_Bacon Family, Origin of the Name._--Among the able notes, or the
_not_-able Queries of a recent Number, (I regret that I have it not at
hand, for an exact quotation), a learned correspondent mentioned, _en
passant_, that the word _bacon_ had the obsolete signification of
"_dried wood_." As a patronymic, BACON has been not a little
illustrious, in literature, science, and art; and it would be
interesting to know whether the name has its origin in the crackling
fagot or in the cured flitch. Can any of your genealogical
correspondents help me to authority on the subject?
A modern motto of the Somersetshire Bacons has an ingenious rebus:
ProBa-conSCIENTIA;
the capitals, thus placed, giving it the double reading, Proba
coniscientia, and Pro Bacon Scientia.