Reversible Names.—Some female names spell backwards and forwards the same, as Hannah, Anna, Eve, Ada: so also does madam, which is feminine. Is this in the nature of things, or can any one produce a reversible proprium quod maribus? No arguments, but instances; no surnames, which are epicene; no obsolete names, such as Odo, of which it may be suspected that they have died precisely because an attempt was made to marify them: or say, rather, that Odo, to live masculine, was obliged to become Otho. Failing instances, I shall maintain that varium et mutabile semper femina only means that whatever reads backwards and forwards the same, is always feminine.
M.
Gilbert White of Selborne.—Can any of the correspondents of "N. & Q." inform me whether any portrait, painted, engraved, or sculptured, exists of this celebrated naturalist; and if so, a reference to it will greatly oblige
W. A. L.
St. John's Square.
Hoby, Family of; their Portraits, &c.—In the parish church of Bisham, in the county of Berks, are some fine and costly monuments to the memory of several members of this family, who were long resident in the old conventual building there. Are there any engravings of these monuments? And if so, in what work; or where are the inscriptions to be met with? I possess two fine engraved portraits of this family: the originals by Hans Holbein are said to be in "His Majesty's Collection;" where are the originals now? Do they still adorn the walls of Windsor Castle? The one is inscribed—
"Phillip Hobbie, Knight."
The other—
"The Lady Hobbie."
The orthography of the names is the same as engraved on the portraits. The former was Sir Philip Hoby, one of the Privy Council to King Henry VIII.; and the lady was, I believe, the wife of Sir Thomas Hoby, of Leominster, co. Hereford, who died in 1596, aged thirty-six. Was this the learned Lady Hoby, who wrote one of the epitaphs above referred to? Are there any other portraits of members of this ancient, but now extinct family, in existence? They bore for arms, "Arg. three spindles in fesse gules, threaded or." What was their crest and motto?