Coming out of a church one time in which unlighted candles were ostentatiously displayed, I was forcibly reminded of an hieroglyphical of Quarles--an extinguished taper,--and under it the words, "_Sine lumine inane_." "How canst thou be useful to the sight? What is the taper not endued with light?" I can hardly refrain from quoting here a beautiful passage from Wordsworth: "Our ancestors within the still domain Of vast cathedral, or conventual gloom, Their vigils kept: when tapers day and night On the dim altar burn'd continually, In token that the house was evermore Watching to God. Religious men were they, Nor would their reason, tutor'd to aspire Above this transitory world, allow That there should pass a moment of the year When in their land the Almighty's service ceased." Any communication of interest of the above subject will much oblige JARLTZBERG. * * * * * REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES. _Handbell before a Corpse_ (Vol. ii., p. 478.).--It is usual, at the funeral of any member of the University of Oxford, for the University marshal and bellman to attend in the character of _mutes_. As the procession moves along, the latter rings his bell at about half-minute time. I have witnessed it also when the deceased has been one of the family of a member of the University, and when he has been a matriculated person. I have never considered it as anything but _a cast of the bellman's office_, to add more solemnity to the occasion. [Hebrew: b]. L---- Rectory. Somerset. _Sir George Downing_ (Vol. ii., pp. 464. 497.).--It may assist your querist "ALPHA," to be informed that among the monuments to the family of Pengelly, in the church of Whitchurch near Tavistock, in the county of Devon, is one to the memory of Ann, wife of Francis Pengelly, and daughter of Sir George Downing of East Hatley in the county of Cambridge, who died the 23rd of November, 1702; with the arms of Pengelly impaling Barry of six argent and gules, over all a wyvern or--for Downing. {69} Nicholas Downing of Exeter College, vicar of Kingsteignton, in Devon, who died in 1666, and was buried there, seems to have been of another family, as he bore a very different coat of arms. A Lieut. Downing was buried in Charles church, Plymouth, in 1799, but the arms on his monument are not the same as either of the above. Other than these, I know of none of the name, ancient or recent, in the county, and I shall be glad to learn on what ground Sir George Downing's family is said to be of most ancient origin in Devonshire. The name does not appear in Westcote, Pole, Prince, Risdon, or the Heralds' visitations, and the modern authorities state that the family was from Essex or Norfolk. J.D.S. The following memorandum I found accidentally on the margin of a MS. pedigree of Downing, but I am sorry I cannot recall the source from whence I obtained it. Possibly, however, it may assist "ALPHA" in his enquiry.