time. I have witnessed it also when the deceased has been one of the family
of a member of the University, and when he has been a matriculated person.
I have never considered it as anything but _a cast of the bellman's
office_, to add more solemnity to the occasion.

[Hebrew: b].

L---- Rectory. Somerset.

_Sir George Downing_ (Vol. ii., pp. 464. 497.).--It may assist your querist
"ALPHA," to be informed that among the monuments to the family of Pengelly,
in the church of Whitchurch near Tavistock, in the county of Devon, is one
to the memory of Ann, wife of Francis Pengelly, and daughter of Sir George
Downing of East Hatley in the county of Cambridge, who died the 23rd of
November, 1702; with the arms of Pengelly impaling Barry of six argent and
gules, over all a wyvern or--for Downing. {69}

Nicholas Downing of Exeter College, vicar of Kingsteignton, in Devon, who
died in 1666, and was buried there, seems to have been of another family,
as he bore a very different coat of arms.

A Lieut. Downing was buried in Charles church, Plymouth, in 1799, but the
arms on his monument are not the same as either of the above.

Other than these, I know of none of the name, ancient or recent, in the
county, and I shall be glad to learn on what ground Sir George Downing's
family is said to be of most ancient origin in Devonshire. The name does
not appear in Westcote, Pole, Prince, Risdon, or the Heralds' visitations,
and the modern authorities state that the family was from Essex or Norfolk.