"Restraint from ill is freedom to the wise, And good men wicked liberties despise." The couplet is altered from the following couplet in De Foe's _True Born Englishman_:-- "Restraint from ill is freedom to the wise, But Englishmen do all restraint despise." See collection of his writings, vol. i. p. 20., edit. 1703. JAS. CROSSLEY. _Private memoirs of Queen Elizabeth_ (Vol. iii., p. 23.).--"_The Secret History of the most renowned Queen Elizabeth and the Earl of Essex_. In two parts. By a person of Quality. Cologne: printed for Will with the Wisp, at the Sign of the Moon in the Ecliptick. M.D.CLXXXI."--is the title of a small volume in my possession, containing some curious hints corroborative of the first part of Mr. Ives' MS. note mentioned in "NOTES AND QUERIES" (Vol. iii. p. 11.). If this be the book to which your correspondent, J.E.C., refers in your last number, he is perfectly welcome to the perusal of my copy. WILLIAM J.D. ROPER. Vane House, Hampstead, Jan. 18. 1851. _Abbot's House at Buckden_ (Vol. ii., p. 494.).--MR. C.H. COOPER asks, "will M.C.R. explain his allusion to the Abbot's House at Buckden?" Being only an occasional visitor there, I can give no other explanation than it is universally called so by the inhabitants of the place. The house is very low-roomed, and only one story high; it has been compoed over, so that there is nothing very ancient in the look of the brickwork, excepting the chimneys, which form a cluster in the centre. The door I mentioned, evidently is an ancient one. A good deal of iron about it, and in square compartments. When I was there recently, I was informed of a discovery in a public-house _formerly_ called the Lion--now, the _Lamb_. A gentleman in the place came into possession of some pamphlets respecting Buckden; in one of which it is said, that this house was originally the hostel where the visitors and domestics used to go when the bishop had not room at the palace for them, and that it would be found there was an "Agnus Dei" in the ceiling of one of the lower rooms. The consequence was, search was made for it: and what seemed a plain boss, where two beams crossed each other, on being cleansed and scraped, turned out to be as the book said, and which I saw only last week. The clergyman has the pamphlet above alluded to. Whether this, and the abbot's house, belonged to the palace I cannot say. The road now runs between them. The "Agnus Dei" is seven or eight inches in diameter; the lamb, &c., in the centre, and the words "Ecce Agnus Dei" in a circular border round it. This is all the information I can now give. M.C.R.