Wood's collection in the Ashmolean Museum. The music, too, of the _Te
Deum_ is in a grand religious style, and not of a festal character.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

* * * * *

"ESQUIRE" AND "GENTLEMAN."

The custom of addressing almost every man above the rank of an artizan
or a huckster as "Esquire," seems now to be settled as a matter of
ordinary politeness and courtesy; whilst the degradation of the
gentleman into the "Gent," has caused this term, as the title of a
social class, to have fallen into total disuse. Originally, they were
terms that had their respective meanings as much as Duke, Knight,
Yeoman, or Hind; but now they simply mean courtesy or contempt towards
{438} the person to whom they are applied,--with the exception, indeed,
of certain combinations of circumstances under which the word
"Gentleman" is applied _as a character_.

It would be an interesting occupation to trace the mutations of meaning
which these words have undergone, and the circumstances which gave rise
to the successive applications of them. The subject has been often
touched upon more or less slightly; but I know of no work in which it is
discussed fully, though, indeed, there may be such. Of course, many of
your readers are men whose pursuits have lain in other directions than
social customs, social language, and social tastes; and, as one of them,
I may be permitted to ask either where a full discussion can be found,
or that some of your correspondents will furnish through your medium a
clear and tolerably full exposition of the question. I believe it would