Trent, and _Meeting-house_ in Nottingham and
southwards.

An eminent antiquary, the Rev. Joseph Hunter, F.S.A., could cast a full
light upon this subject.

J.P.S.
Homerton, April 15.

_Beaver_ (No. 21. p. 338.).--The earliest form of this word is _fiber_,
which is used to signify the animal, the _Castor_, by Varro and Pliny.
The fabulous story of the self-emasculation by which the beaver eludes
pursuit, is thus introduced by Silius, in illustrating the flight of
Hasdrubal:-- {418}

"Fluminei veluti deprensus gurgitis undis,
Avulsa parte inguinibus caussaque pericli,
Enatat intento praedae _fibor_ avius hoste."

_Punica_, IV. 485-8, where see Ruperti.

The scholiast on Juvenal, xii. 34., has the low Latin _vebrus_. (See
Forcellini, Lex. in _Fiber_ et _Castor_, Ducange in _Bever_, and Adelung
in _Biber_.) Derivations of the word _bebrus_ occur in all the languages
of Europe, both Romanic and Teutonic; and denote the Castor. _Beaver_,
in the sense of a _hat_ or _cap_, is a secondary application, derived
from the material of which the hat or cap was made.

W.

_Poins and Bardolph_ (No. 24. p. 385.)--Mr. Collier (Life prefixed to
the edit. of _Shakspeare_, p. 139.) was the first to notice that
Bardolph, Fluellen, and Awdrey, were names of persons living at
Stratford in the lifetime of the poet; and Mr. Halliwell (_Life of
Shakspeare_, pp. 126-7) has carried the subject still further, and shown
that the names of ten characters in the plays are also found in the
early records of that town. Poins was, I believe, a common Welsh name.

S.

_God tempers the Wind_ (No. 22. p. 357.)--Le Roux de Liney, _Livre des
Proverbes Francais_ (Paris, 1842), tom. i. p. 11., cites the following
proverbs--

"Dieu mesure le froid a la brebis tondue,
ou,
Dieu donne le froid selon la robbe,"

from Henri Estienne, _Premices_, &c., p. 47., a collection of proverbs
published in 1594. He also quotes from Gabriel Meurier, _Tresor des
Sentences_, of the sixteenth century:--

"Dieu aide les mal vestus."

SIWEL.
April 5. 1850.

_Sterne's Koran_ (No. 14. p. 216.)--An inquiry respecting this work
appeared in the _Gent. Mag._, vol. lxvii. pt. ii. p. 565.; and at p.
755. we are told by a writer under the signature of "Normanus," that in
_his_ edition of Sterne, printed at Dublin, 1775, 5 vols. 12mo., the
Koran was placed at the end, the editor honestly confessing that it was
_not_