If it be, as MR. DREDGE suggests, that the book was the joint venture of Rychard Mynne and James Bowler, how does it come about that the former was content to have only his initials inserted on the title-page, while the latter has, "and are to be sold by James Bowler"? And yet we know it was Mynne who originally entered the sermon in the Stationers' Registers. The two cases cited by MR. DREDGE of joint venture appear to be quite clear; but in both instances the publishers' names and addresses are stated in full, thus giving each an equal footing before the public.

Besides that of the joint venture, is there not another alternative in suggesting that Sibthorpe's sermon was originally printed for the author? I am rather inclined to this opinion, which would, perhaps, account for the publisher's name, being simply indicated by his initials, "R. M." How it afterwards came to have Bowler's name upon it arose probably from the fact that he was in a better position than Mynne to bring it before the public and extend its sale. I have already pointed out typographical differences between the two copies; if these on collation are confirmed, then, I think, the fair inference is that, so far as the first leaf is concerned, it must have been set up more than once.

A. S.

"STALWART," AND OTHER OBSOLETE WORDS (6th S. iv. 67, 255, 315, 437).—The words stalwart, outlandish, label, and waitress are neither obsolete nor even obsolescent, in any part of England with which I am acquainted. On the contrary, they are-with the possible exception of stalwart-in daily use everywhere. "The maidservant who waits at table" in a private house is, however, called in England a parlourmaid, but if she waits at table in an inn or an eating-house (restaurant its fine name is) she is called a waitress. And waitresses are common enough in the north of England, where we have the good sense to prefer lovely woman to unlovely man. A. J. M.

I thought I had almost survived the possibility of being astonished, but I found it was not the case when I saw stalwart, outlandish, and label ticketed as obsolete. I have used them and heard them used all my life. Waitress is a provincial word, but any one who will look at the "Want Places" column of a Manchester paper will find it with extremely little trouble.

HERMENTRUDE.

PRONUNCIATION OF KERR (6th S. iv. 69, 255, 279, 336, 475).—The spelling of this name is very various. Broadly speaking, K is Scotch and C is English. The Carrs of Etal, who came into Northumberland in the seventeenth century, changed from Ker, or Kerr, to Carr. In the sixteenth century Carre was a very frequent name in England. There have been ten ways of spelling the

name, if not more-Kerr, Kerre, Ker, Kar, Karr, Karre, Car, Care, Carre, Carr. These differences have arisen from the will or habit of the scribes, or from the custom of the day, or from the caprices of families.

But only one pronunciation can be properly said to belong to all. It is quite true that differences will be within the experience of many of your readers, and the rarer spelling Care seems to point to it. But do not they arise from two causes? People are ignorant that this is but one name, and give Kerr the sound of Sir; if they saw the archaic Kerre, they would similarly be disposed to say with the Yankees "Sirree." There are national and provincial variations which attach more or less to such a word as Carr, as they do to Mar, or tar, or far. MR. BIRKBECK TERRY'S humorous quotation may remind us that Irish lips at MacCallum More would boil up to Argoyll. C***.

The pronunciation of my name (Kerr) seems to be as much "a matter of taste" as Sam Weller's system of spelling. In my native Dumfriesshire every one pronounced my name Carr, except my old schoolmaster, who prided himself on what he called his "proper" English. In Cumberland and Northumberland the name is spelled and pronounced Carr. Scott, in the Lay of the Last Minstrel, spells the name as it is invariably pronounced in the south of Scotland, and in his notes to the poem he spells it Ker, or Kerr, thus :

"While Cessford owns the rule of Carr,

While Ettrick boasts the name of Scott, The slaughtered chiefs, the mortal jar, The havoc of the feudal war, Shall never, never be forgot!" A London acquaintance pronounces my name Kerr, as spelled; a Derbyshire ditto Keer. Here, in Lancashire, I am indifferently addressed as Kerr and Carr, but the accent on the a is not so distinctiy "mouthed" as on the north side of the Border. When I am asked-a not infrequent occurrence-what is the correct pronunciation of my name, I unhesitatingly reply "Kerr" (pronounced as if spelled Carr). The Latin form of the name is Carus. Irvin says, "Some write it Carr, according to the English fashion; but they err, for their original is from Ker of Kersland, in the West; and Kerr is an old Scots word, and There is a tradition in my family-and, indeed, in neither Pict [whatever that may be] nor Saxon." others of the same name-that it was first borne by a left-handed person, a "kemp," or warrior; and in connexion with this rather curious derivation it may be pointed out that in the Scottish folk-speech a left-handed person is invariably termed carr-handed-that is, left-handed. The Northumbrian equivalent is "cow-paw'd," a still more inelegant term. The Duke of Roxburgh is the modern representative of the old Border family of Ker, or Kerr, of Cessford. The name

figures prominently in the stormy annals of the Borders. HENRY KERR.

Stacksteads, near Manchester.

SALTED HERRINGS (6th S. iv. 406, 472).-It is recorded in the Reg. of Abington, f. 116, 3, that in the time of Edward the Confessor (1042-1066) the passage of the river used by barges near Abingdon was very shallow, and that they could not conveniently pass, therefore

"the citizens of Oxford and London came to Abington to meet and confer with Ordericus the abbot of it, wherein among other requests they desired him that they might have a passage through the mede belonging to them, situated on the south side of their monastery, which, being considered, was at last by him and the convent granted, on condition that every barge or vessel that passed through it (except the king's) carrying herrings, from the Purification or beginning of Lent even to the Passover, should give to the cellovere, or cook of that monastery, a hundred of them......and when the servant of that barge brought them into the kitchen the cook should give him for his pains five of the herrings, a loaf of bread, and a measure of ale or beer."-Peshall's Wood's History of the City of Oxford, pp. 259-60. Now it is simply impossible that herrings could be brought in barges, from wherever they may have been taken, to London, Abingdon, Oxford, and elsewhere, without being cured in some way and carefully packed. The practice may have been discontinued, and recovered in the fourteenth century; but it certainly obtained in England before the Norman Conquest.

With regard to the word cade, I find it in the Supplementary English Glossary, by T. Lewis O. Davies, M.A. (G. Bell & Sons, 1881), thus :"Cade, to barrel or put in a cask; the word is given in the dictionaries as a substantive. The rebel Jack Cade was the first that devised to put redde-herrings in cades, and from hym they have their name,' &c.-Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (Harl, MSS. vi. 179).”

Now Jack Cade was slain July 11, 1450; but

MR. THOROLD ROGERS has found mention made of cades of red-herrings in 1329, which is rather damaging to the accuracy of Nashe and the Harl. MS. GIBBES RIGaud.

18, Long Wall, Oxford.

"JOSEPH AND HIS BRETHREN" (6th S. iv. 427, 494). The sacred drama with this title, to which Handel composed music, should not be forgotten when others are mentioned. It was written by the Rev. James Miller, of Wadham College, Oxon, and was first printed (by J. Watts) in 1747, reprinted in 1757, and again without date, but certainly after 1767. It is remarkable as being, perhaps, the best poem, with the exception of those by Milton and Dryden, which Handel ever had the good fortune to obtain. There are a dozen pieces from Mr. Miller's pen enumerated in the Biographia Dramatica, where the date of Joseph is set down as 1744; but I have never yet seen a copy with that date. JULIAN MARSHALL.

The Illustrated London News of August 26, 1843, has what seems to be a lifelike portrait of Washington Irving, but does not say whence it is taken. Irving is described, in the accompanying notice, as "in person, of middle height; his features have a pleasing regularity, and are lit up at every corner with that delightful humour which flows in a rich vein throughout his writings." E. H. M.

CLOCKMAKERS: JOHN MITCHELL (6th S. iv. 189, 370): RICHARD ROOKAR (6th S. iv. 370). — The following notes may be of service to your correspondent:-

"John Mitchell, formerly apprentice of John Earles, was admitted and sworn a Free Clockmaker, 1 June, 1713."

"Richard Rooker, Apprenticed to Thomas Wilson for John Clowes, 18 January, 1685, admitted and sworn a free Clockmaker, 2nd April, 1694." H. C. OVERALL.

POLL BOOKS (6th S. iv. 208, 433, 477).—Will MR. BIRD and MR. SHAW be so kind as to give the full particulars (county or borough, candidates, dates of election, place and year of publication) of the poll books alluded to by them for Herts 1727, Cambridgeshire 1705, Suffolk 1702, and all those of Northamptonshire from 1669, Shropshire 1713, and other counties to present time? This information would help towards the formation of a list of those printed-a most desirable object for the genealogist. CHARLES MASON.

3, Gloucester Crescent, Hyde Park, W.

THEATRES LIGHTED WITH GAS (6th S. iv. 367). -The Lyceum Theatre was lighted with gas as an experiment by Mr. Winsor, 1803. See Haydn's Dictionary of Dates. FREDK. RULE.

MORRIS DANCERS (6th S. iv. 349) were common at Cheltenham in my young days; indeed I formed one of a company myself when a lad, some forty years ago. The dancers at that time, and for many years afterwards, appeared as regularly in the streets at Whitsuntide as Jack-in-the-green on May Day. Whether the custom continues or not I cannot say, for I left Gloucestershire a quarter of a century since. I may add that sword dancers, very much like the Gloucestershire morris dancers in dress and performances, are common at Christmas time throughout Northumberland.

W. E. ADAMS.

way in which a flood of light and thought is let in unexpectedly now and again by quotations from the books of the older Covenant. Of course no commentary will ever be accepted in all its comments, and it may well be that many a reader will question Mr. Blunt's frequent liturgical interpretation of St. Paul's use of the words EvXapioria and exaptor, or his suggestion with regard to the "lights" in Acts xx. 8; or, to mention one instance from the Old Testament. his allegorical exposition of the "strange woman "in Prov. v., &c. But such differences from common opinion are in themselves suggestive and interesting. We note that Mr. Blunt's present and only preferment in the Church is one that he holds from the Crown by the gift of Mr. Gladstone. It seems strange that the author of this commentary, and of that book of universal use and accepted authority, the Anno tated Prayer Book, and the editor of the valuable dictionaries of theology and of sects, &c. (to mention only the best known amidst a host of publications), has received not even the distinction of an honorary canonry from ecclesiastical rulers, nor an honorary degree in that science of theology which is his special study from the University of Durham, which numbers him amongst its most distinguished alumni. We should add that the publishers have done everything, in regard to goodness of paper and binding and clearness of type, and in general arrangement, to make this book easy and pleasant to use, and worthy in its appearance of the house from

which it is issued.

Le Public et les Hommes de Lettres en Angleterre au Dixhuitième Siècle: Dryden, Addison, Pope. Par Alexandre Beljame. (Hachette & Co.) FOREIGN, and especially French, criticism on English literature is always interesting. The scope of M. Beljame's work does not permit him to display that critical power which is the birthright of his fellow countrymen, but he shows the vivacity of style, the unconventionality of treatment, and the gift of generalization which are equally national characteristics. His book is a history of the growth of a reading public. A man of letters is, from his standpoint, not a literary amateur, but a professional writer-one who follows literature for profit rather than pleasure, who does not live to write, but writes to live, and who gains not merely a bare subsistence in the neglect of a garret, but a competence and fame. Such a man of letters cannot exist without a reading public, wide and miscellaneous, who buy and read his books and are honoured with his acquaintance. M. Beljame examines the growth of such a public, which is as different from the literary coteries of fashionable society as it is from the patronage of literary Mæcenases, and examines the influence of its absence and its presence on authors and on literature. He illustrates his meaning by the career of Dryden, who "profaned the God-given strength and marred the lofty line" because no such public existed, and because "a ribald king and court...... bade him toil on to make them sport." In Dryden's day authors depended on the theatres and dedications; they were "forc'd, for alms, to each great name to bow their subsistence was precarious, and scruples expensive; and they lived lives alternating between garrets and palaces, feasts and starvation, debauchery and penitence. From this degraded dependence literature was raised by its connexion with politics; and in Addison's time literary men assumed the less disreputable part of political mercenaries wielding their pens for hire. Pope was the first writer who could despise the favour of the court and live without the pay of statesmen, and whose literary eminence made him the equal of his superiors, because he was the first author who could depend on a reading public. Such is a brief summary of M. Beljame's book,

which shows throughout a wide acquaintance with the literature of the period. To it is appended a bibliography of the books he has consulted, occupying more than eighty pages. which is a proof of his industry and a useful contribution to literary history. Yet in spite of its merits we cannot recommend M. Beljame's work in its present form to English readers. The statements in the text respecting the coarseness and licentiousness of writers of the close of the seventeenth century would have been accepted without the extracts of the worst passages placed in the notes for their support. The voluminous notes are, in fact, a chamber of horrors filled with literary monstrosities.

That's

Errors in the Use of English. By the late William B. Hodgson, LL.D., Fellow of the College of Preceptors and Professor of Political Economy in the University of Edinburgh. (Edinburgh, Douglas.) THE late Dr. Hodgson used to tell a story which had a moral applicable to himself. It seems that a certain pamphleteer caused an admiring friend no little trouble by his fragmentary method of publishing his thoughts, inasmuch as these pamphlets were difficult to collect and easy of loss. But upon receiving news of the author's death the bibliophile was heard to exclaim, good; I can bind him up at last!" Prof. Hodgson was such an omnivorous reader and such a diligent notetaker that he never found time to publish books worthy of him, and only his more intimate friends have, so to speak, bound him up. by carefully accumulating the numerous pamphlets in which he too much frittered away his ripe scholarship and vigorous intellect. We understand that Prof. Meiklejohn, of St. Andrews, is engaged on a biography of the late economist, and probably a selection from his lectures will also appear before long. At present, however, we are given an entertaining indication of Dr. Hodgson's vast reading and his accurate habits of thinking in the book before us, which is so instructive that there is no one in the habit of using his pen who will not find his style purified by the reading of it. It is thoroughly amusing, moreover, and only lacks one important characteristic desirable for such a workcompleteness. It is a mere pot pourri. Its list of spurious words in general use does not even contain such common examples as "locate," " presently," and "residenter"; and its notices of errors in accidence and in syntax are equally defective. But the volume can scarcely be looked upon as professing to be complete as a handbook; it is, at any rate, unique and altogether good, so far as it goes.

It must have struck every one acquainted with our classics that there is no great writer, however much of a purist he may be, whom the reader cannot detect in the use of slipshod or positively ungrammatical expressions. A schoolboy can easily flout at Scott's wondrous misrelated participles, and even the style of a Landor can be found in the wrong occasionally. But most readers will be astonished to discover in this interesting collection such an array of serious errors in the use of their mother tongue made by the chief writers in our literature. It is curious that one of the three editorial sentences appended to Dr. Hodgson's preface is inaccurate to degree that would certainly have claimed alteration from his hand; and even the wording of the title-page, quoted at the head of this notice, would be the better of formerly" before the word "Fellow." So strict would Dr. Hodgson have us to be.

Englische Handelspolitik gegen Ende des Mittelalters. Von Georg Schanz. 2 vols. (Leipzig, Duncker und Humblot.)

DR. SCHANZ's elaborate work treats of a subject which had been already sketched in outline in Ochenkowski's