e of stinking fish."

Even this poor allowance to the distressed prisoners passed through several
ordeals before it came to them; and the best and most wholesome portions
were filched from the _alms-basket_, and sold by the jailers at a low price
to people out of the prison. In the same play it is related of a miser,
that--

"He never saw a joint of mutton in his own house these four-and-twenty
years, but always cozened the poor prisoners, for he brought his
victuals out of the _alms-basket_."

In the ordinances of Charles II. (_Ord. and Reg. Soc. Ant._ 367.), it is
commanded--

"That no gentleman whatsoever shall send away my meat or wine from the
table, or out of the chamber, upon any pretence whatsoever; and that
the gentlemen-ushers take particular care herein, that all the meate
that is taken off the table upon trencher-plates be put into a basket
for the poore, and not undecently eaten by any servant in the roome;
and if any person shall presume to do otherwise, he shall be prohibited
{298} 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. CHAFFERS.

Old Bond Street.

* * * * *

THE LETTER "H" IN HUMBLE.

(Vol. viii., p. 229.)

The recent attempt to introduce a mispronunciation 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 _uim_, the ground, Latin _humus_.
_Umal_ in Celtic is humble, lowly, obedient; and the word signifies the
bending of the mind or disposition, 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 MR. DAWSON. I have very