his Acts and Monuments, do brand the Britons for wicked men, making them 'as good as Atheists; of which gang if this Dinoth were one,' he 'will neither wish the Pope such friends, nor envy them to the Protestants.' "What needeth this, when he hath got the worst of the cause, to defend himself like a _pinece with a stink_? We read no other character of Dinoth, but as of a pious, learned, and prudent man." Can any of your readers furnish an explanation? R. BLAKISTON. _Soiled Parchment Deeds._--Having in my possession some old and very dirty parchment deeds, and other records, now almost illegible from the accumulation of grease, &c., on the surface of the skins, I am desirous to know if there be any "royal road" to the cleansing and restoration of these otherwise enduring MSS.? T. HUGHES. Chester. _Roger Wilbraham, Esq.'s Cheshire Collection._--Can any of your correspondents say where the original collection made by the above-named gentleman, or a copy of them, referred to in Dr. Foote Gower's _Sketch of the Materials for a Cheshire History_, may now be met with? CESTRIENSIS. _Cambridge and Ireland._--In the first volume of the _Pictorial History of England_, p. 270., it is stated that-- "Martin skins are mentioned in _Domesday Book_ among the commodities brought by sea to Chester; and this appears from other authorities to have been one of the exports in ancient times from Ireland. Notices are also found of merchants from Ireland _landing at Cambridge_ with cloths, and exposing their merchandise to sale." The authority quoted for this statement is Turner, vol. iii. p. 113. On referring to Turner's _Anglo-Saxons_, I find it stated: "We read of merchants from Ireland _landing at Cambridge_ with cloths, and exposing their merchandise to sale." Mr. Turner refers to Gale, vol. ii. p. 482. I do not know to what work Mr. Turner refers, unless to Gale's _Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores {271} Veteres_; on examining this I can find no passage at the page and volume indicated, on the subject. Can any of your readers state where it is to be found? It appears remarkable that the merchants from Ireland should land at the inland town of Cambridge, and it seems a probable conjecture that Cambridge is a mistake for Cambria. William of Malmesbury speaks of a commerce between Ireland and the neighbourhood of Chester, and it seems much more probable that the merchants of Ireland landed in Wales than in Cambridge. JOHN THRUPP.