Though I have always lived within a few miles of Firle Place, the seat of the Gages, and though I am tolerably well acquainted with the history and traditions of that noble family, I never heard of the sword mentioned by P. Had that relic really been preserved at Battle till the time of Henry VIII., it is not improbable that it might have come into Sir John Gage's hands with the manor of Aleiston, of which he was grantee, while his son-in-law, Sir Anthony Browne, became possessor of the abbey itself. Will P. have the goodness to mention the source from which he obtained his statement? MARK ANTONY LOWER. Lewes. In reply to the Query respecting the sword of William the Conqueror (Vol. iii., p. 24.), I am enabled to inform you that the sword, and also the coronation robes, of William the Conqueror, were, together with the original "Roll of Battel," kept in the church or chapel of Battel Abbey until it was dismantled at the Reformation; when they were transferred to the part of the abbey which remained, and which became the possession and habitation of Sir Anthony Browne, Master of the Horse to Henry VIII. These precious relics continued in the possession of his descendants, who were created Lords Mountacute; and when Battel Abbey was sold by them to the ancestor of the present owner, they conveyed them to Cowdray Park, Sussex, where they remained until they were destroyed in the lamentable fire which burned down that mansion; and which, by a singular coincidence, took place on the same day that its owner, the last male representative of the Brownes Lords Mountacute, was drowned in a rash attempt to descend the falls of Schaffhausen in a boat. E.H.Y. * * * * * MEANING OF EISELL. (Vol. ii., pp. 241. 286. 315. 329) After all that has been written on this subject in "NOTES AND QUERIES," from MR. SINGER'S proposition of wormwood in No. 46., to MR. HICKSON'S approval of it in No. 51., the question remains substantially where Steevens and Malone had left it so many years agone. It is not necessary to discuss whether vinegar, verjuice, or wormwood be the preferable translation of the Shakspearian word; for before either of them can be received, the advocate is bound to {67} accommodate his exposition to Shakspeare's sentence, and to "get over the _drink up_," which still stands in his way as it did in that of Malone. MR. SINGER get over the difficulty by simply saying "to _drink up_ was commonly used for simply to _drink_." The example he quotes, however,-- "I will drink Potions of eysell,"-- is not to his purpose; it is only an equivalent by the addition of the words "_potions of_" to give it the same definite character. Omit those words, and the question remains as before.