Aug. 27. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



209 



your correspondent H. G. D. I have never heard 

 of but one portrait by West of Dr. Franklin, and 

 that was painted for my grandfather, Mr. Edward 

 Duffield, one of the executors of the Doctor's will, 

 and sent to him by the Doctor himself. It is now 

 in my possession, in excellent pi-eservation. A short 

 notice of it will be found in the ninth volume of 

 Franklin's Writings (Sparks's ed.), p. 493. 



Edward D. Ingbaham. 

 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, 



Derivation of '■'■Island" (Vol.viii., p. 49.). — H. C. 

 K.'s derivation of island from eye, the visual orb, 

 because each are surrounded by water, seems to 

 me so like a banter on etymologists, that I am 

 doubtful whether I ought to notice it ; but as our 

 Editor seems, by the space he has given it, to take 

 it as serious, I shall venture to say two or three 

 words upon it. H. C. K. begins by begging the 

 question : he says that " the etymon from the Fr. 

 isle. It. isola, Lat. insula, is manifestly erroneous^ 

 Now I think I can prove — and that by a single 

 word — that it is "manifestly" the true one. I 

 only reverse his order of placing these words; they 

 should stand, the mother first, the children after ; 

 instda Lat., isola It., isle Fr., and to them I add 

 my single word, which H. C. K. has chosen to 

 ignore altogether, isle English ; as. Isle of Wight, 

 Isle of Man, Isle of Thanet, Isles of Arran, &c. 

 This single word, thus supplied, is to my mind a 

 sufficient answer to H. C. K.'s theory ; but I may 

 add, as a corroboration, the peculiarity of retain- 

 ing in spelling, and dropping in pronunciation, the 

 s in the English isle and island, just as it is in the 

 French isle and islot. Indeed the relation between 

 the French and English words is, in this case, not 

 derivation but identity. I may also observe that 

 the Scotch and Irish names for an island, inch, innis, 

 ennis — as, Inck-ke'ith, Lmis-f-dWen, Ennis-kWlen 

 — are "manifestly" derived from instda, the com- 

 mon parent of all. I half suspect that H. C. K. 

 is a wag, and meant to try whether we should take 

 seriously what he meant as all my eye ! C. 



Spur (Vol.vi., pp.242. 329.). — To spiir is to 

 spere, by Gower written sper, to search or seek, 

 to inquire into ; and your correspondents might 

 have found the word fully treated and illustrated 

 by Jamieson, and more briefly by Richardson. 

 To ask at church is a common expression, and 

 Spur Sunday is merely Asking Sunday. Q. 



Bloomsbury. 



On the Use of the Hour-glass inPidpits (Vol.vii,, 

 p. 489.; Vol.viii., p. 82.). — The complete iron 

 framework of an hour-glass remained affixed to 

 the pulpit of Shelsley Beauchamp Church, Worces- 

 tershire, until the restoration of the church, about 

 eight years ago, by the present rector, the Rev. 

 D. Melville, who carefully preserved the hour- 

 glass relic. In order to show how much had been 



done for the church, I drew interior and exterior 

 views of the old building, with its great dilapi- 

 dations and unusually-monstrous disfigurements, 

 which drawings were hung in the vestry, at the 

 suggestion of the rector, as parish memorials ; a 

 proceeding which I think might be copied with 

 advantage in all cases of church restoration. In 

 the one drawing mentioned the hour-glass stand 

 Is a conspicuous object. Cuthbebt Bede, B.A. 



The following extract Is from a ti'act published 

 by the Cambridge Camden Society, entitled A few 

 Hints on the Practical Study of Ecclesiastical Anti- 

 quities : 



" Hour-glass Stand. A relick of Purltanick times, 

 Tliey are not very uncommon ; they generally stand 

 on the right-hand of the pulpit, and are made of iron. 

 Examples : Coton, Shepreth. A curious revolving 

 one occurs at Stoke D'Abernon, Surrey, and in St. John 

 Baptist, Bristol, vi^here the hour-glass itself remains. 

 Though a Puritanick innovation, it long kept its place: 

 for Gay in his Pastorals writes : 



* He said that Heaven would take her soul no doubt. 

 And spoke the hour-glass in her praise quite out : ' 



and it is depicted by the side of a pulpit in one of 

 Hogarth's paintings." 



I saw, a few weeks ago, an Iron hour-glass stand 

 affixed to the pulpit in Odell Church, Beds. 



W. P. Stoker. 

 OIney, Bucks. 



" The Inventorie of all such church goods, etc 



which the churchwardens [of Great Staughton, co. 

 Hunt.] are and stand charged with. May 31, 1640. 

 [_Inter alia.'] 



" Itm. A pulpit standinge in the church, having a 

 cover over the same, and an houre-glasse adjoininge." 



Joseph Rix. 

 St. Neots. 



Selling a Wife (Vol.vii., pp.429. 602.). — There 

 can be no question that this offence is an Indictable 

 misdemeanor. I made, at the time, a memoran- 

 dum of the following case : 



" West Riding Yorkshire Sessions, June 28, 1837. 

 Joshua Jackson, convicted of selling his wife, im- 

 prisoned for one month with hard labour." 



S. E. 



Chiswick. 



Impossibilities of History (Vol. vlii., p. 72.). — • 

 St. Bernard, according to Gibbon, lived from 1091 

 to 1153. Henry I., who did rebel against his 

 father, was twelve years older than the Saint, and 

 ascended the throne at the age of twenty-one in 

 the year 1100, when the Saint was nine yenrs old. 

 The descent from the devil alludes, I should think, 

 to Robert le Diable, the father of the Conqueror. 

 The historian of The Tablet found the authority 

 most probably In some theatrical review or fly-leaf 

 of the libretto. J. H. L. 



