_Convent_ Garden becomes _Covent_ Garden by mispronunciation; it becomes
_Common_ Garden by intentional change.

Mistakes of the first class are not worth recording; those of the second
fall under this general principle: words are purposely exchanged for
others of a similar sound, because the latter are supposed to recover a
lost meaning.

I have by me several examples which I will send you if you think the
subject worth pursuing.

J. O. B.

Wicken.

"_Good wine needs no bush_" (Vol. viii., p. 607.).--The custom of
hanging out bushes of ivy, boughs of trees, or bunches of flowers, at
_private_ houses, as a sign that good cheer may be had within, still
prevails in the city of Gloucester at the fair held at Michaelmas,
called Barton Fair, from the locality; and at the three "mops," or
hiring fairs, on the three Mondays following, to indicate that ale,
beer, cider, &c. are there sold, on the strength (I believe) of an
ancient privilege enjoyed by the inhabitants of that street to sell
liquors, without the usual license, during the fair.

BROOKTHORPE.

_Three Fleurs-de-Lys_ (Vol. ix., p. 35.).--In reply to the Query of
DEVONIENSIS, I would say that many families of his own county bore
fleurs-de-lys in their coat armour, in the forms of _two and one_, and
_on a bend_; also that the heraldic writers, Robson and Burke, assign a
coat to the family of Baker charged with three fleurs-de-lys on a fesse.
The Devon family of Velland bore, Sable, a fesse argent, in chief three
fleurs-de-lys of the last, but whether these bearings were ever placed
fesse-wise, or, as your querist terms it, in a horizontal line, I am not
sure.

J. D. S.

If DEVONIENSIS will look at the arms of Magdalen College, Oxford, he
will there find the three fleurs-de-lys in a line in the upper part of
the shield.

A. B.

Athenaeum.

_Portrait of Plowden_ (Vol. ix., p. 56.).--A portrait of Plowden (said
to have been taken from his monument in the Temple Church) is prefixed
to the English edition of his _Reports_, published in 1761.

J. G.

Exon.

_St. Stephen's Day and Mr. Riley's "Hoveden"_ (Vol. viii., p.
637.).--The statement of this feast being observed prior to Christmas
must have {114} arisen from the translator not being conversant with
the technical terms of the _Ecclesiastical Calendar_, in which, as the
greater festivals are celebrated with Octaves, other feasts falling
during the Octave are said to be under (_infra_) t