wer to MR. TIMBS, I send you
the following particulars of a _Hornbook_ in the British Museum, which I
have this morning examined.

It is marked in the new catalogue (Press Mark 828, a. 55.). It contains on
one side the "Old English Alphabet"--the capitals in two lines, the small
letters in one. The fourth line contains the vowels twice repeated (perhaps
to _doubly_ impress upon the pupil the necessity of learning them). Next
follow, in two columns, our ancient companions, "ab, eb, ib," &c., and "ba,
be, bi," &c. After the formula of exorcism comes the "Lord's Prayer" (which
is given somewhat differently to our present version), winding up with "i.
ii. iii. iiii. v. vi. vii. viii. ix. x." On the other side is the following
whimsical piece of composition:--

_"What more could be wished for, even by a literary gourmand under the
Tudors, than to be able to Read and Spell; To repeat that holy charm
before which fled all unholy Ghosts, Goblins, or even the old Gentleman
himself to the very bottom of the Red Sea, and to say that immortal
prayer, which secures heaven to all who _ex animo_ use it, and those
mathematical powers, by knowing units, from which spring countless
myriads."_

Now for my "Query." Can any of your correspondents oblige me with the
probable date of this _literally_ literary treasure, or refer me to any
source of information on the subject?

KENNETH R. H. MACKENZIE.

_Bacon_ (Vol. iii., p. 41.).--The explanation given in a former number from
old Verstegan, of the original meaning of the family name of Bacon, and the
application of the word to the unclean beast, with the corroboration from
the pages of Collins's _Baronetage_, is very interesting. The word, as
applied to the salted flesh of the _dead_ animal, is another instance of
the introduction of a foreign term for a _dead_ animal, in opposition to
the Anglo-Saxon name of the living animal. It was used in this sense in
France at a very early period; and Ampere, in his _Histoire Litteraire de
la France avant le 12ieme Siecle_, iii. 482., mentions the word among other
instances of Gallicisms in the Latin of the Carolingian diplomas and
capitularies, and quotes the capitularies of Charles the Fat. _Bacco, porc
sale,_ from the _vulgar_ word _bacon_, _jambon_. The word was in use as
late as the seventeenth century in Dauphine, and the bordering cantons of
Switzerland, and is cited in the _Moyen de Parvenir_, ch. 38. The passage