Now as regards the sound of Cowper, the same class of authorities, old deeds, court rolls, and parish registers, appears to lead to a different conclusion from that of your other correspondents. We have now no Cowper family of Norfolk origin; of Coopers we have multitudes: the names of whose forefathers were written Couper or Cowper; and if written as pronounced, the analogical inference is that the original pronunciation was Cowper, Cooper being merely the modern way of spelling; and curiously enough, the parish of Hoo, in this county, is called and now usually spelt How.
G. A. C.
Unkid (Vol. viii., p. 353.).—Unketh, uncouth, are different writings of the same word. Jamieson has uncoudy, which he explains, dreary; and coudy, i. e. couth, couthy, nearly allied to cuth, notus (see couth (could), uncouth, unketh, in Richardson; and coudy, uncoudy, in Jamieson). Lye has "Uncwid, solitary; whence, perhaps, the not entirely obsolete unkid." Grose also tells us that, in the north, uncuffs and uncuds mean news. It is very plain that these are all the same word, differently written and applied.
Q.
Bloomsbury.
To split Paper (Vol. viii., p. 413.).—
"Procure two rollers or cylinders of glass, amber, resin, or metallic amalgam; strongly excite them by the well known means so as to produce the attraction of cohesion, and then, with pressure, pass the paper between the rollers; one half will adhere to the under roller, and the other to the upper roller; then cease the excitation, and remove each part."—From the Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal.
A. H. B.
La Fleur des Saints (Vol. viii., p. 410.).—The work which Molière intended was in all probability the French translation of a Spanish work entitled Flos Sanctorum. The author of it was Alonso de Villegas. It was first printed at Toledo in 1591, and an English version appeared at Douay in 1615. Some idea of the contents may be gathered from the following title: Flos Sanctorum, Historia General de la Vida, y Hechos de Jesu Christo Dios y Señor nuestro; y de todos los Santos, de que reza, y haze fiesta la Iglesia Catolica, &c. My copy is the Madrid edition of 1653.
C. Hardwick.