[There is a legend, that Dover-Court Church in Essex once possessed a
miraculous cross which spoke, thus noticed in the _Collier of Croydon_:
"And how the rood of _Dovercot_ did speak,
Confirming his opinions to be true."
So that it is possible, as Nares suggests, that this church was the
scene of confusion alluded to in the proverb: "Dover Court, all
speakers and no hearers." Fox, in his _Martyrology_, vol. ii. p. 302.,
states, that "a rumour was spread that no man could shut the door,
which therefore stood open night and day; and that the resort of people
to it was much and very great."]
_Porter._--In what book is the word _porter_, meaning the malt liquor so
called, first found? I have an impression that the earliest use of it that
I have seen is in Nicholas Amherst's _Terrae Filius_, about 1726.