_The Abbot of Croyland's Motto._--Will you allow me to call MR. LOWER'S
attention to a passage in his _English Surnames_, vol. ii. p. 122., 3rd
edition, which he has passed over without comment, but which struck me
as requiring some editorial notice:
"The motto of John Wells, last abbot of Croyland, engraved upon
his chair, which is still extant, is:
"'Benedicite Fontes, Domine.'
"'Bless the Wells, O Lord!'"
Reading "Domin_o_" for "Domin_e_" would make the first line of this
inscription plain enough, as a quotation from the canticle "Benedicite,
omnia opera;" but what are we to think of the second line? Could not the
worthy abbot have given the pun upon his name in English, without using
those particular words, or placing them in such a position that they
actually _look_ as if they were intended as a translation, word for
word, of their Latin companions, in defiance of all the laws of grammar?