The law-Latin, as used in England, degenerated greatly; it became interspersed with words of native origin, Latinized by the lawyer. Old court-rolls especially are full of obsolete words; so, too, are the public rolls, but there are now many dictionaries explaining their meanings. Although of course, here and there an unknown word may occur, yet the context will usually explain or help towards its significance. The legal Latin became, finally, merely a series of mechanical forms; these at last were translated into English. For this reason a careful study of the wording of a deed of the eighteenth century in English will show that it is the counterpart of the same class of document in its older Latin form. Latin, like Norman-French, had had its day and was dying out. Finally, by George III.’s Act of Parliament the native language was ordered to be used for law work, and now Latin has become obsolete, so far as practical work is concerned. Understanding old legal Latin--once a necessity for a lawyer--has now become an antiquarian profession. One relic of Anglo-Saxon remained on in our language for many centuries. The double letter þ, ‘th,’ will be found in the written copies of monkish chartularies for place-names beginning with ‘th.’ Even so late as the fifteenth century we find it freely employed in English documents. I possess a copy of the criminal charges made against De la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, for high treason, 1450. Throughout the manuscript the Saxon þ appears in such words as ‘other,’ ‘that,’ ‘the,’ etc., which look curious written ‘oþer,’ ‘þt,’ ‘þe.’ The þ in some words was printed ‘y,’ which continued in use until the last century. I am not aware of any place-names having been altered by this change of lettering, but it is quite possible that some changes may have occurred through it. It would be easy for a person unaccustomed to the Saxon þ to mistake it for other letters, as ‘th,’ ‘p,’ or ‘y’ must be followed either by a vowel or the consonant ‘r,’ ‘ph’ in old documents being usually replaced by an ‘f.’ Of late years many absurd mistakes have been made by the Ordnance Surveyors in their maps, who, mistaking the local dialect, or from preconceived ideas as to what the names ought to be, have set down many incorrectly. On this subject I wrote formerly in a paper in the _Berkshire Archæological Magazine_. A man from the South of England fails to comprehend the Northern or Western dialects. Country-folk from the North cannot understand a word spoken by Southerners; this also would account for errors. Spelling, of course, has so much altered that it is no safe guide towards derivation; phonetic pronunciation of a word is more likely to give a clue to the origin. Field-names have been handed down orally from generation to generation; and it is very curious to observe how faithfully the phonetic sounds have been preserved among an illiterate people, long after the meanings of the words have disappeared.