Sept. 17. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



279 



The Use of the Hour-glass in Pulpits (Vol. vii., 

 p. 589. ; Vol. viii., p. 82.). — Your correspondent 

 A. W. S. having called attention to the use of the 

 hour-glass in pulpits (Vol. vii., p. 589.), I beg to 

 mention two instances in which I have seen the 

 stands which formerly held them. The first is at 

 Pilton Church, near Barnstaple, Devon, where it 

 still (at least very lately it did) remain fixed to 

 the pulpit ; the other instance is at Tawstock 

 Church (called, from its numerous and splendid 

 monuments, the Westminster Abbey of Korth 

 Devon), but here it has been displaced, and I saw 

 it lying among fragments of old armoui", banners, 

 &c., in a room above the vestry. They were 

 similar in form, each representing a man's arm, 

 cut out of sheet iron and gilded, the hand holding 

 the stand ; turning on a hinge at the shoulder it 

 lay flat on the panels of the pulpit when not in 

 use. When extended it would project about a 

 yard. Balliolensxs. 



George Poulson, Esq., in his History and Anti- 

 quities of the Seignory of Holderness (vol. ii. 

 p. 419.), describing Keyingham Church, says 

 that — 



" The pulpit is placed on the south-east corner ; 

 beside it is an iron frame-work, used to contain an 

 hour-glass." 



Edward Peacock;. 



Bottesford Moors, Kirton-in-Lindsey. 



Derivation of the Word "Island" (Vol. viii., 

 p. 209.). — Your correspondent C. gives me credit 

 for a far greater amount of humour than I can 

 honestly lay claim to. He appears (he must ex- 

 cuse me for saying so) to have scarcely read 

 through my observations on the derivation of the 

 word island, which he criticises so unmercifully ; 

 and to have understood very imperfectly what he 

 has read. For instance, he says that my " deri- 

 vation of island from eye, the visual orb, because 

 each are (sic) surrounded by water, seems like 

 banter," &c. Had I insisted on any such analogy, 

 I should indeed have laid myself open to the 

 charge ; but I did nothing of the kind, as he will 

 find to be the case, if he will take the trouble of 

 perusing what I wrote. My remarks went to 

 show, that, in the A.-S. compounded terms, Ea- 

 lond, Igland, &c., from which our word island 

 comes, the component ea, ig, &c., does not mean 

 water, as has hitherto been supposed to be the 

 case, but an eye; and that on this supposition 

 alone can the simple ig, used to express an island, 

 be explained. Will C. endeavour to explain it in 

 any other way ? 



Throughout my remarks, the word isle is not 

 mentioned. And why ? Simply because it has 

 no unmediate etymological connexion with the 

 word isla7id,^ being merely the French word na- 

 turalised. The word isle is a simple, the word 



island a compound term. It is surely a fruitless 

 task (as it certainly is unnecessary for any one, 

 with the latter word ready formed to his hand in 

 the Saxon branch of the Teutonic, and, from its 

 very form, clearly of that family), to go out of his 

 way to torture the Latin into yielding something 

 utterly foreign to it. My belief is, that the re- 

 semblance between these two words is an acci- 

 dental one ; or, more properly, that it is a question, 

 whether the introduction of an s into the word 

 island did not originate in the desire to assimilate 

 the Saxon and French terms. H. C. K. 



A Cob-wall (Vol. viii., p. 151.). — A "cob" is 

 not an unusual word in the midland counties, 

 meaning a lump or small hard mass of anything : 

 it also means a blow; and a good "cobbing" is 

 no unfamiliar expression to the generality of school- 

 boys. A " cob-wall," I imagine, is so called from 

 its having been made of heavy lumps of clay, 

 beaten one upon another into the form of a wall. 

 I would ask, if " gob," used also in Devonshire 

 for the stone of any fruit which contains a kernel, 

 is not a cognate word ? W. Fkaser. 



Tor Mohun. 



Oliver CromwelVs Portrait (Vol. vi. passim), — 

 In reference to this Query, the best portrait of 

 Oliver Cromwell is in the Baptist College here, 

 and 500 guineas have been refused for it. 



I am not aware if it is the one alluded to by 

 your correspondents. The picture is small, and 

 depicts the Protector without armour : it is by 

 Cooper, and was left to its present possessors by 

 the Eev. Andrew Gilford, a Baptist minister, in 

 1784. 



Two copies have been made of it, but the 

 original has never been engraved ; from one of the 

 copies, however, an engraving is in process of ex- 

 ecution, after the picture by Mr. Newenham, of 

 " Cromwell dictating to Milton his letter to the 

 Duke of Savoy." The likeness of Cromwell in 

 this picture is taken from one of the copies. 



The original is not allowed to be taken from off 

 the premises on any consideration, in consequence 

 of a dishonest attempt having been made, some time 

 ago, to substitute a copy for it. Beistoliensis. 



Manners of the Irish (Vol. viii., pp. 5. 111.). — 

 A slight knowledge of Gaelic enables me to sup- 

 ply the meaning of some of the words that have 

 puzzled your Irish correspondents. Molchan 

 (Gaelic, Mulachan) means " chuse." 



" Deo gracias, is smar in Doleagh." 

 I take to mean " Thanks to God, God is good." 

 In Gaelic the spelling would be — "is math in 

 Dia." A Roman Catholic Celt would often hear 

 his priest say " Deo Gratias." 



The meaning of the passage seems to be pretty 

 clear, and may be rendered thus: — The Irish 

 farmer, although in the abundant enjoyment of 



