By the Rev. W. C. Plenderleath. 321 



but after the cake-burning king. In 179S I find an entry (written 

 in so clear a hand that not one of the letters is mistakeable) of the 

 burial o£ " Besepty, Daughter of Eristper Bromham/^ This means 

 of course Bessy, daughter of Christopher, and occurs in a hand quite 

 different from that of any of the entries either before or after. My 

 idea is that for some reason or other the churchwarden or clerk took 

 upon himself to enter it, and not being able to read the memorandum 

 made by the clergyman, put it in this curious form. And from the 

 initial letter of Christopher being taken for an E, we learn no doubt 

 that the less educated people still wrote that vowel in the German 

 way, which had long been abandoned by the more educated. Letitia 

 appears as Lettisha, in 1752, and at a later period as Lettechia. In 

 the first of these entries it was originally written in a large bold 

 hand Purtishah, but through this the pen has been passed, and 

 Lettisha written twice above it. This spelling is however sometimes 

 even now a matter of deliberate choice. 1 have myself been obliged 

 to write Millicent in the registers with an s intruded between the 

 second and third syllables, despite my protest ; and nothing will 

 disabuse some of my parishioners of the idea that they are right in 

 compelling me to enter Winifred as " Wineford," however much I 

 may wince under the operation. Among other curious names in the 

 Cherhill registers I may mention Israel as a girl's baptismal name 

 in 1751, and Francis as that o£ a woman whose marriage is recorded 

 in 1722. The common name of Dyke is metamorphosed into Diyck; 

 and the current pronunciation of Rawlings is shewn by its being 

 spelled " Rollings," even as the entry of "Piteryealy '* accuses the 

 shortened penultimate and preposed y customary in these two names; 

 and, as I fear, that of " John Arris " at Newington Butts, in 1689, 

 shews an indifference to aspirates which is not without a parallel 

 even in the present day. In 159iS 1 find the name of Hugh spelled 

 " Hewge " in the records of St. Matthew's, Friday Street, London. 

 And (to add here a few more cui-ious names which I have extracted 

 from the registers of this parish, and also from those of St. Peter's 

 Cheap,) the following appear as Christian names of males, Hanniball, 

 Sty las, Armynger, All Santis (All Saints), Bowlas, Galfrid, Zurai- 

 zaday, and Purifie. Of females, Adlyn, ArmeneUe, Eriphine, Alse, 



