There is little doubt that priests in olden times were fond of hot dinners, and the bell at the conclusion of the service must have been intended as a warning to their cooks (and many others) to make ready the repast. This is merely a supposition; but I shall cherish the idea in the want of a better explanation. The custom has been, until very lately, observed in our little country church. There are other customs which are still kept up, namely, that of tolling the church bell at eight o'clock on Sunday morning, and again at nine, as well as that of ringing a small bell when the clergyman enters the reading-desk. E. W. J. Crawley, Winchester. I believe that the custom of tolling the bell when the congregation is leaving the church, is to notify that there will be another service in the day. This is certainly the reason in this parish (in Leicestershire); for after the second service the bell is not tolled, nor if, on any account, there is no afternoon service. S. S. S. When I was Lecturer of St. Andrew's, Enfield, the bells rang out a short peculiar peal immediately after Sunday Morning Prayer. I always thought it was probably designed to give notice to approaching funeral processions that the church service was over, as in the country burials--usually there always on Sundays--immediately follow the celebration of morning service. MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A. I beg to inform your correspondent J. H. M. that this is often done at Bray, near Maidenhead. NEWBURIENSIS. The custom observed at Olney Church after the morning service, I have heard, is to apprize the congregation of a vesper service to follow. W. P. STORER. Olney, Bucks. _Archpriest in the Diocese of Exeter_ (Vol. ix., p. 185.).--Besides the archpriest of Haccombe, there were others in the same diocese; but, to quote the words of Dr. Oliver, in his _Monasticon, Dioc. Exon._, p. 287., "He would claim no peculiar exemption from the jurisdiction of his ordinary, nor of his archdeacon; he was precisely on the same footing as the superiors of the archpresbyteries at Penkivell, Beerferris, and Whitchurch, which were instituted in this diocese in the early part of the fourteenth century. The foundation deed of the last was the model in founding that of Haccombe." In the same work copies of the foundation deeds of the archipresbytery of Haccombe and Beer are printed. One would suppose that wherever there was a collegiate body of clergymen established for the purposes of the daily and nightly offices of the church, as chantry priests, that one of them would be considered the superior, or archipresbyter. Godolphin, in _Rep. Can._, 56., says that by the canon law, he that is archipresbyter is also called _dean_. Query, Would he then be other than "Primus inter pares?" Prince, in his _Worthies_, calls the Rector of Haccombe "a kind of chorepiscopus;" and in a note refers to Dr. Field _Of the Church_, lib. v. c. 37.