Lines on the Institution of the Order of the Garter.—I send you the following, which may be worth a corner in "N. & Q." The only account I can give of them is that I found them in MS. among other poetical extracts, without date or author's name:—

Tee Bee.

Old Ship.—It may be of interest to some of your readers to learn that the ship which conveyed General Wolfe on his expedition to Quebec is still afloat under the name of the "William and Ann."

She was built in 1759 for a bomb-ketch, and was in dock in the Thames a few days since, sound and likely to endure for many years yet: she is mostly now engaged in the Honduras and African timber trades, which is in itself a proof of her great strength.

A. O. H.

Blackheath.

The Letter "h" in "humble."—I was always taught in my childhood to sink the h in this word, and was confirmed in this habit by the usage of all the well-educated people that I met in those days, as also by the authority of every pronouncing dictionary in the English language: and to this day hear many people quite as well educated, and of as high station in all but literary society, as Mr. Dickens, use the same pronunciation; but this eminent writer has thought fit of late to proscribe this practice as far as in him lies, by making it the Shibboleth of two of the meanest and vilest characters in his works. I should like to know whether the aspiration of this letter is due to Mr. D.'s London birth and residence, or whether it has become of late the general usage of good society. If the latter, it is clear that a new edition of Walker is required for the benefit of such as have no wish to be confounded with the "Heeps."

Your late Numbers have given some curious instances of Cockney and other rhymes. I am sorry to see that the offensive r not only appears to be gaining ground in poetry, but also in the mouths of many whose station and education might have been supposed to preserve them from this vulgarism. If the masters of our great schools took as much pains with their pupils' pronunciation of English, as with that of Latin and Greek, we should hear less of this.

J. S. Warden.

"The Angels' Whisper."—The admirers of that popular song will be surprised to find that there prevails in India a tradition very similar to the one on which that song is founded.

The other day our Hindoo nurse was watching our baby asleep, and noticing that it frequently smiled, said, "God is talking to it!" The tradition, as elicited from this woman, seems to be here, that when a child smiles in its sleep, God is saying something pleasing to it; but when it cries, He is talking to it of sorrow.

J. C. B.

Punjab.

Pronunciation of Coke (Vol. vii., p. 586.).—Probably the under-mentioned particulars may tend to elucidate the Query discussed in your paper touching the pronunciation of Chief Justice Coke's surname in his Lordship's time.

In numerous original family "Coke documents" in my possession, amongst which are a most spirited and highly interesting letter written by the celebrated Lady Elizabeth Hatton^[1], Sir Edward Coke's widow, quite in character with her ladyship, shortly after her husband's death; and likewise several letters written by his children and grandchildren; Sir Edward's surname is invariably spelt Coke, whilst in other his family documents^[2] and public precepts I possess, the latter of which came under the eye of Lords Keepers Coventry and Littleton, Sir Edward's name is, in nine cases out of ten in five hundred instances, spelt Cooke and Cook; thus, I submit, raising an almost irresistible presumption that, however the Chief Justice's surname was written, it was pronounced Cook and not Coke.

T. W. Jones.

Nantwich.

The Advice supposed to have been given to Julius III.—The Consilium, sometimes and inadvertently called a Council, addressed to Julius III., Pope of Rome, by certain prelates, has just been once more quoted, for the fiftieth time, perhaps, within the present generation, as a genuine document, and as proceeding from adherents of the Church of Rome. This re-quotation appears in an otherwise useful little volume of the Religious Tract Society, entitled The Bible in many Tongues, p. 96.; and it may tend to check the use made of the supposed Advice or Council to state, what a perusal either of the original in Brown's Fasciculus Rerum Expetend. et Fugiend., or of a translation in Gibson's Preservative (vol. i. pp. 183. 191., ed. 1848), will soon make evident, that the document in question is a piece of banter, and must be attributed to the pen of P.P. Vergerio, in whose Works it is in fact included, in the single volume published Tubing. 1563, fol. 94—104.

So frequently has this supposed Advice been cited as a serious affair, that the pages of "N. & Q." may be well employed in endeavouring to stop the somewhat perverse use of a friendly weapon.

Novus.