38 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



C2°d s. No 80., July 11. '57, 



but supposing the six words cited may be taken 

 as the equivalents of " Prof.," might not " Pr." be 

 equally understood to mean pragmatical, prince, 

 prosy, prodigy, pretty, priggish, pretender, or any 

 other of the multitude of words rejoicing in "Pr." 

 for their commencing consonants ? If so, had we 

 better not " leave well alone?" M. C. 



Mr. Pr. A. De Morgan has certainly made a 

 very sensible suggestion, and one easily carried 

 out ; but would it not be preferable to drop the 

 word "Professor" altogether, without incurring 

 even a suspicion that it is done from want of re- 

 spect ? 



It is not usual at Oxford to give the prefix on 

 every occasion to those who hold such distin- 

 guished appointments ; and as the word is now 

 usurped by almost every settled and itinerant 

 lecturer and teacher of this, that, and the other, 

 and even piano-tuners, those who have an un- 

 doubted claim to it can hardly desire to hear the 

 incessant appellation. H. T. E. 



O'Neill Pedigree (2°'i S. iii. 117.)— A few 

 months ago a correspondent inquired where a full 



Eedigree of the O'Neill family, formerly kings of 

 Ulster, could be found, and another referred him 

 to some letters on the subject published in the 

 Belfast Commercial Chronicle. I beg to inform 

 them that no letters on the subject appeared in 

 the Chronicle, which is long since extinct ; but a 

 series of articles, thirteen in number, I believe, 

 appeared in the Belfast Daily Mercury, within 

 the last two or three years, from the pen of Charles 

 H. O'Neill, Esq., Barrister, Blessington Street, 

 Dublin, headed " O'Neill of Clanaboy," which 

 contained a large amount of family biography, 

 and matter of pedigree. In one of those interest- 

 ing papers, Mr. O'Neill announced that he was 

 engaged in writing the History of the House of 

 O'Neill. I understand he has several pedigrees 

 and other rare documents connected with the 

 O'Neill family. He is most accessible and obliging 

 in giving information, as I observed in reference 

 to inquiries from correspondents of the Mercury, 

 and your correspondent in all probability will 

 ascertain from him what he requires. The third 

 part, recently published, of Sir Bernard Burke's 

 valuable History of the Landed Gentry, also con- 

 tains under the head " O'Neill of Shanescastle," 

 a considerable amount of interesting information 

 on the family pedigree of the O'Neills. 



J. Mack ELL. 



Accidental Origin of Celebrated Pictures (2""^ S. 

 iii. p. 482.) — Admitting the truth of your talented 

 correspondent's remarks, "that all authentic ac- 

 counts relative to the production of famous pic- 

 tures cannot fail to interest," I may observe, that 

 the price stated to have been paid for Landseer's 

 " Distinguished Member of the Humane Society," 



(80Z.), is altogether erroneous, a sum much higher 

 (but the precise amount of which I am not at 

 liberty to mention), having been given for it. 

 With regard to the future bequest of this picture 

 to the National Gallery, I may state that such an 

 intention has never, I believe, been expressed by 

 the owner ; nor do I think it at all likely that 

 gentlemen, knowing the degradation to which 

 their paintings would be exposed in our national 

 lumber-rooms, will be persuaded into such be- 

 quests. 



It may be interesting to add, that the owner of 

 this chef-d'oeuvre of Landseer's possesses also a 

 picture by Haydon, the "Eucles," which was 

 painted, like the " Mock Election," in prison, to 

 raise a sum of 500Z. The picture was raffled for 

 in fifty tickets. The three highest numbers fell 

 to the Duke of Bedford, Mr. Strutt of Derby, and 

 Mr. Newman Smith. They all three threw again, 

 when the latter gained the prize. Haydon, after 

 this, borrowed the picture to exhibit to some of 

 his friends ; but during one of his frequent pecu- 

 niary embarrassments, the painting was seized by 

 his creditors, but restored to the rightful owner 

 on a proper explanation being made. Connected 

 with the painting of "Eucles," Mr. Newman 

 Smith has several interesting letters of Haydon, 

 which Mr. Tom Taylor might have inserted in 

 either of the editions of the painter's Autobiogra- 

 phy. Tripos. 



Archaisms and Provincialisms (2°^ S. iii. 382.) — 

 Kursmas teea. — I cannot help thinking a good 

 deal of ingenuity has been wasted over the ex- 

 planations that have been offered of Kursmas teea. 

 I have had many opportunities of hearing the 

 mode of speech common to that part of England, 

 and my belief is that " teea " is simply " too," in 

 the sense of also or moreover. The reading will 

 then be simply " that they had a grand day when 

 they went to beat the fire for a neighbour that 

 was baking — at Christmas, moreover, there were 

 the maskers — and on Christmas Day in the morn- 

 ing they had," &c., &c. G. Y. Gerson, Ebor. 



Chatterton's Portrait (2"'* S. iv. 11. et passim.) — 

 I am inclined to believe, with J. M. G., that Chat- 

 terton never sat to Gainsborough for his portrait ; 

 for had he done so, his vanity would certainly 

 have led him to mention the fact in one of his 

 letters to his mother or sister, supposing this 

 great Master had taken it in London ; and had it 

 been painted in Bristol, Cottle would have heard 

 of it, and traced it out when publishing with 

 Southey the " marvellous boy's " Works, 



Mr. Cottle possessed original drawings of 

 Southey, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Lamb, and Hen- 

 derson, and was accustomed to present intimate 

 friends with printed impressions of them bound 

 up together ; he often expressed his regret that 

 the absence of any authentic portrait of Chatter- 



