504 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 212. 



addressed to the innate rewarding powers of 

 nature, animate and inanimate, if the truth be not 

 spoken. This evil may be instantaneous, as sud- 

 den death from a fit, or from a flash of lightning ; 

 the first food taken may choke the false swearer ; 

 or on his way home, a tiger by land, or an alli- 

 gator by water, may seize and devour him. I 

 have known an instance of this occur, which was 

 spoken of by hundreds as a testimony to the truth 

 of the system. Now it is supposed by Budhists 

 that even an unconscious departure from truth 

 may rouse jealous nature to award punishment. 

 In the case of'pregnant women this would involve 

 the unborn offspring in the calamity. Hence 

 women in that condition do not take an oath in 

 Burniah. Ph. 



Rangoon. 



LepeTs RegimeiU (Vol. vii., p. 501.). — J. K. 

 may rest assured that no trace can now be disco- 

 vered of a regiment thus named, which existed in 

 the year 1707. I have searched the lists of cavah-y 

 and infantry regiments at the battle of Almanza, 

 fought April 25th of that year, and do not find 

 this regiment mentioned. May I substitute for 

 " Lepel's " regiment, " Pepper's " regiment ? The 

 colonelcy of that corps, now the 8th Royal Irish 

 Hussars, became vacant by the fall of Brigadier- 

 General Robert Killlgrew at Almanza, and it was 

 immediately conferred on the lieutenant-colonel 

 of the corps, John Pepper, who held it until 

 March 23, 1719. G. L. S, 



Editions of the Prayer Book prior to 1662 

 (Vol. vi., pp. 435. 564. ; Vol. vii. passim). — I 

 have recently met with the following editions, 

 which have not, I think, been yet recorded in 

 your pages : 



1630. folio, London. 



1639. 4to. Barker and Bill. 



1661. 8vo. London, Duporti, Latin. 

 The first and third are in Mr. Darling's Encyc. 

 BibL, see columns 366, 367 ; the second I saw at 

 Mr. Straker's, Adelaide Street, Strand. 



Will some of your readers kindly tell me in 

 what edition of the Prayer Book the " Prayers at 

 the Healing " are last met with ? I have them in 

 a Latin Prayer Book, 12mo. London, 1727.* 



W. Spakkow Simpson. 



Creole (Vol. vii., p. 381. ; Vol. viii., p. 138.), — 

 I have never met with any satisfactory explanation 

 of the origin of this word ; its meaning has under- 

 gone various modifications. At first it was limited 



[* It appears from a note in Pepys's Diary, June 23, 

 1660, that the library of the Duke of Sussex contained 

 four several editions of the Book of Common' Prayer, 

 all printed after the accession of the House of Hanover, 

 and all containing, as an integral part of the service, 

 « The Office for the Healing."— Ed.] 



in its application to the descendants of Europeans 

 born in the colonies. By degrees it came to be 

 extended to all classes of the population of colo- 

 nial descent ; and now it is indiscriminately em- 

 ployed to express things as well as pei-sons, of 

 local origin or growth. We say a Creole negro, as 

 contra-distinguished from a negro born in Africa 

 or elsewhere ; a Creole horse, as contra-distin- 

 guished from an English or an American horse ; 

 and we speak " Creole " when we address the un- 

 educated classes in their native jargon. 



Henry H. Breen. 

 St. Lucia. 



Daughter pronounced "Z)a/i;e/'"( Vol.viii., p. 292.), 

 — This pronunciation is universal in North Corn- 

 wall and North-west Devonshire. J. R. P. 



Richard Geering (Vol. viii., p. 340.). — If 

 Y. S. M. will favour me with the parentage of 

 " Richard Geering, one of the six clerks ia 

 chancery in Ireland," I shall be better able to 

 judge whether he was of the family of Geering, 

 Gearing, or Geai'y, of South Denchworth in the 

 CO. of Berks, of which family I have a pedigree. 

 I can also supply their coat of arms and crest. 

 Any information of the Geerings, ancestors of the 

 said Richard, the chancery clerk, will be acceptable 

 to your occasional correspondent H. C. C. 



If this Richard Geering is related to the Geer- 

 ings of South Denchworth, in Berkshire, I refer 

 Y. S. M. to Clarke's Hundred of Wanting, Parker, 

 Oxford, 1824. 



The Geerings bought the manor of Viscount 

 Cullen. It was formerly in the possession of the 

 Hydes : several of the Geering monuments are in 

 the church. Their arms. Or, on two bars gules 

 six mascles of the field, on a canton sable a 

 leopard's face of the first. The Geerings were 

 long tenants of a part of the estate which they 

 purchased ; they are extinct in the male line. A 

 grandson, John Bockett, Esq. (by the female line), 

 of the last heir, possessed a small farm in the 

 parish which was sold by him some years ago. 

 The manor now belongs to Worcester College, 

 Oxford, who purchased it of Gregory Geering, 

 gent., in 1758. The name is spelt Gearing and 

 Geary in the early registers. 



The books in the small study (mentioned ia 

 "N. & Q." sometime ago) were given by Gregory 

 Geering, Esq., Mr. Ralph Kedden, vicar of 

 Denchworth, and Mr. Edward Brewster, sta- 

 tioner, of London, most of which are attached by 

 long chains to the cases. Julia R. Bockett. 



Southcote Lodge. 



Island (Vol. viii., p. 279.). — H. C. K. is quite 

 right in saying that the s has been inserted in this 

 word : not, however, as he thinks, " to assimilate 



