"The round world, and they that dwell therein."—Ps. xcviii. 8.
R. H.
Coke and Cowper, how pronounced (Vol. iv., p. 24.).
—Coke is by lawyers generally pronounced like the article which feeds our steam-engines; but the late Earl of Leicester was generally, in Norfolk and elsewhere, called Cook. The presumption is, that Cook was the ancient sound given to the word Coke. Cowper is a similar instance: I believe it has always been called Cooper. In an old electioneering squib by the late Lord John Townshend, Cowper is made to rhyme to Trooper. The passage alludes to an old county scandal, and I do not therefore quote it.
J. H. L.
There can be no doubt (as it seems to me) that the poet's name ought to be pronounced according to the spelling. I am enabled to state decidedly that he himself pronounced his name Cowper, and not Cooper. I venture to think that the same might also be said with respect to Lord Coke's name; i. e. that the pronunciation Cook is only a "modern affectation."
R. VINCENT.
Registry of British Subjects Abroad (Vol. iv., p. 7.).
—All English chaplains on the Continent are licensed to their respective chaplaincies by the Bishop of London, and are within his ecclesiastical jurisdiction. This may have given rise to the notion of which your correspondent speaks.
R. VINCENT.