_Ringing a Handbell before a Corpse._--Is it true that whenever an
interment takes place in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, the corpse is
preceded on its way to the grave by a person who rings a small handbell at
intervals, each time giving a few tinkling strokes? My informant on this
subject was an Oxford undergraduate, who said that he had recently
witnessed the burials both of Mr. ----, a late student of Christ Church,
and of Miss ----, daughter of a living bishop: and he assured me that in
both cases this ceremony was observed. Certainly it is possible to go
through the academical course at Oxford without either hearing the bell, or
knowing of its use on such occasions: but I should now be glad to receive
some explanation of this singular custom.

A.G.

Ecclesfield.

_Church of St. Saviour, Canterbury._--Tradition, I believe, has uniformly
represented that an edifice more ancient, but upon the present site of St.
Martin's, Canterbury, was used by St. Augustine and his followers in the
earliest age of Christianity in this country. St. Martin's has, on that
account, been often spoken of as the mother-church of England. Lately,
however, in perusing the fourth volume of Mr. Kemble's _Codex
Diplomaticus_, p. 1. I find a charter of King Canute, of the year 1018,
which states the church of ST. SAVIOUR, _Canterbury_, to be the
mother-church of England:

"Æcclesia Salvatoris in Dorobernia sita, omnium Æcclesiarum regni
Angligeni _mater et domina_."

In none of the histories of Kent or of Canterbury can I find any mention of