Your correspondent ARUN (Vol. ii., p. 254.) states, on the authority of Stephen's _Blackstone_, that-- "Bishops are temporal barons, and sit in the House of Peers in right of succession to certain ancient baronies annexed or supposed to be annexed to their episcopal lands." This position, though supported by Lord Coke in more places than one (see _Coke upon Littleton_, 134. _a, b_; 3 _Inst._ 30.; 4 _Inst._ 44.), and adopted by most other legal text-writers on his authority, cannot, it is conceived, be supported. It seems to be clearly ascertained that bishops sat in the great councils of this and other kingdoms not _ratione baroniarum_ but _jure ecclesiarum_, by custom, long before the tenure _per baroniam_ was known. In the preambles to the laws of Ina (Wilkins' _Leges Ang.-Sax._ f. 14.), of Athelstan (_ib._ 54.), of Edmund (_ib._ 72.), the bishops are mentioned along with others of the great council, whilst the tenure _per baroniam_ was not known until after the Conquest. The truth seems to be that "The bishops of the Conqueror's age were entitled to sit in his councils by the general custom of Europe and by the common law of England, which the conquest did not overturn."--Hallam's _Mid. Ag._ 137-8, 9th ed. Can any of your readers throw any light on the much disputed tenure _per baroniam_? What was its essential character, what its incidents, and in what way did it differ from the ordinary tenure _in capite_? BARO. * * * * * REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES. _Leicester and the reputed Poisoners of his Time_ (Vol. ii., pp. 9. 92.).--This subject receives interesting illustration in the _Memoirs of Gervas Holles_, who at some length describes the seduction of the Lady Sheffield, by Leicester, at Belvoir Castle, while attending the Queen on her Progress. A letter from the Earl to the lady of his love, contained the suspicious intimation-- "_That he had not been unmindful in removing that obstacle_ which hindered the full fruition of their contentments; that he had endeavoured one expedient already which had failed, but he would lay another which he doubted not would hit more sure."