Venville.—The peat or black earth of Dartmoor is still called ven or fen. Is it not more probable that the adjoining parishes (or parts of them) are said to be in Venville or fengfield, from their being within the peat district, than that an abbreviation of a legal term, fines villarum—fin. vil., should become naturalised among the peasantry, as is the case with the word Venville?
The second part of the word seems akin to the Scottish fail, "a turf, or that clod covered with grass cut off from the rest of the sward." (Jamieson.)
K.
Hand-bells at Funerals (Vol. ii., p. 478.).—In the Testamenta Eboracensia, p. 163., Johannes Esten de Scardeburgh, le Ankersymth, bequeaths 2d.—
"Clerico ecclesiæ pro pulsacione campanarum, et le belman portand' campanam per villam excitandum populum ad orandum."
A hand-bell (as I am informed by a Roman Catholic gentleman) often precedes the Host, when carried in procession to the sick, &c., in order to clear the way, and remind passengers of the usual reverence paid at such times.
B.
Lincoln.
Shillings and Sixpences of George III. (Vol. iii., p. 275.).—R. W. C. has fallen into a misconception in supposing that these coins present an erroneous spelling of the Latinized style of the monarch, whilst the contemporary crowns and half-crowns have the correct orthography. The spelling of the legend on the sixpences and shillings was intentional, and with a meaning, being inscribed in an abridged form—GEOR: III. D: G: BRITT: REX F: D:—the reduplication of the T was designed, after classical precedent, to represent the plural Britanniarum, i.e., Great Britain and Ireland.
N.