254. _Paradyse, Hell, Purgatory._--Can any of your correspondents favour
me with the history and uses of three Chambers or Houses in Westminster
Hall, which in the reigns of Henry VII. and VIII. bore these
portentous names? The custody of them was evidently a source of profit;
as there are several grants of it to "squires of the king's body" and
others. (See _Rymer_, xii. 275., xiii. 34.; _Rot. Parl._ vi. 372.)
[Greek: Ph.]
255. _Dead Letter._--"If the editor of 'NOTES AND QUERIES' will accept
an indirect suggestion, we should be glad if he, or some of his learned
correspondents, would inform the public of the origin or antiquity of
the popular saying by which a thing, under certain circumstances, is
designated as a 'dead letter.'"
[Being unwilling that the foregoing Query, which we have taken
from an admirable article on the Dead Letters of the Post Office,
which appeared in _The Times_ of Tuesday last, should itself
become a _dead letter_, we have transferred it to our columns in
hopes that some of our learned correspondents will explain the
origin, and show the antiquity of the phrase by instances of its
earliest use. We do not believe that it is a Post Office
technicality transferred to the vocabulary of every-day life, but
that it is in some way connected with "the letter" that
"killeth."]
256. _Dominus Bathurst, &c._--Who was "Dominus Bathurst," a Commoner of
Winchester in 1688? "Dominus Anvers" and "Dominus Modyford" occur in
1694; who were they?