"Seventeen serjeants being made the 14th day of November, a daye or two after, Serjeant Powis, the junior of them all, coming to the King's Bench bar, Lord Chief Justice Kelynge told him that he had something to say to him, viz., that the rings which he and the rest of the serjeants had given weighed but eighteen shillings apiece; whereas Fortescue, in his book _De Laudibus Legum Angliæ_, says, 'The rings given to the Chief Justices and to the Chief Baron ought to weigh twenty shillings apiece;' and that he spoke not this expecting a recompense, but that it might not be drawn into a precedent, and that the young gentlemen there might take notice of it." W. H. LAMMIN. Fulham. MR. FOSS quotes what he considers the _happiest_ of these mottoes. I think the following at least as happy, and certainly more classical. I believe (but am not sure) it was adopted by Mr. Serjeant Bosanquet. I need not point out its application: "Antiquam exquirite matrem." F. R. LEARNED MEN OF THE NAME OF BACON. (Vol. iii., pp. 41. 151.) As no one appears inclined to follow up the suggestion of your correspondent with regard to the learned men of the name of Bacon, I have drawn up the following list, which I have met in the course of my reading, according to their dates. 1st. Robert Bacon, an eminent divine, born 1168, and died 1248. He studied at Oxford, and perfected his education at Paris; his principal work was the life of his friend and patron, Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury, which was highly esteemed; he also wrote many other learned works. 2nd. Roger Bacon, the learned monk; of him it will suffice for me to mention the date of his birth and death, as none will dispute _his_ right to a place in the list. He was born near Ilchester, in Somersetshire, 1214, and died at Oxford 1294. 3rd. John Bacon (surnamed _the Resolute Doctor_) was born at the latter end of the thirteenth century, in the little village of Baconthorpe, in Norfolk; from thence he is often called Baconthorpe. After some years spent in the Convent of Blackney, five miles from Walsingham, he removed to Oxford, and thence to Paris, where he was honoured by degrees both in law and divinity, and was considered the head of the Averroïsts. In 1333 he was invited by letters to Rome; and Paulus Pansa, writing of him from thence, says, "This one _resolute doctor_ has furnished the Christian religion with armour against the Jews, stronger than any of Vulcan's," &c. He was held in great esteem all throughout Italy. He died in London, 1346.