Collier's name as the author, as if it were on the title-page. This list is at the end of the same publisher's edition of "The Works of Montaigne, edited by Wm. Hazlitt," 1842, and thus gives a kind of denial to the ascription of the Criticisms to Hazlitt, to whom it is ascribed in the Library of Lincoln's Inn, though in the British Museum Catalogue it is attributed to Mr. J. P. Collier. Since the date of its publication every one of the eminent men noticed, including the most eminent "Mr." Brougham, has died. The book is still well worth perusal, especially to all those who take an interest in biography, though it is in no way biographical but critical.

Since the above was written, your correspondent MIDDLE TEMPLAR very properly asks (5th S. vii. 116) that contributors give bibliographical descriptions of the books, and I therefore do so :

"Criticisms on the Bar: including Strictures on the Principal Counsel practising in the Courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas, Chancery, and Exchequer. By Amicus Curiæ [motto]. London: printed for Simpkin & Marshall, 1819." Small 12mo. pp. ix and contents, and 308.

Such information is especially necessary in the case of books published without their. authors' names; and as I do not find this book has been previously discussed in your columns, it may, if there is any question, save trouble.

OLPHAR HAMST.

BEN JONSON.-I have one vol. folio of Ben Jonson's works, "printed by I. B. for Robert Allott, and to be sold at the signe of the Beare in Paul's Church-yard," date 1631. The dates on the title-pages of the different plays, &c., vary; some appear to have been printed in 1631, and others in 1641. I have, besides, vol. ii., also folio, of Ben Jonson's works, the name of the printer Richard Bishop, and date 1640. This contains the name of Will. Shakspeare among the actors. The volumes were bought at different times and at different places. Do they belong to the same edition, or to what editions? What is their relative rarity and

value?

E. J. B.

"RODNEYS."--The Inspector of Factories in the Wolverhampton iron and brickmaking districts reports:-"To keep a boy from work till he is thirteen is to encourage idleness. In the expres sive language of the district it makes Rodneys' of them." I have never before seen this word written or in print except as a family name; but I heard it frequently used colloquially some forty or fifty years ago in the iron district of South Wales. Can any of your readers define its meaning, and refer me to its place of origin and derivation ? GEO. E. FRERE.

BOWLES PEDIGREE.-Charles Bowles, of North Aston, co. Oxford, Esq., who died Aug. 4, 1780, married Jane, widow of Martyn Fellowes (of the

parish of St. George the Martyr, in London), and
daughter of Clark, of Welford, co. North-
ampton. I should be glad if any of your corre-
spondents could give me the date of this marriage,
and any particulars relative to this family of
Clark.
GEO. J. ARMYTAGE.
Clifton, Brighouse.

“CALF-TAKER.”-I have, amongst several ex-
tracts that I have made from a parish register in
the neighbourhood of London, the following:
"Edward Russell, calf-taker to her matic, buried,
August 1, 1597." What were his duties? Was
the appointment a usual one?

R. G. R.

THE VENUS.-What was the height (in English feet and inches) of the celebrated statue of the | Venus de' Medici ? THERESA Ward.

Sheffield.

MRS. BROWNING.

"And may I not say of myself that I hope there is nobody in the world with a stronger will and aspiration to escape from sectarianism in any sort of sense, when I have eyes to discern it; and that the sectarianism of the National Churches, to which I do not belong, and of the Dissenting bodies, to which I do, stand together before of E. B. Browning, &c.) me on a pretty just level of detestation?" (Vide Letters To what Dissenting body did Mrs. Browning belong?

CH. EL. MA.

PRINCE CHARLES EDWARD.-What were the names of the gentlemen who proclaimed the Prince H. B. in Aberdeen?

WYLLYS FAMILY.-Can any of your readers give me information respecting the family of the Rev. John Wyllys, of Brentwood, Essex, circ. 1700? His sons were Benjamin, John, and Edward, all of King's Coll., Camb. A daughter, Mary, was married to the Rev. Philip Stubbs, B.D., Archdeacon of St. Albans, and died at Bromley, Kent, in 1759, aged 95 years. Arms,— Ar., three griffins pass. sa. ; a bordure engr. gu. H. STUBBS, B.A.

bezantée.

AUSTRIA. What is the most detailed history of Austria in the last century, more especially one giving some account of the leading statesmen and soldiers of the period? Also, the best peerage of that empire from the year 1750 to 1770; and do Austrian regiments keep histories or other records of their past career? The favour would be increased if any of your correspondents, who may be able to help me in my investigations on this sub-in ject, would state whether the works are accessible D. C. BOULGER.

Who
Montfaucon (Suppl., t. iv. p. 24)-representing the
Under an engraving a copy, I think, of the gem given
famous incident-

"When he surnamed of Africa dismissed, In his prime youth, the fair Iberian maid," COLOURED ALABASTER.-I possess a statuette I have seen some such distich as the following :—

of the Blessed Virgin about 3 ft. 6 in. high, made of English alabaster. This is somewhat marred by having a red vein in the face. How

Replies.

ARMS, BUT NO CREST.

(5th S. vii. 28.)

It is the fact, as stated by D. K. T., "that many old West-country families had no crest" recorded with the arms allowed to them at the Heralds' Visitation of Devon and Cornwall in 1620. I can scarcely conceive that this arose from the negligence of the heralds, and must conclude that such families did not claim crests, though some of them subsequently assumed them. These remarks apply to those families who bore arms by ancient prescription, as distinguished from those who used them by authority of modern grants.

Old Carew says (cir. 1600), "The most Cornish gentlemen can better vaunt their pedigree than their livelihood," and this remark may perhaps afford us a clue to the explanation of the fact noticed. It occurred to me many years ago, inasmuch as most, if not all, families who early held equestrian rank have their arms surmounted by crests (e.g. Carminow, Cottell, Kelly, Treffry), whether crests were given to or assumed by those only who in actual warfare or in jousts wore crests upon their helmets, whilst simple esquires, who wore no such distinctions, made no claim to them. It is true that many families of the latter rank were allowed crests, but it will be found that in most of such cases their arms were modern grants, few earlier than the reign of Queen Elizabeth (e.g. Hichens, Opie, Toker, Grylls), and not arms borne by prescriptive right.

I put forward this suggestion with some hesitation, and with a view to the discussion of the question. I have not touched upon the subject of mottoes, which usually are not of authority, and may be assumed or changed at pleasure.

JOHN MACLEAN.

Bicknor Court, Coleford, Glouc. Heralds, I believe, do not consider crests to be distinctive badges of families. They may be changed arbitrarily, and this is often done by the several branches of the same house, whilst all retain the family shield, slightly differenced to mark the distinction.

Many of the lesser gentry had arms, but no crest. Hundreds of examples could be given if needful. The arms were the mark of gentility, the crest but the ornament on the helmet, and in early times was varied at the will of the bearer. In recent days almost all families entitled to arms have had crests granted to them or have assumed them, but there are still a few examples of crestless gentry. I know of a race which has borne arms from a period long antecedent to the incorporation of the Heralds' College, the elder stock of which has never used a crest, though a younger branch, now extinct in the male line, assumed one in the beginning of this century.

ΑΝΟΝ.

PHONETICS: "To WRITE," &c. (5th S. vii. 125.) MR. PALMER, in his criticism of the critique in the Saturday Review of Jan. 27 on phonetic spelling, has hardly reached the bottom of his subject. The reviewer had said, "Take the best example of all; rite, write, right, wright, are words of four different meanings, of four different origins, once of four different sounds, but which, through phonetic decay'—that is, in plain words, through sheer idleness-have come to be sounded all alike." On this MR. PALMER remarks :

:

"As far as one of these words is concerned, this is anything but a happy example, as the w of write (origin"Of other modes of distinguishing cadets," says a well-ally meaning to scratch, scrape, or engrave), instead of known writer on heraldry, we may mention the adoption of different crests, without any alteration being made on the charges in the escutcheon. Speaking of the Germans, among whom the practice largely prevails, Chrytyn says, 'interdum arma solo cimerio discrepant' and he illustrates his statement by a notice of the various mode of differencing has been rarely followed in Scotland. Doubtless the heraldic practice of that country has always allowed a considerable amount of freedom in the changing of crests, which, however, Nisbet considers

families descended from the House of Burgundy......This

elucidating its history, seems rather to obscure its origin by disguising its affinity with such words as Scotch rit, to scratch or incise; Icel. rita; Ger. reissen; O.H.G. rizan, to scratch," &c. MR. PALMER does not seem to be aware that all these words had originally prefixed to them the strong guttural aspirate, frequently represented by the digamma in Greek, and in the Teutonic and Norse tongues by hw, hv, h, and w: Goth. writan, A.-S. writan, Old Sax. writan, which are connected the nature of a device than a fixed piece of hereditary by all philologists with rizan, reissen, &c. armorial bearings.' For that very reason a systematic Graff (Alt-Hochd. Sprachschatz, i. 1130) explains modification of the charges in the escutcheon forms a this as follows, under the "Anlaut" wr:

to be but an ornament of coats of arms, and so more of

Sandyknowe, Wavertree.

"Diesen im Gothischen, Angelsächsischen, Altsächs-g should be hard. Walker gives both pronunciaischen, Altfriesischen (Z. B. Goth. vrikan, Angels. wre- tions, but prefers the soft; but, as he gives no can, Álts. wrekan, Altfries. wrekka, persequi, ulcisci, reason whatever, his opinion may go for what it is Goth. vrohjan, A.-S. vregjan, Altfries. wregjan, accusare; A.-S. writan, Alts. writan, scribere) noch haufig vorkom worth. J. A. PICTON. menden, und auch im Schwedischen, Dänischen, Holl. (und in der Schrift auch im Englischen) erholtenen Anlaut, zeigt das Althochd. nur in wrubhi, wreh (N.G. track), und Wrach (N.G. rache); in allen übrigen, ursprunglich mit wr anlautenden Wörtern ist w in h umgewandelt, oder abgeworfen. Im Nordischen, das auch vor Vokalen den Anlaut w abwirft, fehlt der Anlaut ur gänzlich."

In A.-S. this strong aspirate is represented by hw before vowels (wh in Mod. Eng.), and w before consonants. In the Icelandic, or Old Norse, it becomes hv and h respectively, and in Modern Norse and German it is almost entirely dropped. According to Grimm's law, this Teutonic aspirate is the equivalent of the Greek and Latin gutturals k and c, as cœlu-m=hollow; clin-o, A.-S. hlin-an, to lean; Kóun, Eng. home, &c. Cleasby and Vigfusson (Icel.-Eng. Dict.), under letter "H," go very fully into this question. The following are a few examples in which the strong aspirate has been gradually thrown off:-Gr. kopa§, Lat. corvus, O.N. and A.-S. hrafn, Dan. ravn, Ger. rabe, raven; O.N. hrjufr, A.-S. hreof, Ger. rauh, rough; Goth. hrains, O.H.G. hreini, O.N. hrenn, Dan. ren, M.G. rein, pure, clean. The connexion of writan, reissen, &c., will be found set out in Fick's Indogermanischen Sprachen, iii. 309.

The phonologists forget that writing speaks to the eye, and only mediately to the ear. If the four words quoted above are all to be spelled alike, a little grotesque confusion would necessarily occur. Thus I might communicate a piece of news of the day in this fashion: "I rite to inform you that a rite has been employed to break open the door of St. James's, Hatcham, the rite celebrated there not being rite according to law." And this is said to be improving our spelling!

The dictum that the w in write was introduced into the word by mistake is quite wrong. Our word to write is not a Scandinavian word, but spondent cannot point to any English MS. from pure Anglo-Saxon; and I am sure your correthe tenth to the fourteenth century written by a scribe so uneducated as to omit the w; for the plain reason that the w was pronounced, as proved by our alliterative poetry. In this case the Scandinavian languages and the German have lost the initial w, which English, to its credit, has preserved. It is a great defect of Icelandic that it drops v (or w) before r. See Cleasby and Vigfusson's Icelandic Dictionary, remarks on "R," p. 481, col. 1. At this rate, we should have to suppress the initial w in wort, because there is no w in the Latin radix; or that in worm, because the Icelandic is ormr. WALTER W. SKEAT.

AMUSING BULL (5th S. vii. 125.)-MR. PALMER, whilst engaged on criticizing a writer in the Saturday Review for what appears on examination to be merely the slip of writing "former" for "latter," says: "It is rendered more amusingly conspicuous by the fact of the writer being engaged at the moment he makes it," &c. Here is an example of a mistake which, I am sorry to say, our best writers often fall into. How can a writer be a fact? Yet, as MR. PALMER has written, the "writer" is the substantive, and the "being engaged" is adjectival qualifying "writer." It is perfectly evident that MR. PALMER means "the writer's being engaged," that is to say, the "being engaged" is the substantive, and the "writer," as MR. PALMER has written ("writer's," as I venture to say he ought to have written), the adjectival word.

The Saturday reviewer laid down a very useful principle as to the hard and soft pronunciation of This mistake is, I think, common on account of g and c before a vowel, viz., that in natural or two reasons :-First, it is often very awkward, on original English words they are always hard. This account of the structure of the sentence, to give to is objected to by MR. PALMER, as it appears to the word which is really in the genitive the mark me, on very insufficient grounds. He quotes gibe, of that case. Secondly, the meaning is generally gib, and gyves as having the g pronounced soft, quite plain without putting the word in the geniand yet being original English words. Is he quite tive. But the first reason does not apply to a sure on both these points? The derivation of sentence of which the construction is simple. If gibe is very uncertain. It is usually connected MR. PALMER had been using a pronoun instead with gabban, but there is no A.-S. radical extant of "the writer," he would have undoubtedly said from which it could be derived. (3 Gab or gabba the fact of his being engaged." exists in various forms both in French and Italian, in the latter especially. Gibe is quite as likely to be an adaptation of Fr. jappe. Gib, to start aside, to bolt, is more usually spelled jib. Whatever its derivation, there is no reason whatever for calling it an original English word.

Gyves is another word of uncertain origin. If, as Richardson states, it is of German origin, the

As to the second reason, there are cases where the meaning would be different according to whether the genitive is used or not. Take these sentences :-a. The general landing ten thousand men in one day awed the island into submission. B. The general's landing ten thousand men in one day awed the island into submission. In a the landing of the men is a parenthesis; the awe may