worn before royalty?" having hitherto received no answer, may probably
be as difficult of solution as another custom in which a glove figures
as a token of defiance. Perhaps, however, covered hands, as well as a
covered head, may have been considered discourteous. Indeed, we learn
frown Cobarruvias, in his _Tesoro_, that it was so considered in
Spain:--

"ENGUANTADO. El que entra con Guantes adonde se le ha de tener a
descortesia. El que sirve no los ha de tener delante de su
Senor: ni Vasallo, sea quien fuere, delante de su Rey." Fo. 453.
b. ed. 1611.

The use of gloves must be of very high antiquity. In the Middle Ages the
priest who celebrated mass always, I believe, wore them during that
ceremony; but it was just the contrary in courts of justice, where the
presiding judge, as well as the criminal, was not allowed to cover his
hands. It was anciently a popular saying, that three kingdoms must
contribute to the formation of a good glove:--Spain to prepare the
leather, France to cut them out, and England to sow them.

I think the etymology of the word _glove_ is in far from a satisfactory
state. It is a good subject for some of your learned philological
correspondents, to whom I beg leave to recommend its elucidation.

S.W. Singer.

Mickleham, July 26. 1850.

_Punishment of Death by Burning_ (Vol. ii., pp. 6, 50, 90.).--Your
correspondent E.S.S.W. gives an account of a woman burnt for the murder