Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/596

 492

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XIL DEC. is, im

The fragments sold by Messrs. Hodgson in 1902 are also part of a 1774 edition perhaps some of the " Additions li or " More Additions. " ALECK ABBAHAMS.

Where may a copy of '^Edes Walpolianae, being a Description of the Collection oi Pictures at Hough ton Hall, 1767,* by Horace Walpole, be seen ? Is there a copy in either the British Museum Library or the London Library ? CURIOUS.

DR. LAURENCE WOMACK (10 S. xii. 387). He obtains nearly three columns in ' D.N.B.,* Ixii. 346, wherein twelve of his writings are set out, and twenty- three lines of small type are occupied by a list of authorities. The following may be added to the catalogue of his publications :

Sober Sadnes Observations upon the Pro- ceedings of a prevailing party with the

Resolution of true Protestants of the Church of

England. 4to, pp. 47, 1643.

Conformity Re-asserted, in an echo to R. S. 4to, 1664.

Moses and Aaron, the King and the Priest. 4to, 1675.

Verdict upon the Dissenters' Plea. 8vo, 1681.

W. C. B.

Dr. Laurence Womack's curious cognomen appears to have been evolved from the per- sonal name of Wymarch, which occurs in Domesday Book. See Dr. Hook's ' Eccle- siastical Biog.,' 1852, vol. viii. p. 815, where the name is spelt, as in Rose's ' Biog. Diet., 1 " Lawrence Womock.'*

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

I give herewith an exact transcription of the inscription on the tombstone in St. Margaret's, Westminster. It is as follows :

" Hie juxta | Reconditur quod mortale fuit Rev d in X to | Patris Laur : Womack Episc. Menevensis I qui post multorum annoram operam Ecclesise | Anglic : egregie navatum infulam cum Coron& I immortalitatis Commutavit Mart. 12 setat 73 I Necnon filiae suse unicse Annae, quse 3 Octob : priced, ad animarum Virginum Consortium (quovis Conjugio praestantius) 19 Annorum Virgo nine avocata est."

Walcott, in his ' Memorials of Westminster,* 1849, p. 146, gives the arms on this tablet which he states to be " against the south- west pier of the nave " as " Party per pale : 1, Arms of the See of St. David's ; 2, Argent ; a lion rampant gules. ?s He also gives some account of Womack's preferments, and a slight biographical sketch. In the same author's ' History of St. Margaret's Church, 4 1847, there is nothing worth noting.

The monument was photographed, I believe, last year. If I succeed, as I think I shall, in tracing this matter, I will com- municate further.

W. E. HARLAND-OXLEY.

Westminster.

[We regret that death has prevented the fulfil- ment of this promise. See ante, p. 480.]

H ASPIRATE IN FAMOUS ENGLISH WRITERS (10 S. xii. 403). It ought to have been noticed that Hume's reproof is most un- happily expressed. When he says, " Do you not know that n is added before vowels to prevent the cacophony ? n he should have said " retained, " not " added." Nothing whatever has been " added. 1 * The n in " an " is dropped before consonants and before an aspirated h for the sake of brevity, and to lighten utterance. There was a time when it never was dropped at all. N was retained, for example, before pr as late as 1300. The earlier text of Layamon's ' Brut z begins with the words " An preost," for which we now say " a priest.' 1 Otherwise, why was an n added rather than an ra or an x ? WALTER W. SKEAT.

Surely the use of "an " before such words as "house,' 1 " humble, n &c., does not necessarily mean that the h is not to be sounded. Personally I should always write " an n before words beginning with h in which the first syllable is not accented, and so, I fancy, would many people ; in- deed, I gather from the * N.E.D.* that it is the commoner practice. Certainly " an historian " seems to me more euphonious than " a historian, " though the h is sounded in both cases. C. C. B.

With regard to MR. CURRY'S concluding paragraph, time has, I think, wrought a change in the aspiration of " hospital," in which h was formerly very frequently dropped ; that is, by people who could not possibly drop the letter in " host n or sound it in " honest." H. P. L.

WORDS AND PHRASES IN OLD AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS (10 S. xii. 107, 270, 370). MR. MATTHEWS says at the last reference : " It is pretty safe to assume that such a use of the word [i.e., " franklin J ' for "godwit"] is unknown in this country " (i.e., the wide United States). I do not, however, think it can be safe to assume this, for when I read a short time ago, in ex -President Roosevelt's account of his sporting adven- tures in Africa, that he had shot a franklin, he can hardly have meant that he brought down a biplane fitted with a " franklin n