Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/426

 466 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9"s.iv.DEc.2,-99. General Register House, Edinburgh, where they may TO examined, and where MR. EVANS LEWIN will probably find the in- formation sought for. J. G. WALLACE-JAMES, M.B. Haddington, N.B. THE POULTRY (9th S. iv. 228, 383).—MR. ROBERTS'S long, instructive, and interesting article entitled ' Bookselling in the Poultry,' from A D. 1569 to the latter part of the last century, appeared in the City Press of 16 August, 1890. EVEKARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road. ANGLO-SAXON SPEECH (9th S. iv. 45, 94, 137, 218, 296).—It was not my intention to deny that where the elision of w before the oo sound occurs in dialects remote from Celtic influence it was due to French influence; but, on the other hand, I do hold that where the pronunciation in question is heard in English counties whose inhabitants are in great part of Celtic blood—e.g., Devonshire and Somer- setshire (not to mention Cornwall)—it is more likely to be due to Celtic than to French idiom. The idiosyncrasy exists in the north of Scotland, for example; and surely PROF. SKEAT would not claim that it is there due to Anglo-French influence. Of course not; it is due to the Gaelic speech, to which w is a stranger (as it was at one time to Welsh), and perhaps sporadically to the Norsemen. Compare Icel. and Swed. iill, Dan -Norw. uld, wool ; Scand. ulf, wolf. Most Scotchmen are, I suppose, familiar with tho oft-quoted dialogue between the Highland woman and the cloth dealer, in which 'onl plays so con- spicuous a part. PROP. SKEAT says: "The statement that 'the Welsh w is sounded oo' really reverses the fact, for the reason why this is so is really that the symbol w was chosen to represent the sound of oo." I would ask him whether this principle is not true of all languages, and it he can give instances of a sound being invented for a symbol instead of the symbol being devised for a certain sound. When the Prankish king Hilperic took Gregory of Tours aside and proposed that the Latin language should be enriched by, amongst others, a character to represent the Teutonic w sound, he was only following the ordinary mechanical custom of inventing symbols for sounds, not sounds for symbols. The Professor also states that the phonetic peculiarity under discussion is "common in London." Were he a resident in the mother city I do not think, he would make this asser- ion. I am a dweller in London of some years' standing, and I have never heard it; nor can I meet with anybody to whom this illeged feature of Cockney pronunciation is !amiliar. Does it really exist? Is, or was, English dialect. Ask Hans Breitraann what thinks of Dousterswivel's speech. A correspondent instances the natives of to Monmouth. HY. HARRISON. LONDON CHURCHES (9th S. iv. 349).—Much nteresting information may be gained at irst hand from Stow's 'Survey of London." There are various editions from 1598 down X) 1842. Mine is dated 1618, and contains 'A Catalogue of such Authors of Reverend Antiquitie as doe avouch the matters con- tained in this Booke"—a list of 170 authors and books, which may be of service to T. E. H. The 1842 edition by Thorns is useful by reason of a fair index. Another work of much value for an account of London churches of its period is 'Pietas Londinensis,' by James Paterson, 1714. It is a useful record of clergy, stipends, and ser- vices as then existing. WM. NORMAN. ' The Churches of London, a History and Description of the Ecclesiastical Edifices of the Metropolis,' by my lifelong friend the late Mr. George Godwin, F.S.A. (for nearly forty years the editor of the Builder), who died 27 January, 1888, is probably the best book upon this subject ever written. It was published by C. Tilt, London, 1839. ' A History of the Three Cathedrals dedi- cated to St. Paul in London,' by William Longman, F.S.A., and published by Long- mans, Green & Co., London, 1873, is a good work. ' London Churches of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,' by George H. Birch, F.S.A., and published by B. T. Batsford, 94, High Holborn, 1896, is a large and expen- sively got-up volume. All three are well illustrated, the last mentioned superbly so. HARRY HEMS. Fair Park, Exeter. Newcourt's ' Repertorium' is the standard work for the history. See also Timbs's 'Curiosities of London, Cunningham's'Hand- book,' and suchlike books. J. T. F. Durham. Perhaps the following would be of use to T. E. H.: ' London City Churches destroyed since A.D. 1800 or now Threatened,' by
 * he Cockney dialect as printed by Dickens
 * rustworthy in every respect? One recalls
 * he dreadful hash Scott made of the German-
 * he Cotswolds ; but that district is next door