Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/37

 xii. JULY ii, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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of the railway. I think it was published in one of the leading quarterly magazines. It ended by enumerating the terrible effects which would be produced on life and pro- perty if railways were permitted to be made, but came to the conclusion that the public need have no fear, as the very weight of the monster, referring to the engine, would pre- vent its moving. I should be glad if any correspondent of ' N. & Q.' could inform me where this article is to be found.

HELLIER R. H. GOSSELIN-GEIMSHAWE. Errwood Hall, Buxton.

"CRYING DOWN CREDIT." The following cutting is from a local newspaper of 31 March. Will some reader kindly explain what is this proclamation "crying down the credit" of the battalion 1

" The 2nd York and Lancaster Regiment, which has just come home from India after nineteen years' foreign service, has during the past few days re- vived the ancient custom of ' crying down credit.' The fife and drum band, headed by the drum-major, marched through Dover, and taking up their stand in the Market Square played until a large crowd assembled, when the drum-major read in a loud voice a proclamation 'crying down the credit' of the battalion. The proceedings terminated with the National Anthem."

RICHARD LAWSON. Urmston.

[See 8* S. v. 506 ; vi. 76 ; vii. 331.]

" ACCON." In a letter from "Suratt," dated 25 October, 1630 ('Selections from Letters, &c., in the Bombay Secretariat,' Home Series, ed. by G. W. Forrest, 1887, i. 11), I find the following :

"In w ch intrim the Vice Kings sonne was con- vayed aboard but soe narrowly escaped that the party who provided for his safety was himselfe taken prisoner in the accon"

I do not find accon in the * N.E.D.'; but Smyth, 'Sailor's Word-book,' gives, "Aeon, a flat-bottomed Mediterranean boat or lump, for carrying cargoes over shoals." Is this the same word, and what is its origin ?

EMERITUS.

SHAKESPEARE'S RELIGION. An anonymous correspondent writes :

"Not long ago one of the Montreal papers contained some correspondence on this subject, but no allusion was made to certain documents which, it is said, were lately discovered in the Vatican Archives bearing on the subject of the great dramatist's religion. The first and the only time the writer saw the interesting documents mentioned was last year in an article on Shake- speare in the Italian magazine La Letteratura, pub- lished in connexion with the Corriere della Sera. In treating of Shakespeare's religion the Italian magazine said that that long-disputed question was once for all settled by the late discovery in the

Vatican Archives of documents conclusively proving the immortal dramatist to have lived and died a Catholic."

Is there anything in this ? W. F. P. S. [See 6 th S. x. 334 ; xi. 72J

U AND V : VV : DOUBLE-!!. It has long been customary to print v where of old u was written. Has not this led sometimes to the fixing of a factitious pronunciation ? In proper names (as in the name of the letter w) the sound has survived the literary varia- tion. York was anciently Euorac, which later appears as Evorac or Eborac. Howden, i.e., Houeden, became Hoveden. I apprehend that "York" and "Howden" were never pronounced much otherwise than as at pre- sent. But take such a word, e.g., as laverock. Here the v, I believe, always has its modern sound. Would not this originally be lauerock, i.e., lark 1 As one without knowledge I write for information. W.

WILLIAM BLYTHE'S DESCENDANTS. I am desirous of information respecting the de- scendantsof William Bly the,of Norton, Derby- shire, the father of the bishops of Lichfield and Salisbury, and of the marriages, par- ticularly of that branch of the family re- maining resident at Norton. I shall be glad to learn where such knowledge may be obtained. JOSEPH KODGERS.

St. Hilda's, Whitby.

INFANT SAVIOUR AT THE BREAST. In the cathedral of St. Nicholas, Newcastle-on-Tyne, there is a -precious little scrap of mediaeval glass representing the Blessed Virgin, half- figure, with the child Christ at the breast. Has any list ever been made of examples of the same treatment of this subject, either on glass or otherwise ? I know of the examples by Italian masters in our National Gallery. CHARLES SWYNNERTON.

KING, BANKER. Can any reader of 'N.& Q.' kindly tell where I should be likely to find a notice of William King, of London, a banker, stated to have had a daughter Sarah, born 1714, who married the Rev. Thomas Baldwin, vicar of Leyland, Lancashire 1 ?

(Miss) MARY DRYDEN.

275, Upper Richmond Road, S.W.

EARLIEST ENGLISH NEWSPAPER. Can any one inform me where I can see the Weekly Neives dated 2 August, 1622, published by Nathaniel Butter? In modern works upon this subject some difference of opinion seems to exist as to which pamphlet may rightly be termed the first English newspaper. If it is a sine qua non that it should be the first of