HENRY KERSLEY

Corpus Christi Hall, Maidstone.

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NEWS.

A FEW _OLD_ MATERIALS FOR ITS ELUCIDATION.

"_Novaum_, vulgo _Nouvelle_. Ugutio: '_Rumor, murmur, quod vulgo
dicitur Novum._' Occurit non semel in Epistolis Marini Sanuti.
'Novis de Obitu Papæ auditis,' in Regesta Universitatis Paris,
an. 1394, _Spicileg. Acher._, tom vi. p. 60."

So far Ducange, who also refers to the following:

"Supervenerunt nobis _Nova_ certa de morte, videlicet quorundam
Nobilium, nobis adhærentium, captorum per partem dieti Philippi
in Britannia, et de speciali Præcepto suo Parisiis ignominiosæ
morti traditorum; nec non de Strage, &c. &c."--_Charta an_.
1346, apud Rymer, t. v. p. 497.

The derivation of this word has been so strenuously and ably discussed
by the contending parties in your pages, that I have no intention of
interfering (non nostrum tantas componere lites) further than to furnish
a few materials bearing on the subject, which may not have come under
their notice.

It seems uncertain whether _Newes_ was considered by our ancestors