may, by a natural mistake, have changed the name of the family, in his
_Academy of Armory_, from _Dodo_ to the synonymous word _Dronte_. Can
none of your genealogical readers clear up this point?

H.E. Strickland.

* * * * *

DERIVATION OF "STERLING" AND "PENNY".

Your correspondent suggests (No. 24. p. 384.) an ingenious derivation
for the word _Sterling_; but one which perhaps he has been too ready to
adopt, inasmuch as it helped his other derivation of _peny_, from
_pecunia_ or _pecus_. I quote the following from _A short Treatise
touching Sheriff's Accompts_, by Sir Matthew Hale: London, 1683:

"Concerning the second, _viz._ the matter or species whereof the
current coin of this kingdom hath been made, it is gold or
silver, but not altogether pure, but with an allay of copper, at
least from the time of King H. I. and H. II., though possibly in
ancienter times the species whereof the coin was made might be
pure gold or silver; and this allay was that which gave the
denomination of Sterling to that coin, _viz._ Sterling Gold, or
Sterling Silver. Wherein there will be inquirable,

"1. Whence that denomination came?

"2. How ancient that denomination was?

"3. What was the allay that gave silver that denomination?