298 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 204. 



immediately^ to remaine in the chamber, or to come 

 there again, until further order." 



The alms-basket was also called a maund, and 

 those who partook of its contents maunders. 



W. Chaffebs. 

 Old Bond Street. 



THE LETTER 



IN HUMBLE. 



(Vol. viii., p. 229.) 



The recent attempt to introduce a mispronun- 

 ciation of the word humble should be resisted by 

 every one who has learned the plain and simple 

 rule of grammar, that " a becomes an before a 

 vowel or a silent h." That the rule obtained a 

 considerable time ago, we have only to look into 

 the Book of Common Prayer to prove, where the 

 congregation are exhorted to come " with an 

 humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart," and 

 I believe it will be admitted that the compilers of 

 that work fully understood the right pronunciation. 



It may assist to settle the question by giving 

 the etymology of the word humble. It is derived 

 from the Celtic ui7n, the ground, Latin humus. 

 Umal in Celtic is humble, lowly, obedient; and 

 the word signifies the bending of the mind or dis- 

 position, just as a man would kneel or become 

 prostrate before a superior. Fras. Crossley. 



In the course of a somewhat long life I have 

 resided in the North of England, in the West, and 

 in London, upwards of twenty years each, and my 

 experience is directly the reverse of that of Mb. 

 Dawson. I have very rarely heard the h omitted 

 in humble, and when I have heard it, always con- 

 sidered a vulgarity. The u at the beginning of a 

 word is always aspirated. I believe the only 

 words in which the initial h is not pronounced are 

 derived from the Latin. If that were the general 

 rule, which, however, it is not, as in habit, herb, 

 &c., still, where h precedes u, it would be pro- 

 nounced according to the universal rule for the 

 aspiration of m. E. H. 



The letter " h " to be passed unsounded in those 

 words which are of Latin origin. — Try it : 



" Ha ! 'tis a horrible hallucination 

 To grudge our hymns their halcyon harmonies. 

 When in just homage our rapt voices rise 

 To celebrate our heroes in meet fashion ; 

 Whose hosts each heritage and habitation, 

 Within these realms of hospitable joy. 

 Protect securely 'gainst humiliation, 

 When hostile foes, like harpies, would annoy. 

 Habituated to the sound of h 

 In history and histrionic art, 

 We deem the man a homicide of speech. 

 Maiming humanity in a vital part, \ 

 Whose humorous hilarity would treat us. 

 In lieu of A, with a supposed hiatus." 



SCHOOL libraries. 



(Vol. viii., p. 220.) 



I have great pleasure in removing from the 

 mind of your correspondent an erroneous im- 

 pression which must materially affect his good 

 opinion of a school to which I am sincerely at- 

 tached. He asks if in any of the public schools 

 there are libraries of books giving general inform- 

 ation accessible to the scholars. Now my in- 

 formation only refers to one, that of Eton. There 

 is a library at Eton Consisting of some thousand 

 volumes, filled with books of all kinds, ancient and 

 modern, valuable and valueless. It is open to the 

 150 first in the school on payment of eighteen 

 shillings per annum, and on their refusal the 

 option of becoming subscribers descends to the 

 next in gradation. The list, however, is never 

 full. The money collected goes to the support 

 of a librarian, and to buy pens, ink, and paper, 

 and the surplus (necessarily small) to the purchase 

 of books. The basis of the library is the set of 

 Delphin classics, presented by George I. The 

 late head master (now provost) has been a most 

 munificent contributor; Prince Albert has also 

 presented several valuable volumes. Whenever 

 the Prince has Come to Eton he has always visited 

 the library, and taken great interest in its welfare ; 

 and on his last visit said to the provost that he 

 should be quite ready and willing to obey the call 

 whenever he was asked to lay the first stone of a 

 museum in connexion with the library. 



Etonbnsis. 



The free grammar school at Macclesfield, 

 Cheshire, has always had a library. It did contain 

 some rare volumes of the olden time ; it was at 

 various times more or less supported by a small 

 payment from the scholars. Some years since 

 Mr. Osborn, the then head master, solicited sub- 

 scriptions from former pupils, and with some 

 success. Of the present state of the school li- 

 brary I know nothing. Edward Hawkins. 



At Winchester there are libraries for the com- 

 moners and scholars containing books for general 

 reading : they are under the several charge of the 

 commoner-prefects and the prefect of library, who 

 lend them on application to the juniors. 



Mackenzie Walcott, M.A. 



Christ's Hospital has a library such as inquired 

 after by Mr. Weld Taylor. The late Mr. 

 Thackeray, of the Priory, Lewlsham (who died 

 about two years ago), bequeathed to this school 

 his valuable library of books on general literature 

 for the use of the boys. Previously to this be- 

 quest the collection of books was small. N. 



