This brings us to a consideration of such terms as the “Westport” and “East-port” of Wareham, and the “Newport Gate” of Lincoln. The survival, at Wareham, of “port” in the sense of gate, is ingeniously attributed by the above writer to a direct derivation from the Welsh _porth_, rather than from the Latin _porta_. At Lincoln, on testing Mr. Freeman’s statement that the gate was actually known simply as “The New Port” (Norm. Conq. iv. 212), I can find no evidence whatever for it.[10] If, therefore, as seems to be the case, “Newport _Gate_” has always been its name, within historic times, the inference is surely not that which has been drawn by Mr. Freeman in his paper on Lincoln,[11] but rather that the “barbarian” conquerors, ignoring the meaning of the “port” (_porta_), spoke of the Roman “porta” by their own word “geat,” distinguishing it from the other gates by the prefix “Newport,” and thus producing the, at first sight, unmeaning pleonasm, “New_port Gate_,” just as Thorn_ey Island_, Mers_ea Island_, &c., are pleonasms formed by the addition of “Island,” when the _ea_ or _ey_ (“Island”) no longer possesses a meaning. We see, then, that the Latin _porta_ failed to pass direct into our language in the form of _port_ (“a gate”). It was, indeed, as Professor Skeat has shown, imported at a much later period, but then only through the French _porte_, and not direct from the Latin. But it could not, even so, succeed in establishing its position in the language. Found not unfrequently in the Elizabethan age, both in poetry and in classical prose, it lingered on, as a classical affectation, even so late as the Civil War, when we find it used of a city-gate, in a military sense, by such writers as Sprigge and Carter. A sure proof of its disuse is afforded shortly after this by the substitution of “port _hole_” for “port,” a pleonasm which, like those above quoted, implies that the original word no longer retained its meaning. (_To be continued._) AN OLD PLAY-BILL--The following is a copy of the first play-bill issued from Drury-lane Theatre: “By His Majesty’s Company of Comedians, At the new Theatre in Drury-lane, This day, being Thursday, April 8th, 1663, Will be acted, a Comedy called THE HVMOVROVS LIEVTENANT. _The King_, Mr. Wintersel; _Demétrivs_, Mr. Hart; _Selevcvs_, Mr. Bvrt; _Leontivs_, Major Mohvn; _Lievtenant_, Mr. Clun; _Celia_, Mrs. Marshall. The play will begin at three o’clock exactly. Boxes 4s. Pitt 2s. 6d. Middle-Gallery 1s. 6d. Upper Gallery 1s.” The History of Gilds. BY CORNELIUS WALFORD, F.S.S., _Barrister-at-Law_. _PART IV._ CHAPTER XXXII.--_The Gilds of Lincolnshire._ THE Gilds of this county were not only very numerous, but they were regarded as important in several respects. I shall give some account of them under the several towns wherein they flourished. There were also many village Gilds.