Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/85

 0*8. XL JAN. 24, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

77

list (latest edition), 'Guide to the Principal Classes of Documents preserved in the Kecord Office.' JOHN A. RANDOLPH.

PRONUNCIATION OF "NG" (9 th S. x. 266, 393, 494). By evidence from this side of the Atlantic I can confirm MR. ELWORTHY'S statement concerning the pronunciation of ng as ngg in expressions like " ring the bell." In this country, however, the sound ngg in monosyllables is more likely to be heard before a word that begins with a vowel ; for example "as longg as possible," "as strongg as he." This pronunciation follows the principle involved in the retention, men- tioned by PROF. SKEAT, of the original sound ngg in long, strong, and young before the comparative and superlative endings.

CHARLES BUNDY WILSON.

The State University of Iowa.

How is the name Singer, of sewing machine fame, pronounced ? I have several times heard people who would have described a mere singing man in the usual and accepted manner pronounce it as though it contained a double g. JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

ARMIGEROUS FAMILIES (9 th S. x. 509 ; xi. 11). If your correspondent has "evidence from seals, monuments, and funeral certifi- cates " that members of a still existing family " have used the same arms since the time of Edward III." he may confidently write that family down " armigerous." It would be difficult to imagine evidence more conclusive as to the right to bear arms. Had his evidence been less satisfactory he would have had to prove the male descent of the existing family from some person whom he could also prove to have borne arms by lawful title. This proof would have rested on such documents as wills, parish registers, marriage certificates, tombstone inscriptions, subsidy rolls, &c. Visitations and " recorded " pedigrees at the Heralds' College are of less authority to the scientific genealogist, but of use for the purposes of a new grant or con- firmation of arms.

JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.

Town Hall, Cardiff.

' HYMNS ANCIENT AND MODERN ' (9 th S. viii. 101, 230, 388 ; ix. 36 ; x. 432, 512). The latest issue of ' Hymns Ancient and Modern,' con- taining all the supplemental hymns from 474 to 638, is named on the title-page " complete edition." It is merely a trade term, adopted for the convenience of booksellers.

A hymn-book contains matter primarily intended for singing, not for reading. It is

not the place to look for textual criticism or iterary nistory. It would be idle to print what would not or could not be sung. This '.s why some words are altered and some verses omitted. What congregation could go on singing "When ray eye-strings crack in death," or could bear all the twenty-six stanzas of "Jerusalem, my happy home'"? [t is a practical question which all hymn- 30ok compilers have answered in the same way. Even Roundell Palmer, who in his Book of Praise ' is severe on textual tamper- ing, feels himself justified in omitting many whole stanzas. W. C. B.

PRODIGAL SON AS SIR CHARLES GRANDISON (9 th S. x. 487). Probably the engravings are after Murillo, one of whose series was ex- bibited at the Guildhall last year. I possess a picture by the same artist in his same manner subject, the flight of Paris and Helen by torchlight. In the upper corner, right hand, sits Juno in her chariot ; lower corner, left hand, a strong light falls on the bald head and shoulders of an oarsman in a boat. In the distance are two vessels under sail. The picture is from a nobleman's collection. I should be glad to purchase an engraving of it, or to know the name of the engraver, date, and entire legend, and have a description of the arms on it.

Can any reader furnish the name of the artist, living early in the eighteenth century, who signed his pictures P. C. F. A. ?

L. E. DAVIES.

43, St. George's Avenue, Tufnell Park, N.

See 8 th S. xii. 385, 453 ; 9 th S. i. 136, 195. JOHN T. PAGE.

ELL FAMILY (9 th S. x. 487). Some few years ago, when staying at Dunster, in West Somerset, Ijourneyed out late one night with a friend suffering much from toothache. ^ My friend pulled wildly at a door-bell believed to be that of the local doctor. A window was opened, and when our trouble had been explained it was shut again, with these words, " You must go to Ell." Mr. Ell, we heard afterwards, was the dentist.

J. G. HAWKINS.

According to Maitland (' History of Lon- don,' book viii. p. 1355), a tomb on the north side of Stepney Churchyard contained this inscription :

" Here lieth the Body of Susanna Ell, the Wife of Richard Ell, who departed this Life the 17th of May, 1643, aged 36 Years. Who had Issue by Richard Ell, two Sons, first Richard, the other not christened, and three Daughters, Abigal, Sarah, and Hannah." (Then follows a rhyming epitaph of thirteen lines.)

When copying the heraldry and inscriptions