Page:Notes and Queries - Series 6 - Volume 6.djvu/209

6 S. VI. 9, ’82.] books printed by Badius Ascensius in 1498 could definitely settle the question; or perhaps Mr. Blades has investigated the question, and would explain the cause of disagreement in dates.

—In Fox’s History of Pontefract a list is given of the seneschals and constables of Pontefract which appears to be very imperfect. As many of the deeds connected with places in the Laci fee are witnessed by the seneschal for the time being of Pontefract it is desirable to make the list as complete as possible. The names given by Fox are:—

This name closes the list of the officers who acted under the Lacies. I have, however, notes of the following:—

Fox makes frequent mention of the Coucher book of Pontefract. I shall be glad to know whether this book is still in existence.

—What is the best pronunciation of the diphthong in these words? As ee, which was once usual, or as i, German ei, which one generally hears nowadays? The words containing ei are few. In one only, I think, has it the long i sound—height, which has followed high. In some it is sounded as ai, or French é—weight, feint, feign, heir, seine, vein. Inveigh, inveigle, are pronounced in the same way, but I fancy our grandfathers said inveegle, &c. In other words, ei has the sound of a weak e—foreign, forfeit, surfeit, heifer; and this, I find, is the pronunciation of either and neither given in Boyer’s French and English Dictionary (1729). Leisure varies between the long and short e. The long e sound prevails in receive, deceive, seize, weir; and in proper names, Reid, Veitch, Leigh, &c. It would appear that the German ei does not belong to the English language, and should not be imported into either and neither. C.

—Is this Japanese game excessively old in that country, and is it known 1,500 years back or more in China or any other part of the East? If not, how old is this game?

—Has the exact locality of the press set up by Caxton at Westminster been finally decided? I find three different spots assigned: the almonry, the scriptorium, and “an old chapel near the entrance of the church.”

—Mr. James Payn thus spells the word in his novel Kit, in the Graphic, August 26; and in the previous week the Rev. H. R. Haweis had written the word in the same way in an article in the Echo. I imagine this to be the correct form; nevertheless I will ask the question, Is it the correct form? During the last twelve months I have been at the trouble to note the various ways in which this word has appeared in print, and they are as follows: waggonet, wagonnett, wagonett, wagonette, waggonnette, and waggonnett. Auctioneers seem to be terribly puzzled over the spelling of this word.

—I wish to know the date of publication, in any country, of the last book written in Latin by a modern author, i.e., the exact period when learned men ceased to employ Latin as the language universally understood by their foreign compeers. H. S. A.

—Who was the Quaker mentioned in a book called Quakerism; or, the Story of My Life, published at Dublin in 1851, and there called Friend Stately of Mildred’s Court? In a criticism on this book by “A Quaker, and glad of it,” it is stated that his funeral sermon was preached by a bishop, and that he was the first Quaker who received that honour. In the same book a story of George IV. going into a Quaker women’s meeting is mentioned. I should be glad to have a reference to where an account of this incident is to be found. A. C. B.

—I have seen in an extract from the preface to George Herbert’s Temple, by J. H. Shorthouse, this reference: “The famous speech of Luther’s wife, that, somehow, they did not pray as they did in old times.” Where is the authority for this to be seen?

—In 1875 a rumour pervaded the United States of America to the effect that this extraordinary chess genius, who had become