Sheridan_, the celebrated authoress of _Sidney Biddulph_, _Nourjahad_, and
_The Discovery_, and mother of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, it is stated that
"her grandfather, Sir {327} Oliver Chamberlaine," was an "English baronet."
The absence of his name in any of the Baronetages induces the supposition,
however, that he had received only the honour of knighthood; and the
connexion of his son with Dublin, that the statement of Whitelaw and Walsh,
in their history of that city, may be more correct,--viz. that "Sir Oliver
Chamberlaine was descended from a respectable English family that had been
settled in Dublin since the Reformation." I should be glad to be informed
on this point, and also respecting the paternity of this Sir Oliver, who is
not only distinguished as one of the progenitors of the Sheridans, but also
of Dr. William Chamberlaine, the learned author of the _Abridgement of the
Laws of Jamaica_, which he for some time administered, as one of the judges
in that island; and of his grandson, the brave, but ill-fated, Colonel
Chamberlaine, aide-de-camp to the president Bolivar.

J.R.W.

October 10. 1850.

_Meleteticks._--In Boyle's _Occasional Reflections_ (ed. 1669), he uses the
word _meleteticks_ (pp. 8. 38.) to express the "way and kind of meditation"
he "would persuade." Was this _then_ a new word coined by him, and has it
been used by any other writer?

P.H.F.

_Luther's Hymns._--"In the midst of life we are in death," &c., in the
Burial Service, is almost identical with one of Luther's hymns, the words
and music of which are frequently closely copied from older sources.