ABHBA.

_Devonianisms_ (Vol. vii., p. 544.).--_Pilm_, _Forrell_.--_Pillom_ is the
full word, of which _pilm_ is a contraction. It appears to have been
derived from the British word _pylor_, dust. _Forell_ is an archaic name
for the cover of a book. The Welsh appear to have adopted it from the
English, as their name for a bookbinder is _fforelwr_, literally, one who
covers books. I may mention another Devonianism. The cover of a book is
called its _healing_. A man who lays slates on the roof of a house is, in
Devonshire, called a _hellier_.

N. W. S. (2.)

_Perseverant, Perseverance_ (Vol. vii., p. 400.).--Can MR. ARROWSMITH
supply any instances of the verb _persever_ (or _perceyuer_, as it is spelt
in the 1555 edition of Hawes, M. i. col. 2.), from any other author? and
will he inform us when this "abortive hog" and his litter became extinct.

In explaining _speare_ (so strangely misunderstood by the editor of
Dodsley), he should, I think, have added, that it was an old way of writing
_spar_. In Shakspeare's Prologue to _Troilus and Cressida_, it is written
_sperr_. _Sparred_, quoted by Richardson from the _Romance of the Rose_,
and _Troilus and Creseide_, is in the edition of Chaucer referred to by
Tyrwhitt, written in the _Romance_ "spered," and in _Troilus_ "sperred."

Q.

Bloomsbury.

"_The Good Old Cause_" (Vol. vi., _passim_).--Mrs. Behn, who gained some
notoriety for her licentious writings even in Charles II.'s days, was the
author of a play called _The Roundheads, or the Good Old Cause_: London,
1682. In the Epilogue she puts into the mouth of the Puritans the following
lines respecting the Royalists:

"Yet then they rail'd against _The Good Old Cause_;
Rail'd foolishly for loyalty and laws:
But when the Saints had put them to a stand,
We left them loyalty, and took their land:
Yea, and the pious work of Reformation
Rewarded was with plunder and sequestration."

The following lines are quoted by Mr. Teale in his _Life of Viscount
Falkland_, p. 131.:

"The wealthiest man among us is the best:
No grandeur now in Nature or in book
Delights us--repose, avarice, expense,
This is the idolatry; and these we adore:
Plain living and high thinking are no more;
The homely beauty of _The Good Old Cause_
Is gone: our peace and fearful innocence,
And pure religion breathing household laws."

Whence did Mr. Teale get these lines? Either _The Good Old Cause_ is here
used in a pecul