P. S. Some other matters relative to this Mint are among my memoranda.
Norwich, June 16. 1851.
Voltaire, where situated (Vol. iii., p. 329.).
—Your correspondent V. is informed, that the following particulars on the subject of his Query are given in a note to the article "Voltaire," in Quérard's France Littéraire, vol. x. p. 276.:—
"Voltaire est le nom d'un petit bien de famille, qui appartenait à la mère de l'auteur de la 'Henriade,'—Marie Catherine Daumart, d'une famille noble du Poitou."
HENRY H. BREEN.
St. Lucia, May, 1851.
Meaning of Pilcher (Vol. iii., p. 476).
—I must say I can see no difficulty at all about pilcher. If the r at the end makes it so strange a word, leave that out, and then you will have a word, as it seems, quite well established—pylche, toga pellice: Lye. Skinner thinks pilchard may be derived from it.
"Pilch, an outer garment generally worn in cold weather, and made of skins of fur. 'Pelicium, a pylche.' (Nominale MS.) The term is still retained in connected senses in our dialects. 'A piece of flannel, or other woollen, put under a child next the clout is, in Kent, called a pilch; a coarse shagged piece of rug laid over a saddle, for ease of a rider, is, in our midland parts, called a pilch.' (MS. Lansd. 1033.) 'Warme pilche and warme shon.' (MS. Digby, 86.) 'In our old dramatists the term is applied to a buff or leather jerkin; and Shakspeare has pilcher for the sheath of a sword." (Halliwell's Dictionary.)