Can any of your curious contributors give me any account of these _Red Maids_?--why they are so called, &c., &c.?--and, in fact, of the charity in general? It will not be one of the least of many benefits of your publication, that, in noticing from time to time the real intention of many ancient charitable bequests, the purposes of the original benevolent founder may be restored to their integrity, and the charity devoted to the use of those for whom it was intended, and who will receive it as a charity, and not, as is too often the case, be swallowed up as a mere place,--or worse, a sinecure. ARTHUR GRIFFINHOOF, JUN. * * * * * THE NAME OF SHYLOCK. Dr. Farmer has stated that Shakspere took the name which he has given to one of the leading characters in the _Merchant of Venice_ from a pamphlet entitled _Caleb Shilloche, or the Jew's Prediction_. The date of the pamphlet, however, being some years posterior to that of the play, renders this origin impossible. Mr. C. Knight, who points out this error, adds--"_Scialac_ was the name of a Marionite of Mount Libanus." But "query," Was not _Shylock_ a proper name among the Jews, derived from the designation employed by the patriarch Jacob in predicting the advent of the Messiah--"until _Shiloh_ come"? (Gen. xlix. 10.) The objection, which might be urged, that so sacred a name would not have been applied by an ancient Jew to his child, has not much weight, when we recollect that some Christians have not shrunk from the blasphemous imposition of the name _Emanuel_ ("God with us") upon their offspring. St. Jerome manifestly reads SHILOACH, for he translates it by _Qui mittendus est. (Lond. Encyc_. in voc. "Shiloh.") Now the difference between _Shiloach_ and _Shylock_ is very trivial indeed. I shall be very glad to have the opinion of some of your numerous and able contributors on this point. But, after all, Shylock may have been a _family name_ familiar to the great dramatist. In all my researches on the subject of _English surnames,_ however, I have but once met with it as a generic distinction. In the _Battel Abbey Deeds_ (penes Sir T. Phillipps, Bart.) occurs a power of attorney from John Pesemershe, Esq., to _Richard Shylok_, of Hoo, co. Sussex, and others, to deliver seizin of all his lands in Sussex to certain persons therein named. The date of this document is July 4, 1435. MARK ANTONY LOWER. * * * * * TRANSPOSITION OF LETTERS. I should be obliged if any of your readers would give me the reason for the transposition of certain letters, chiefly, but not exclusively, in proper names, which has been effected in the course of time. The name of our Queen Bertha was, in the seventh century, written Beorhte. The Duke Brythnoth's name was frequently written Byrthnoth, in the tenth century.