n s. ix. MAR. 28, i9u.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
247
looks so obviously the mark of a prolific
family, is (I venture to suggest) only a
shortening of the earlier forms Achildren
and atte Childern, and therefore similar in
sense to the surname Wells.
The Chiltern Hills, then, would be named on the same principle as the Monts aux Sources. OLD SARTJM.
" HIREN " : '2 K. HENRY IV.,' II. iv. (See 4 S. ii. 78, &c.) The long dispute over this name is, I presume, at an end. See the ' N.E.D.,' s.v. The following passage from the ' lests of George Peele,' 1627, p. 20, will, however, be useful :
"The famous Play of the Turkish Mahamet aind Hyrin, faire Greeke, in Italian called a Curtezan ; in Spaine, a Margerite ; in French, rn Curtain."
RICHARD H. THORNTON.
36, Upper Bsdford Place, W.C.
THE ALBANIAN TITLE " MPRET." The following appeared in The Times of 23 Feb., 1914:
" According to well-informed expectations, the title which Prince William will bear in Albania is ' Mpret,' a corruption of ' Imperator ' which appears to be the sole Albanian term for an in- dependent ruler."
A. L. MAYHEW.
Oxford.
TRAMPS' MARKS. An international exhi- bition is to be held in Leipzig shortly for the display of objects illustrative of the book- industry and graphic arts, in which a separate show is to be arranged of enlarged reproductions of tramps' marks (Gauner- zinken). I merely reproduce the statement as I found it in a German paper, but am unable to explain what the connexion may be between tramps' marks and the graphic arts. For foreign marks of this description see Dr. Hans Gross, ' Handbuch f. Unter suchungsrichter,' 6th ed. (Munich).
L. L. K.
ELTOFTE. This name has been brought forward in the Liverpool murder. It occurs in the ' Calendar of State Papers, Ireland ' :
1582, Sep. 1. Dublin.
Ed. Waterhous to Walsyngham. Commends the bearer M r (Captain) Edmund Eltofte, who hath showed proof of great valour divers times in Munster.
There is an earlier reference to the name in * Letters and Papers, Foreign and Do- mestic,' vol. xiv. pt. i. p. 316, Henry VIII., 1539 :,/' Thomas Eltoftes."
R. J. FYNMORE. Sandgate.
WE must request correspondents desiring in-
formation on family matters of only private interest
to affix their names and addresses to their queries,
MI order that answers may be sent to them direct.
SHIRBURN CHURCH AND CHURCHYARD. Could any reader kindly supply me with all the names of persons interred in the vault or crypt (if any), and also in the churchyard, of Shirburn Church, near Watlington, Oxfordshire, England ?
H. QUARTERMAIN. 29, Smith Street, Lower Riccarton, Christen urch. New Zealand.
OLD LONDON VIOLINS. The City Press for 28 Feb. reported a police-court case at the Guildhall concerning the loss of a violin, stated to have been the work of Pamphillon, and made in 1680 on Old London Bridge. Are any further details known of this business and its extent ? also, are any other instruments by the same maker still in use ? J. LANDFEAR LUCAS.
Glendora, Hindhead, Surrey.
DIRENT-JEARRAD FAMILY. An entry in an old family Bible states that " David Dirent Jearrad was born 29th January 1734* at Aller in the parish of Helton [sic], near Milton Abbey, Dorset." He married in London in 1765, being described only as " David Jearrad," without the Dirent. Examination of the Hilton Parish Registers discloses the curious fact that, for some generations, members of the family had called themselves sometimes Gerard and sometimes Dirent, the earliest mention of Gerard in the Hilton Registers being the baptism, in 1630, of John Dyrant, alias Gerard. David Jearrad' s baptism is not in the Hilton Register, but the neighbouring parish of Melcombe Horsey records the baptism : " January 30th, 1734, David, son of Charles and Mary Dirent of Hilton," the baptism (1711) and burial (1773) of Charles Gerard being recorded at Hilton. The earliest Dirent reference in the Hilton Registers is the marriage of John Jones and Anne Dyrant of Aller, 9 April, 1607.
According to an inquisition (Inq. P.M., Series II. vol. ccccxxviii. No. 37) taken at Shaftesbury on 12 Sept., 2 Charles I. (1626), William Dirrant, alias Jerrard, died at Aller, in the parish of Helton, on 21 May, 1626, seised in his demesne as of fee of and in one messuage, orchard, arid garden, and 18 acres of land, meadow and pasture, in Aller ; and
