The above grant was confirmed on the 10th of September, in the twenty-second of Richard the Second, 1398, by the eldest son of John of Gaunt, Henry of Lancaster, Duke of Hereford, a few weeks only before the duke's banishment, in the following words: "We, willing to perform and accomplish the good will and desires of our said very honoured lord and father, and in the confidence which we have in our said very loved brother, now Earl of Westmoreland, that he will be a good and natural son to our said very dread lord and father, and that he will be to us in time to come a good and natural brother, and also because of the great affection which we bear towards our said very loved sister, the countess his wife (sa compaigne), do, for us and our heirs, as far as in us lies, ratify and confirm to our said brother and sister the aforesaid letters patent, &c. Given under our seal, at London, on the 10th day of September, in the twenty-second year of the reign of our most dread lord King Richard the Second after the Conquest." King Henry the Fifth, on his accession, by a patent under the seal of the duchy of Lancaster, dated at Westminster, on the 1st of July, in the first year of his reign, confirmed the above letters "to the aforesaid earl and Joan his wife;" and King Henry the Sixth in like manner confirmed his father's patent on the 13th of July, in the second year of his reign.--_Regist. Ducat. Lanc. temp. Hen. VI._, p. 2. fol. 41.] * * * * * UNCERTAIN ETYMOLOGIES--"LEADER." (Vol. vi., p. 588.) I must differ from your correspondent C., in believing that the "N. & Q." have effected much good service to etymology. Even the exposure of error, and the showing up of crotchets, is of no inconsiderable use. I beg to submit that C. himself (unless there are other Richmonds in the field) has done good service in this way. See _Grummett_, _Slang Phrases_, _Martinet_, _Cockade_, _Romane_, _Covey_, _Bummaree_, &c. I do not, indeed, give implicit faith to his _Steyne_, and some more. He, however, would be a rash man who should write or help to write a Dictionary of the English language (a desideratum at present) without turning over the indices of the "N. & Q." Even in the first volume, the discussions on _Pokership_, _Daysman_, _News_, and a great many others, seem to me at least valuable contributions to general knowledge on etymology. As to my remark (Vol. vi., p. 462.) about the derivation of _leader_, C. has, perhaps excusably, for the sake of the pun, done me injustice. I hazarded it on the authority of one who has been in the trade, and, as I believe, in the _cuicunque perito_. I beg to inclose his own account. He says: