communications with Rome on the subject of his canonization, or as
to the means by which he was permitted by the English church to
become a fit object for invocation and veneration?

What are the chief historical grounds that endeared his memory to
the Church or the people? The compassion for his signal fall can
hardly account for this, although a similar motive was sufficient to
bring to the tomb of Edward II., in Gloucester Cathedral, an amount
of offerings that added considerably to the splendour of the
edifice.

Are any anecdotes or circumstances recorded, respecting the worship
of this saint in later times, than I have referred to?

{183} What is the historic probability that the stone coffin,
discovered in 1822, contained the remains of this remarkable man?

I have no doubt that much curious and valuable matter might be
discovered, by pursuing into the remote receptacles of historical
knowledge the lives and characters of persons who have become, in
Catholic times, the unauthorised objects of popular religious
reverence after death.

RICH. MONCKTON MILNES.
26. Pall Mall, Jan. 12th.

[To this interesting communication we may add that "_The Office of
St. Thomas of Lancaster_," which begins,

"Gaude Thoma, ducum decus, lucerna Lancastriæ,"