NOTES AND QUERIES: 



A MEDIUM OP INTER-COMMUNICATION 

 roR 



LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. 



** IXTben found, make a note of." — Caftaik Cuitlz. 



No. 194.] 



Saturday, July 16. 1853. 



f With Index, price IQd. 

 i Stamped Edition, lid. 



CONTENTS. 

 Notes: — Page 



D?rivation of the Word " Island " - - - 49 



Weather Rules, by Edward Peacock - - - 50 



On the modern Practice of assuming Arms - - 50 



Morlee and Level, by L. B. Larking - • - 51 



Shakspeare Correspondence, by Robert Rawlinson and 



John Macray - - - - - - 51 



Unpublished Letter - - - - - 63 



Minor Notes : — Lines on the Institution of the Order 

 of the Garter — Old Ship — The Letter "h " in "hum- 

 ble" — "The Angels' Whisper" — Pronunciation of 

 Coke — The Advice supposed to have been given to 

 Julius 111. - - - - . - S3 



Queries : — 



Bishop Gardiner " De Vera Obedientia " . - 54 



Minor Queries: — Lord Byron — Curious Custom of 

 ringing Bells for the Dead — Unpublished Essay by 

 Lamb — Peculiar Ornament in Crosthwaite Church — . 

 Croinwell's Portrait — Governor Brooks — Old Books 

 — The Privileges of the See of Canterbury — Heraldic 

 Colour pertaining to Ireland — Descendants of Judas 

 Iscariot — Parish Clerks and Politics — " Virgin Wife 

 and widowed Maid " — " Cutting oft' the little H«ads of 

 Light " — Medal of Sir Robert Walpole — La Fete des 

 Chaudrons — Who first thought of Table-turning ? — 

 College Guide .-..-. 55 



Minor Queries with Answers: — Done Pedigree — 



Scotch Newspapers, &c Dictum de Kenihvorth — 



Dr. Harwood - - - . . - 57 



RErtiEs: — 



Names of Places, by J. J. A. Worsaae . - - 58 



Cleaning old Oak, by Henry Herbert Hele, &e. - - 58 



Burial in an Erect Posture, by Cuthbert Beds, B.A. - 59 



Lawyers' Bags ...... 59 



Photographic Correspondence :— New Photographic 

 Process -.-..--60 



Keplies to Minor Queries: — The King Finger — 

 The Order of St. John of Jerusalem — Calvin's Cor- 

 respondence — OM Booty's Case — Chatterton — . 

 House-marks, ^-c Bibliography. — Parochial Li- 

 braries — Faithful Teate — Lack-a-daisy — Bacon — 

 Angel-beast: Cleek : Longtriloo— Hans Krauwinckel 

 — Revolving Toy — Rub-a-dub — Muffs worn by 

 Gentlemen — Detached Church Towers — Christian 

 Names — Hogarth's Pictures — Old Fogie — Clem — 

 Kissing Hands — Uniform of the Foot Guards — Book 

 Inscriptions — Humbug — Sir Isaac Newton and 

 Voltaire on Railway Travelling — Engine-^- verge — 



" Populus vult decipi," &c Sir John Vanbrugh — 



Erroneous Forms of Speech — Devonianisms - 61 



Miscellaneous: — 



Books and Odd Volumes wanted • • • - C5 



Notices to Correspondents - - - - G6 



Advertisements - - • . - - 6G 



V0L.VIII. — No. 194. 



DERIVATION OF THE WORD "ISLAND." 



Lexicographers from time to time have handed 

 down to us, and proposed for our choice, two 

 derivations of our English word Island ; and, that 

 one of these two is correct, has, I believe, never yet 

 been called in question. The first which they 

 offer, and that most usually accepted as the true 

 one, is the A.-S. Ealand, JEalond, Igland ; Belg. 

 Eylandt : the first syllable of which, they inform 

 us, is ea, Low Germ, aue, water, i. e. water-land, 

 or land surrounded by water. If this etymon be 

 deemed unsatisfactory, they offer the following : 

 from the Fr. isle, It. isola, Lat. insula, the word 

 island, they say, is easily deflected. 



At the risk of being thought presumptuous, I 

 do not hesitate to say, that both these alternatives 

 are manifestly erroneous ; and, for the following 

 reasons, I propose a third source, which seems to 

 carry conviction with it : first, from analogy ; and 

 secondly, from the usage of the language from 

 which our English word is undoubtedly derived, 

 the Anglo-Saxon. 



First, from analogy. Let us only consider how 

 frequently names are given to parts of our hills, 

 shores, rivers, &c., from their supposed resem- 

 blance to parts of the human body. Thus, for 

 instance, we have a head land, a neck of land, a 

 tongue of land, a nose of land (as in Ness, in Or- 

 fordness, Dungeness, and, on the opposite coast, 

 Grinez) ; also a mouth of a river or harbour, a 

 brow of a hill, back or cliine of a hill, foot of a hill ; 

 an arm of the sea, snms or bosom of the sea. With 

 these examples, and many more like them, before 

 us, why should we ignore an eye of land as un- 

 likely to be the original of our word island? The 

 correspondence between the two is exact. How 

 frequently is the term eye applied to any small 

 spot standing by itself, and peering out as it were, 

 in fact an insulated spot : thus we have the eye of 

 an apple, the eye or centre of a target, the eye of 

 a stream (i. e. where the stream collects into a 

 point — a point well known to salmon fishers), and 

 very many other instances. What more natural 

 term, then, to apply to a spot of land standing 

 alone in the midst of an expanse of water than an 

 eye of land ? 



