I therefore suppose the _r_ termination in _mauther_ to be a mere corruption, like that pointed out by Skinner in the Lincoln Folk-speech: or is it possible that it may have arisen from a contusion of the words _maid_ and _mother_ in Roman Catholic times? In Holland the Virgin Mary was called _Moeder Maagd_,--a phrase which may possibly have crossed over to the East Anglian coast, and occasioned the subsequent confusion. B.H.K. P.S. Do the words _modde_, _moddeken,_ quoted by Skinner, exist? and, if so, are they Dutch or Flemish? I have no means of verifying them at hand. [On referring to Kilian's _Dictionarium Teutonico-Latin-Gallicum_ (ed. 1642), we find, "MODDE, MODDEKEN, Pupa, Poupee."] _Cheshire Cat_ (Vol. ii., p. 377.).--A correspondent, T.E.L.P.B.T., asks the explanations of the phrase, "grinning like a Cheshire cat." Some years since Cheshire cheeses were sold in this town moulded into the shape of a cat, bristles being inserted to represent the whiskers. This may possibly have originated the saying. T.D. Bath. "_Thompson of Esholt_" (Vol. ii., p. 268.).--In an old pedigree of the Calverley family, I find it stated that _Henry Thompson of Esholt_ (whose only daughter _Frances_ William Calverley of Calverley married, and by her acquired that property) was great-grandson to Henry Thompson, "One of the king's gentlemen-at-arms at the siege of Boulogne (temp. H. 7.), where he notably signalised himself, and for his service was rewarded with the _Maison Dieu at Dover_, by gift of the king; afterwards, in the reign of Edward VI., exchanged it for the manor and rectory of _Bromfield_ in Cumberland, and the site of the late dissolved nunnery of Esholt." Further particulars regarding the above grant of _Bromefield_, and a _pedigree_ of the Thompsons, are published in _Archaeologia Oeliana_, vol. ii. (1832), p. 171. W.C. TREVELYAN. Wallington. _Minar's Book of Antiquities_ (Vol. i., p. 277.; ii. p. 344.).--I am much obliged to T.J. for his endeavours to help me to Minar's _Book of Antiquities_. But there still remains a chasm too wide for me to jump; inasmuch as Christopher Meiners published his treatise _De Vero Deo_ in 1780, and Cardinal Cusa, who refers to Minar, died in 1464, being more than 300 years before. A.N. _Croziers and Pastoral Staves_ (Vol. ii., pp. 248, 313.).--The opinion expressed by the REV. MR. WALCOT (in your No. 50.), that by the word _crozier_ is to be understood the crossed staff belonging only to archbishops and legates, while the staff with a crook at its end is to be called the pastoral staff, cannot, I think, be considered satisfactory, for the following, among other reasons. Crozier is generally (I should formerly have said universally) understood to mean the staff with a crook, the so well-known "ensign of bishops."