Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/60

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. x. JULY is, im.

flower, flourish ; foal, filly; food, fodder ; fore, fore- head ; fur, furrier.

Game, gammon ; gloze, glossary ; good, gospel ; goose, gosling ; grade, gradual ; grain, granite ; green, Greenwich ; gold, guilder.

Hale (to haul), halyard : hare, harrier ; hear, hearken ; heave, heavy ; heir, heritage ; hind (as in " hind-leg"), hinder ; hole, hollow ; house, husband (huswife, hustings).

Joke, jocular.

Keel, kelson; know, knowledge (which rimes with "college").

Lace, latchet; late, latter; life, living; lime <tree), linden ; line, linear ; lithe, lissom ; lyre, lyric.

Mall (a hammer), mallet ; mead, meadow ; mere, mermaid ; mile, milfoil ; mime, mimic ; mode, model ; muse (verb), muzzle.

Niece, nephew ; nose, nostril.

Oil, olive ; out, utter (utmost).

Pale, pallid ; pale, palisade ; pane, panel ; paste, patty ; peace, pacify ; pipe, pipkin ; plate, platter ; please, pleasure; poke, pocket; post, posture; prate, prattle ; prime, primer ; pain, punish.

Quake, quagmire.

Rail (to scold), rally ; rate, ratify ; read, riddle ; ride, ready ; rite, ritual ; room, rummage ; row, rowlock.

Saint, samphire ; sane, sanity ; sate, satisfy ; sauce, sausage ; school, scholar ; scoop, scupper ; scribe, scribble ; seam, sempstress ; seat, settle ; shade, shadow ; sheep, shepherd ; shield, sheldrake ; shire, sheriff; shoot, shuttle; sign, signal (signet).; sire, sirrah ; site, situate ; soup, supper ; sour, sorrel : south, Sussex ; Spain, spaniel ; spice, special ; spine, spinet ; spout, sputter ; steer, starboard ; state, statue ; stone, staniel, sty, stirrup.

Throat, throttle ; tone, tonic ; touse, tussle ; trope, tropic.

Vale, valley ; vain, vanity ; vase, vascular ; veal, vellum ; vine, vineyard.

Wade, waddle ; waist, waistcoat ; white, Whit- sunday (whitleather) ; wild, wilderness ; wine, wim- Tserry ; wind (verb), windlass ; wife, woman.

Zeal, zealous.

There are probably many more ; but these may suffice to show how common it is to find shorter vowels in longer words.

The same law prevails even when the primary word is of more than one syllable.

Examples : Audacious, audacity ; Bible, biblio- graphy ; crisis, critical ; fable, fabulous ; female, feminine ; grateful, gratitude ; holy, hollyhock {holiday) ; Michael, Michaelmas ; sacred, sacrifice, &c.

And even when both words are mono- syllabic, the longer form often has a short- ened vowel.

Examples : Broad, breadth; clean, cleanse; cleave, cleft ; deep, depth ; flow, flood ; thief, theft ; weal, wealth ; writhe, wrist. And many others.

It is easy to remember the general idea, viz., the longer the word, the shorter the vowel. WALTER W. SKEAT.

DR. JOHNSON'S ANCESTORS AND CONNEXIONS.

(See 10 S. viii. 281, 382, 462 ; ix. 43, 144, 302, 423.)

The Rev. John Batteridge Pearson (con- tinued). The Rev. George Pearson, the eldest son, had issue by Catherine Humber- ston, his wife, seven sons and five daughters :

1. George Falconer Pearson, of Downton, New Radnor, J.P. co. Radnor, late Colonel Madras Staff Corps. He was born in 1826, and married, in 1864, as his first wife, Caroline, daughter of the Hon. James Augustus Erskine, and niece of the twelfth Earl of Kellie. She died in 1865, and Col. Pearson married, in 1870, as his second wife, Emma, daughter of the Hon. J. Colvin, late Lieutenant-Governor N.W.P., India, by whom he has issue. To Col. Pearson has descended a portrait of Capt. Jervis Henry Porter, R.N., Dr. Johnson's eldest stepson, which hangs in Castle Camps Rectory, whither it was moved on the death of old Mrs. Pearson in 1856. The portrait, which is full size, represents a middle-aged man in naval uniform. The late George Richmond, A.R.A., who saw it, expressed the opinion that it was by one of Hogarth's pupils. Col. Pearson also owns the portraits of Mrs. Johnson the Doctor's " Tetty " and Lucy Porter, as a child, which, however, both hang at Nantlys, St. Asaph, the residence of his younger brother Philip (see 4). Of the former of these portraits Mrs. Piozzi wrote : " The picture I found of her at Litchfield was very pretty, and her daughter, Mrs. Lucy Porter, said it was like."

2. Charles Pearson, born 1831, of the Indian Civil Service.

3. John Batteridge Pearson, born 1832, Rector of Whitestone, Exeter, since 1883. He is M.A. St. John's College, Cambridge, and D.D. ; a Fellow of Emmanuel ; was Bell's University Scholar in 1854 ; and has made some contributions to literature.

4. Philip Pennant Pearson, born 5 August, 1834. Thomas Pennant, the traveller, who, as I have already explained, married Elizabeth, daughter of James Falconer, R.N., and aunt of Mrs. John Batteridge Pearson, left by her a son David Pennant, who died in 1841, leaving his Bodfari and other Pennant estates, in the event of his granddaughter Louisa dying without issue, to Philip Pennant Pearson, the grandson of his first cousin. Louisa, who was the only child of David Pennant the younger