{90} It is not likely that Hobbes and Bunyan were acquainted; they lived in distant parts of the country. Bunyan's _Pilgrim_, which was the foundation of his wide-spread fame, was not published till 1678, when the Leviathan philosopher was ninety years of age; he died in 1679. Hobbes' company were the learned and illustrious among men,--the Des Carteses, Gassendis, and Wallises of his age; while Bunyan associated with the despised Nonconformists. Nor is is likely that Bunyan read the _Leviathan_; Dent's _Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven, The Practice of Piety_, Fox's _Martyrs_, and, above all, his Bible, constituted his library during his imprisonment for conscience-sake, which lasted from 1660 to 1672. Had he suffered from Hobbes's philosophy, he would have proclaimed it upon the house-tops, especially in his _Grace Abounding_, that others might have been guarded from such dangerous scepticism. The _Vision_ of Hobbes was doubtless intended to render the forgery more popular. GEORGE OFFOR. Hackney, Jan. 1851. * * * * * THE MOTHER CHURCH OF THE SAXONS. In "NOTES AND QUERIES" (Vol. ii., p. 478.) SIR HENRY ELLIS observes, that-- "Although St. Martin's, Canterbury, is commonly called the mother church of England on account of its having been the first used here by Augustine, tradition represents, that when this missionary arrived in Kent, he found an ancient church on the site of what is now called St. Martin's." SIR H. ELLIS adds, that-- "A charter of King Canute's styles Saviour's church, Canterbury, the mother and mistress of all churches in the kingdom of England."-_AEcclesia Salvatoris_, &c. I conceive these accounts to be perfectly reconcilable. From Bede's _Ecclesiastical History_ (b. i., caps. 25, 26.), we learn that, on the east side of Canterbury, in the year 597, there was a church dedicated to the honour of St. Martin, that was "built while the Romans were still in the island," some two hundred years before this date. St. Martin's was the church wherein Bertha, Queen of Kent, used to pray; she having been a Christian of the Royal Family of the Franks. It will, of course, be allowed that during the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, different saints were held in especial honour in different countries. For instance, not long after the arrival of the Roman missionaries in England, various churches and monasteries,--at Canterbury, Lindisfarne, Bamborough, Lichfield, Weremouth, and Jarrow, and the capital city of the Picts,--were wholly or partially named after St. Peter. When Naitan, King of the Picts, was about to build his church, he sought the assistance of the Abbot of Weremouth, a strong supporter of Roman observances, and "promised to dedicate the same in honour of St. Peter," and to follow the custom of the Roman church, in certain matters, which the subjects of his kingdom had protested against, for more than a hundred years.