information explanatory of the nomenclature of the useful arts in
mediæval times?

[Greek: delta]. {183}

_Sir Christopher Sibthorp._--Can any of your readers furnish me with
information as to the ancestry of Sir Christopher Sibthorp, whose name
appears in the title-page of the following tract: _A friendly
Advertisement to the pretended Catholics of Ireland, by Christopher
Sibthorp, Knt., one of H.M. Justices of his Court of Chief Place in
Ireland_, 1622, Dublin and also as to the crest, arms, and motto borne
by him.

DE BALDOC.


_Alarm_ (Vol. ii., p. 151.).--The derivation of _alarm_, and the French
_alarme_, from _à l'arme_, which your correspondent M. has reproduced,
has always struck me as unsatisfactory, and as of the class of
etymologies suspiciously ingenious. I do not venture to pronounce that
the derivation is wrong: I merely wish to ventilate a doubt through
"NOTES AND QUERIES," and invite some of your more learned readers to
lily to decide the question.

Of the identity of the words _alarm_ and _alarum_ there is no doubt. The
verb _alarm_ is spelt _alarum_ in old writers, and I have seen it so
spelt in manuscripts of Charles II.'s reign, but unfortunately have not
taken a "Note." Dr. Johnson says _alarum_ is a corruption of _alarm_.
Corruption, however, usually shortens words. I cannot help having a
notion that _alarum_ is the original word; and, though I may probably be