Honoré de Mareville.
Guernsey.
Cranmer Bibles (Vol. ix., p. 119.).—S. R. M. will be gratified to learn, that the death of Mr. Lea Wilson has not, as he conjectures, led to the dispersion of the curious collection of Cranmer Bibles, which he had been at so much pains in forming, but to its being rendered more accessible. They were all purchased for the British Museum.
M. T. W.
Voisonier (Vol. ix., p. 224.).—A corruption of vowsoner, i. e. the owner of the vowson; this last
word being anciently used for advowson, as may by seen by the glossary to Robert of Gloucester's Works.
C. H.
I submit that this word means advowsoner, that is, "owner of the advowson."
Q. D.
Word-minting (Vol. ix., p. 151.).—To Mr. Melville's list of new words, you may add: talented (Yankee), adumbrate (pedantic), service. The latter word is of very late importation from the French, within three years, as applied to the lines of steamers, or traffic of railways. It is an age of word-minting; and bids fair to corrupt the purity of the English language by the coinage of the slovenly writer, and adoption of foreign or learned words which possess an actual synonym in our own tongue. Mr. Melville deserves our thanks for his timely notice of such "contraband" wares.