which is by no means a sufficient proof of probability.

"Of this there can scarcely be a better example than the
English word 'news,' which, notwithstanding the felicity of
its supposed derivation from the four cardinal points, must,
nevertheless, so long as the corresponding words 'nova,'
'nouvelles,' &c. exist, be consigned to its more sober and
common-place origin in the adjective '_new_.'"

To this it must be added that the ancient orthography of the word
_newes_, completely upsets the derivation Mr. Gutch has brought before
your readers. Hone quotes from "one Burton, printed in 1614: 'if any
one read now-a-days, it is a play-book, or _a pamphlet_ of _newes_."

I had been in two minds whether or not to send this communication,
when the scale is completely turned by the apropos occurrence of a
corroboration of this latter objection in "NOTES AND QUERIES" of this
day. Mr. Rimbault mentions (at p. 277.), "a rare black letter volume
entitled _Newes from Scotland_, 1591."

Here is one more proof of the usefulness of your publication, that I
am thus enabled to strengthen the illustration of a totally different
subject by the incidental authority of a fellow correspondent.

A.E.B.

Leeds, March, 1850.

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