Jan. 8. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



39 



dalen Rachel de la Bruyere, married an officer of 

 the name of Shrom, and died in 1780, at Morden 

 in Surrey, where there is a handsome monument 

 to her memory. Being one of her descendants in 

 the female line, I should feel much obliged by any 

 information respecting her father, the son of Jean 

 de la Bruyere ; or tending to connect that writer 

 with the family founded by Thibault de la Bruyere, 

 the Crusader. Ursula. 



Sir John Davys or Davies. — I am very anxious 

 to get any information that can be procured about 

 Sir John Davys or Davies, Knight Marshal of 

 Connaught, temp. Elizabeth. What were his arms ? 

 Any portions of his pedigree would be most de- 

 sirable ; also any notices of the various grants of 

 land given by him, particularly to members of his 

 own family. I would also give any reasonable price 

 for John Davies' Display of Heraldry of six Coun- 

 ties of North Wales, published 1716 : or, if any 

 of the readers of " N. & Q." have the book, and 

 would favour me with a loan of it, I would return 

 it carefully as soon as I had made some extracts 

 from it. Seivad. 



Fleshier of Otley. — "What are the arms of 

 Fleshier of Otley, Yorkshire ? They existed, not 

 many years ago, in a window of a house built by 

 one of the above-named family, in Otley. 



B. M. A. 



Bingley, Yorkshire. 



Letters U, V, W. — Could any correspondent of 

 the " N. & Q." give us any clear idea of the man- 

 ner in which we ought to judge of those letters as 

 they are printed from old MSS. or in old books. 

 Is there any rule known by which their pronunci- 

 ation can be determined ? For instance, how was 

 the name of Wales supposed to have been pro- 

 nounced four hundred years ago, or the name 

 Walter ? How could two such different sounds as 

 U and V now represent, come by the old printers 

 both to be denoted by V? And is it supposed 

 that our present mode of pronouncing some words 

 is taken from their spelling in books ? We see 

 this done in foreign names every day by persons 

 who have no means of ascertaining the correct 

 pronunciation. Can it have been done exten- 

 sively in the ordinary words of the language. Or 

 can it be possible, that the confusion between the 

 printed V and W and U has produced the con- 

 fusion in pronouncing such words now beginning 

 with W, which some classes of her Majesty's sub- 

 jects are said to pronounce as if they commenced 

 with V? I ask for information : and to know if 

 the^ question has anywhere been discussed, in 

 which case perhaps some one can refer me to it. 



A. F. H. 



Heraldic Query. — I should be greatly indebted 

 to any of your correspondents who will assist me 



in tracing the family to which the following arms 

 belong. Last century they were borne by a gen- 

 tleman of the name of Oakes : but I find no grant 

 in the college, nor, in fact, can I discover any 

 British arms like them. Argent, a pale per pale 

 or, and gules : between two limbs of an oak 

 frncted proper. On a chief barry of six of the 

 second and third ; a rose between two leopards 

 faces all of the last. C. Mansfield Inglebt. 



^^Drengage" and '•'^ Berewich." — In Domesday 

 certain tenants are described as drenches or drengs, 

 holding by drengage ; and some distinction is made 

 between the drengs and another class of tenants, 

 who are named berewites ; as, for instance, in 

 Newstone, — 



" Huj' rf) alia t'ra xv hoes quos Drenchs vocabant 

 pro XV fn tenet sed huj' m berewich erant." 



I shall be glad if any information as to these 

 tenures, and also as to the derivation of the words 

 " drengage " and " berewich," or berewite, both 

 of which may be traced, I believe, to a Danish 

 origin. James Ceosby. 



Streatham. 



Sidney as a Female Name. — In several families 

 of our city the Christian name of Sidney is borne 

 by females, and it is derived, directly or indirectly, 

 from a traceable source. 



The object of the present inquiry is to ascertain 

 whether the same name, and thias spelled, is simi- 

 larly applied in any families of Great Britain ? If 

 at all, it should be found in the north of Ireland. 

 But your correspondent would be pleased to 

 learn, from any quarter, of such use of the name, 

 together with the tradition of the reason for its 

 adoption. R- D. B. 



Baltimore. 



" The Brazen Head."— Will any reader of " N. 

 & Q." be good enough to inform the undersigned 

 where he can obtain, by purchase or by loan, the 

 perusal of any part or parts of the above-men- 

 tioned work ? It was published as a serial in 1828 

 or 1829. A. F. A. W- 



Swillington. 



Portrait of Baron Lechmere. — Can any of your 

 correspondents inform me if there is any engraved 

 portrait in existence of the celebrated Whig, Lord 

 Lechmere, Baron of Evesham, who died at Camden 

 House, London, in the year 1727, and lies buried 

 in the church of Hanley Castle, near Upton-on- 

 Severn, co. Worcester ? 



While on the subject of portraits, some of your 

 correspondents may be glad to learn that an ex- 

 cellent catalogue of engraved portraits is now pass- 

 ing through the press, by Messrs. Evans and Sons, 

 Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, of 

 which forty-six numbers are issued. 



J. B. Whitbobne. 



