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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. n. SEPT. s, 1901.

The copy in my hands has the book-plate (with his arms) of "Richard Henry Roun- -dell," together with his autograph in full in a fine, clear, flowing hand. I learn from Burke's ' Landed Gentry,' 1900 (p. 1370), that this gentleman was descended from a very old Yorkshire family. He was born on 14 December, 1776, and died unmarried on 26 August, 1851. In 1835 he filled the posi- tion of High Sheriff of the county of York, .and at the same time was a J.P. and D.L. He succeeded his father in the occupancy of the family estate of Gladstone, co. York ; and .as he died unmarried his next brother entered into possession. My copy of the book is really a fine one, bound in full tree-calf, elaborately tooled. It is accompanied by an excellent engraved frontispiece (no engraver's name given) representing the incident of "The Author revenges the Death of his Indian Wife by killing Two of the Three Indians that attack'd them." A. S.

PENNY A YEAR RENT. In the Daily Mail of Saturday, 16 April, there appeared the following paragraph, which seems worth preservation. It states that "Mr. Thomas Andrews, a builder, who claimed
 * 3,465. from the London School Board in respect

to some houses in New Road, Hampstead, was yesterday awarded 9251. by a special jury in the London Sheriff's Court. It was stated that the premises, now let put in tenements, were at one time part of the ancient manor house at Hampstead. In March, 1898, Mr. Andrews bought the tenements, which were at the time condemned by the London County Council, for 2001. , and practically rebuilt them at a cost of 90W. He said that he paid the lord of the manor a rental of \d. a year, and was -entitled to two free lunches as a tenant."

The matter here mentioned may be of some use to future writers on Hampstead topo- graphy. W. E. HARLAND-OXLEY. Westminster.

Y. In 'Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford,' there is much to disturb convictions not restless heretofore. The English spellings, we are assured, have been revised by Dr. J. A. H. Murray, and lo ! he gives countenance to tyro. If there was one thing that the Saturday fieview, in its day of power, insisted on and were there not many ? it was that -everybody who knew anything ought to write tiro; and did not Dr. W. W. Skeat .assert, in his 'Etymological Dictionary of the English Language' (1882), that the word was "Always grossly misspelt tyro "1 Is it possible that these doctors disagree? or has the Cambridge professor changed his mind]

The following note, which I cut from the Pall Mall Gazette of 16 July, is relevant to my subject, though the writer of it is not in accordance with the ruling of the chief editor of the' H.E.D.':-

" WHY? It is a hasty and ill-advised saying that it is foolish to disagree with the wise. It all depends upon how you spell them. And all except an ignoramus will disagree very thoroughly with the offensive and obtrusive ?/'s which are always forcing their uncalled-for and unjustifiable presence upon us. You cannot pass a hostelry or enter a restaurant (note the nice discrimination shown in the choice of verbs) without seeing an advertise- ment of cyder, always spelt with a y, which, of course, has no right whatever there. It is no excuse for an erudite publican, if there be one, to tell us that old Wycliffe spelt the word * sydyr,' for Wycliffe and his contemporaries could not, in the modern schoolboy's phrase, spell for toffee; but it seems that even journalists mis-spell, for on taking up an evening paper the other night it was, I admit, a halfpenny one I came across the following abominations in one issue: 'Cyder,' 'cypher,' 'Sydney' (as a Christian name), and 'Sybil.' For the reversal of the vowels in this latter name it is to be feared Disraeli is largely responsible, for it was thus he inis-spelt the title of his celebrated novel, and it is said he always refused to alter the spelling. * Tyro ' is how the literary one generally and incorrectly spells himself, and many a lady novelist introduces us to a * syren.' Last, and most amazing of all, the erudite Daily Chronicle writes of Mr. Chamberlain's 'sphynx like expression of imperturbability.' After that a deluge of ?/'s may be expected, and we shall know why. M. S."

ST. SWITHIN.

"FAY CE QUE VOULDRAS.'' The following couplet appears in "Monumenta Sepulcralia et Inscriptiones Publicse Privatseque Ducatus Brabantise. Franciscus Sweertius F. poste- ritati collegit, Antverpise, 1613," p. 290 : Fay tout ce que tu vouldras Avoir faict, quand tu mourras.

It is at the end of the epitaph in memory of Cardot de Bellengues, " cantorum egregius," born at Roan in 1380, died 1470. Its moral differs from the rule of the monks of Thelema, but the first line is almost the same verbally. It is s.v. ' Bruxellensia.'

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

"YMPE." William Wellys, of Faversham, by his will proved 13 May, 1474, in the Arch- deacon's Court at Canterbury, left to his son Simon " a parcel of ground from the stone wall next unto the street, unto a young ympe there growing." The word occurs in ' Piers the Plowman,' meaning a shoot grafted in. ARTHUR HUSSEY.

[See the quotations under 'Imp' in ' N.E.D.']

'TRACES OF HISTORY IN THE NAMES OF PLACES ' It seems hardly fair to criticize a work on place-names dated so far back as