[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECT t:TOR.")
SIP.,—Mr. Stone surely goes too far in asking whether there was ever an Englishman who named his son George before the Hanoverian Sovereigns brought the name into fashion, for there certainly never was a period in our history when Georges were not to be found in every class of life. In our domestic plays the name occurs applied to knights, gentle. men, prentices, waiters, and drawers. George-a-Greene, the Pinner of Wakefield, is one of the personages in the Robin Hood cycle. Among our poets and dramatists the name is home by Peele, Gascoigne, Chapman, Wither, Herbert, Etherege, Farqnhar, and Lillo. Others hastily called to mind are Puttenham, Archbishop Abbot, Carteret, Monk, Jeffreys, three generations of Villiers—these in themselves are an answer to Mr. Stone — Halifax, Fox, Bishop Berkeley, Anson, Barnewell. A George followed Frobisher to the Arctic seas, two at least commanded vessels against the Spanish Armada. In the period covered by Clarendon as many as thirty-four Georges appear in his pages. These are sufficient indications that there is nothing " sporadic " in the occurrence of this name in the pre-Georgian era. The history, or want of history, of any actual " Saint " George is of little importance to us as patriots. For centuries, against foes from all quarters of the world, by land and by sea, Englishmen have fought and conquered to the cry of "St. George for England." The associations which surround the name with imperishable glory defy destructive criticism, and are not tarnished by the accident which has connected it with a succession of unpopular rulers: May the next King George prove worthy of his good fortune in bearing the name which represents his country before the world !—I am, Sir. &c., J. M. S.
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