2nd s. N« 69^ Fbb. 14. '67.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



129 



Pope's letter, with criticism on and prose trans- 

 lation of Adrian's verses, Animula vagula ; but 

 the Dying Christian, no matter by what suggested, 

 is a well-known and distinct poem. M. C. A. 



Minax dkntxiti tottib ^niiaeri*. 



Sodor : Origin of the See. — I am not aware 

 that the origin of this much disputed word has 

 been made the subject of discussion in the pages 

 of "N. & Q. ;" if so, its notice has escaped me. 

 Sudurayer was a term used by the Northmen to 

 indicate the relative position of certain islands off 

 the western coast of Scotland, and seems to have 

 implied nothing more than the Southern Isles. 

 The Northern Isles, or Orkneys, with others ad- 

 jacent, were called lay the Norwegians and Danes 

 Nordurayer; the Southern (including the He- 

 brides), Sudurayer. The term Sodor would, there- 

 fore, apply most strictly to the southernmost 

 group of the Western Isles, especially those lying 

 nearest to the Isle of Man, which were at one 

 time annexed to the sovereignty and diocese of 

 that island. Hence the designation of what was 

 formerly a united diocese, now applied to the 

 Bishopric of Man. This See was erected by Pope 

 Gregory IV. in the ninth century. Sodor, a vil- 

 lage of lona or Icolmkill, one of the Hebrides, 

 and formerly the seat of a bishopric of the " Isles," 

 is said, on whijt authority I know not, to have 

 given its name to the See. F. Phillott. 



[The origin of the title, Sodor and Man, and particu- 

 larly of the word Sodor, is somewhat curious, and indica- 

 tive of the various ecclesiastical changes in the extent 

 of the diocese at different periods. The Rev. J. G. Gum- 

 ming, in his interesting work, The Isle of Man, 1848, 

 p. 338., has collected the following historical notices of 

 this see : — " Originally, as now, the diocese was re- 

 stricted to the Isle of Man. There is no reason to dis- 

 pute the generally received tradition that it was consti- 

 tuted by St. Patrick, who in 447 left St. Germanus first 

 bishop. The bishopric of Sodor and the Hebrides or 

 Western Isles was instituted in 838 by Pope Gregory IV., 

 the name of Sodor, says Bishop Wilson, being taken from 

 the cathedral church in lona dedicated to our Saviour, in 

 Greek Swtijp (Soter). At the same time, it is to be ob- 

 served, that the thirty islands constituting this bishopric 

 went by the name of the Sudereys, i. e. Southern Islands, 

 another group to the north going by the name of Nor- 

 dereys; and we often find in the Chronicles of Rushen, 

 the terms Bishop of the Sudoer and Bishop of the Isles 

 convertible. And this seems the most probable deriva- 

 tion of the term Sodor. But in the year 1098, Magnus 

 of Norway, having conquered not only the Western Isles, 

 but Man, the bishoprics of Sodor and Man were united,* 

 and so continued till the close of the fourteenth century, 

 when the English having conquered, and being in pos- 

 session of the Isle of Man on the death of John Dunkan, 

 A.D. 1380, the clergy of lona and the Isles elected for 

 their bishop a person named John, and the clergy of Man 



* The Archbishop of Drontheim, called Nidorensis 

 Episcopus, was Metropolitan, and the consecration took 

 place at his hands. 



made an election of Robert Waldby for their prelate.* 

 At the same time the Bishops of Man still retained their 

 title of Bishops of Sodor, giving the name Sodor to the 

 little island near Peel,f in which the cathedral of St. 

 German was built, and which had previously' been called 

 St. Patrick's Isle. 



" Thus we see that the term Bishop of Man is the most 

 ancient ; and the title of Bishop of Sodor is equivalent to 

 the Bishop of lona and the Southern Isles, Bishop of 

 Sodor and Man the united diocese of the Sudereys (or 

 Southern Isles) and Man ; and Bishop of Sodor of Man, 

 means Bishop of the cathedral church in the little islet 

 called Sodor adjoining or belonging to Man. 



" The Scotch bishops, after the separation, never seem 

 to have adopted the terra Sodor, but only ' Bishop of the 

 Isles,' whilst the Manx bishop seems to have retained 

 the title on the same principle that the kings of England 

 retained the title of King of France, long after they 

 ceased to be possessed of any territory therein."] 



Horse-power. — Will any of the contributors to 

 " N. & Q." do me the favour to inform me whether 

 by the term " horse-power," as applied to steam- 

 engines, any and what determinate quantity of 

 force is implied ? If this is already settled, it has 

 escaped my observation ; if it is not yet deter- 

 mined, I venture to remark that in the present 

 advanced state of science, some more specific mode 

 of ascertaining the force of steam-engines may be 

 expected to be established than the capricious es- 

 timate of the power of horses ; for who, on seeing 

 the horses at Tattersall's and those at Meux's 

 brewery, can satisfactorily state the force to be 

 understood when designated by the term " horse- 

 power ? " J. B. 



Gibraltar. 



[We cannot do better than quote Hugo Reid's sensible 

 remarks on the use of this term : — "In speaking of the 

 power or force which an engine exerts, it is necessary to 

 have some measure of force, or standard of reference. 

 That used in this country is a horse-power, a force equal 

 to that which the average strength of a horse was be- 

 lieved capable of exerting. This has been estimated at 

 33,000 avoirdupois pounds weight, raised one foot high in 

 a minute. There have been different estimates as to the 

 real power of horses; and it is now considered that, 

 taking the most advantageous rate for using horse-power, 

 the medium power of that animal is equal to about 

 22,000 lbs. raised one foot high per minute. However, 

 the other, 33,000 lbs., is taken as the standard, and is 

 what is meant when a horse-power is spoken of. In com- 

 paring the power of a steam-engine with that of horses 

 applied to do the same work, it must be remembered that 

 the engine horse-power is 33,000 lbs. raised one foot per 

 minute, the real horse-power only 22,000 lbs. ; and that 

 the engine will work unceasingly for twenty-four hours, 

 while the horse works at that rate only eight hours. 



* The Bishops of Man were then consecrated by the 

 Archbishop of Canterbury, though they had been in more 

 ancient times, as now, consecrated by the Archbishop of 

 York ; and the Bishops of Sodor (or of the Isles, as they 

 were then called), were consecrated by the Archbishop of 

 Glasgow. 



t Thus we read in the grant made by Thomas, Earl of 

 Derby, in 1505, to Huan Hesketh, of " Ecclesiam Cathe- 

 dralem Sancti German! in Holm, Sodor vel Peel vocatam, 

 Ecclesiamque Sancti Patricii ibidem." 



