Bingley, Yorkshire.
Letters U, V, W.—Could any correspondent of the "N. & Q." give us any clear idea of the manner in which we ought to judge of those letters as they are printed from old MSS. or in old books. Is there any rule known by which their pronunciation can be determined? For instance, how was the name of Wales supposed to have been pronounced four hundred years ago, or the name Walter? How could two such different sounds as U and V now represent, come by the old printers both to be denoted by V? And is it supposed that our present mode of pronouncing some words is taken from their spelling in books? We see this done in foreign names every day by persons who have no means of ascertaining the correct pronunciation. Can it have been done extensively in the ordinary words of the language? Or can it be possible, that the confusion between the printed V and W and U has produced the confusion in pronouncing such words now beginning with W, which some classes of her Majesty's subjects are said to pronounce as if they commenced with V? I ask for information: and to know if the question has anywhere been discussed, in which case perhaps some one can refer me to it.
A. F. H.
Heraldic Query.—I should be greatly indebted to any of your correspondents who will assist me in tracing the family to which the following arms belong. Last century they were borne by a gentleman of the name of Oakes: but I find no grant in the college, nor, in fact, can I discover any British arms like them. Argent, a pale per pale or, and gules: between two limbs of an oak fructed proper. On a chief barry of six of the second and third; a rose between two leopards faces all of the last.
C. Mansfield Ingleby.
"Drengage" and "Berewich."—In Domesday certain tenants are described as drenches or drengs, holding by drengage; and some distinction is made between the drengs and another class of tenants, who are named berewites; as, for instance, in Newstone,—
"Huj'
aliā t'rā xv hoēs quos Drenchs vocabant pro xv
I shall be glad if any information as to these tenures, and also as to the derivation of the words "drengage" and "berewich," or berewite, both of which may be traced, I believe, to a Danish origin.
James Crosby.
Streatham.