Chapter C

_Theoloneum_ (Vol. v., p. 105.).--Theoloneum is the Latin law term for toll, corrupted from the Greek Telonium. I am surprised that I cannot find it either in Du Cange or Spelman.

C. B.

_John of Padua_ (Vol. v., p. 78.).--I have often endeavoured without success to obtain some correct particulars about John of Padua, and also to ascertain whether he was the same person as "John Thorpe." I hope, therefore, that the inquiry in your last number may lead to a satisfactory result; for we ought to know more of these worthies.

BRAYBROOKE.

Audley End.

_Stoke_ (Vol. v., p. 106.).--W. B. asks the meaning of the word _stoke_ in the names of places; as Bishopstoke, Ulverstoke, &c. (Ulverstoke being, I presume, a miscopying or misprint of Alverstoke). I cannot at all concur in the derivation you quote from Bosworth, from _stoc_, "a place;" for then every place might be called _stoke_ without distinction. But in all the _stokes_ that I remember in England there is always and actually a kind of _stockade_ or sluice, which dams up some watercourse to a certain level. Whether this explanation will apply to the local circumstances of all the _stokes_, I know not; but it certainly does to the cases of Bishopstoke and Alverstoke, and of at least half a dozen other _stokes_ within my own observation.

C.

_Eliza Fenning_ (Vol. v., p. 105.).--Eliza Fenning was a maid servant convicted and executed for poisoning her master's family. I happened to be very intimate with some charitable and distinguished persons who had doubts of her guilt. I myself did not partake those doubts, but I assisted my friends in their benevolent inquiries, and was so frequently in communication with them both at the time, and long after, that I think I may venture to say that there can be no foundation for the statement that another person had confessed to the crime for which she suffered.