Pennycomequick, adjoining Plymouth.—The Bath and West of England Agricultural Society held their recent annual meeting here. Will any of your correspondents oblige me with the derivation of this remarkable word?
R. H. B.
Park the Antiquary.—In a note to the third volume (p. lxxiii.) of the Grenville Correspondence the following passage: "Barker has printed a second note, which Junius is supposed to have written to Garrick, upon the authority of Park the antiquary, who states that he found it in a cotemporary newspaper," &c. This is not strictly correct. Barker says (p. 190.), "The letter was found in a copy of Junius belonging to [Query, which had belonged to?] T. Park, &c. He had [Query, it is presumed?] cut it out of a newspaper; but unfortunately has omitted to furnish the date of the newspaper." [Query, How then known to be cotemporary?] The difference is important; but where is the copy containing this letter? By whom has it been seen? By whom and when first discovered? Where did Barker find the story recorded? When and where first printed?
P. T. A.
Honorary D.C.L.'s.—It was mentioned in a report of proceedings at the late Installation, that the two royal personages honoured with degrees, having been doctored by diploma, would be entitled to vote in Convocation,—a privilege not possessed by the common tribe of honorary D.C.L.'s.
Can you inform me whether Dr. Johnson had, or ever exercised, the right referred to in virtue of his M.A. degree (conferred on the publication of the Dictionary), or of the higher academical dignity to which his name has given such a world-wide celebrity?
Cantabrigiensis.
Battle of Villers en Couché.—Some of your correspondents, better versed than myself in military matters, will doubtless render me assistance by replying to this Query. Where can I find a copious and accurate account of the battle, or perhaps I should rather say skirmish, of Villers en Couché? If I am rightly informed, it must be one of the most remarkable actions on record, when the comparative numbers of the troops engaged are taken into consideration. We have, as an heirloom in our family, a medal won by an officer on that occasion: it is suspended from a red and white ribbon, and is inscribed thus:
"FORTITUDINE
VILLERS EN COUCHÉ.
24TH APRIL,
1794."