"I had rather that ye should come [to hear the Word of God] as the tale is by the gentlewoman of London: one of her neighbours met her in the street and said, 'Mistress, whither go ye?' 'Marry,' said she; 'I am going to St. Thomas of Acres, to the sermon; I could not sleep all this last night, and I am going now thither; I never failed of a good nap there.' And so I had rather ye should go a-napping to the sermons than not to go at all." On the name "S. Nicholas _Acon_," I can throw no light. Stow is quite silent as to its signification. E. VENABLES. Herstmonceux. _Becket's Mother._--I am, in truth, but a new subscriber, and when I wrote the remarks on MR. FOSS's note (Vol. ii., p. 270.), had not seen your first volume containing the communications of MR. MATTHEWS (p. 415.) and DR. RIMBAULT (p. 490.). The rejection of the story that Becket's mother was a Saracen rests on the fact that no trace of it is found until a much later time, when the history of "St. Thomas of Canterbury" had been embellished with all manner of wonders. MR. MATTHEWS may find some information in the _English Review_, vol. vi. pp. 40-42. DR. RIMBAULT is mistaken in saying that the life of St. Thomas by Herbert of Boshain "is published in the _Quadrilogus_, Paris, 1495." It was one of the works from which the _Quadrilogus_ was _compiled_; but the only entire edition of it is that by Dr. Giles, in his _S. Thomas Cantauriensis_. J. C. R. _Passage in Lucan_ (Vol. ii., p. 89.).--The following are parallel passages to that in Lucan's _Pharsalia_, b. vii. 814., referred to by MR. SANSOM. Ovid. _Metam._ 1. 256.:-- "Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur affore tempus, Quo mare, quo tellus, correptaque regia coeli Ardeat; et mundi moles operos laboret." Cic. _De Nat. Deor._ 11. 46.:-- "Ex quo eventurum nostri putant id, de quo Panaetium addubitare dicebant, ut ad extremum omnis mundus ignesceret; cum, humore consumto, neque terra ali posset neque remearet aer; cujus ortus, aqua omni exhausta, esse non posset," etc. Cic. _De Divinatione_, 1. 49.:-- "Nam et natura futura praesentiunt, ut aquarum fluxiones et deflagrationem futuram aliquando coeli atque terrarum," etc. Cic. _Acad. Quaest._ iv. 37.:-- "Erit ei persuasum etiam, solem, lunam, stellas omnes, terram, mare, deos esse ... fore tamen aliquando ut omnis hic mundus ardore deflagret," etc. Cic. _Somn. Scipionis,_ vii.:-- "Propter eluviones exustionesque terrarum quas accidere tempore certo necesse est, non modo aeternam, sed ne diuturnam quidem gloriam assequi possumus." Seneca, _Consol. ad Marciam_, sub fine:-- "Cum tempus advenerit quo se mundus renovaturus {365} extinguat ... et omni flagrante materia uno igne quicquid nunc ex disposito lucet, ardebit." Id. _Natural Quaest_. iii. 28.:--