[Footnote 3: [This custom is observed in many of the London
churches.--ED.]]
_O'Brien of Thosmond._--In the _Calendar of Inquisitions post mortem_,
there appears one taken on the death of Alicia, wife of Nicholas Thosmound,
in the second year of King Henry IV. The estates were in Somersetshire.
From the appearance of this name, I suspect it is not an English one; but
rather an old form of spelling the name of the province of Tothmound or
Thomond (South Munster), Ireland; and that this Nicholas was an O'Brien,
who called himself from his family's principality, for it was not uncommon
in England formerly to take names from estates. Perhaps some of your
correspondents having access to the _Inquisition_ would ascertain more on
the subject, and give it to the public. The name of Nicholas O'Brien occurs
in the Irish rolls of Chancery about that very period.