Birmingham.
[Atkyns, in his _Gloucestershire_, p. 579., states that Smythe's MSS.
were at the time he wrote, A.D. 1712, in the custody of his
great-grandson, Sir George Smith, who generously communicated them to
all that desired a perusal of them. Fosbrooke, however, in the preface
to his _History of Gloucestershire_, published in 1807, speaks of them
as being in the possession of the Earl of Berkeley. He says, "Of the
noblemen and gentlemen who honoured me with support and information,
the Earl of Berkeley's permission to use Mr. Smythe's MSS. in every
important extent has been of essential service." Fosbrooke subsequently
published, in 1821, a quarto volume of _Abstracts and Extracts of
Smythe's Lives of the Berkeleys_ from these manuscripts.]
_Origin of Terms in Change-ringing._--I shall be obliged by any one
informing me as to the origin and derivation of the terms "plain bob,"
"grandsire bob," "single bob minor," "grandsire treble," "caters,"
"cinques," _et hoc genus omne_, so well known to campanologists.