Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/55

 ii s. i. JAN. lo, 1910.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

47

phonetically the curious sound given by Irish speakers to the surname O'Farrell, which in Gaelic is written O'Fearghaoil, and by a rather violent contraction is collo- quially reduced to one syllable, as it were O'Fraoil. The diphthong in O'Friel is .meant to be pronounced in German fashion. In the place-name Abbey Leix, from Gaelic Laoighis, the vowels are reversed, and the Gaelic aoi becomes ei in English, but the sound is the same Abbey Lees.

JAS. PLATT, Jun.

H. B. BURLOWE : P. F. CHENTJ. Mr. Algernon Graves in his ' Royal Academy Exhibitors,* ii. 350, registers the exhibits of Henry Behnes Burlowe, a sculptor, at the R.A. 1831-3. From the section with the heading ' Last Days of William Behnes l in Robert Kempt's ' Pencil and Palette, 1 1881, p. 35, it appears, that Burlowe was born Chenu :

" The house in which the Behnes family resided was rented by a French sculptor named Chenn tan obvious typographical error for Chenu], a man of considerable ability. From him the second son, Henry, who afterwards assumed the name of Burlowe, picked up a knowledge of modelling in clay."

The Chenu referred to was Peter Francis henu, who exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1788 to 1822; from 1811 onward his address was 23, Charles Street, Middlesex Hospital, which was also Behnes' s address in 1817, but in that year only. These facts may be useful in preventing future con- tusion. W. ROBERTS.

VERMONT, ORIGIN OF THE NAME : DR. S. A. PETERS. ' An Account of the Babtism [sic] of the Green - mountain by the Rev. Samuel A. Peters, LL.D., Bishop-elect of the State of Vermont,' is to be found in The Balance, Hudson, N.Y., 15 March, 1808, copied from The Dartmouth Gazette. It purports to be taken from a MS. note in a volume written by Dr. Peters, who is said to have given the name of Verd-mont to the mountain in the presence of Col. Taplin, Col. Wiles, Col. Peters, Judge Sumner, Judge Sleeper, Capt. Peters, Judge Peters, and many other proprietors in that colony :

"The Babtism was performed in the following manner and form, viz. Priest Peters stood on the pinnacle of the rock, when he received a bottle of spirits from Col. Taplin."

He then delivered a bombastic address, poured the spirits around him, and cast the bottle on " the rock Etam. Ji

The whole thing reads like a hoax. The date of the occurrence is given as October, l ? 68 - RICHARD H. THORNTON.

TOPOGRAPHICAL DEEDS. I should like to draw the attention of fellow-topographers to the unique and valuable county cata- logues* of " Deeds and other Documents " now in course of publication in serial form by Mr. F. Marcham, of 9, Tottenham Terrace, White Hart Lane, Tottenham, successor to the late Mr. James Coleman the well-known antiquarian bookseller. Of these catalogues, the successive issues of which are sent post free to applicants at the time of publication, that for Middlesex is now complete in eight parts, containing references to over three thousand deeds dating from the fifteenth century onward ; and those for Surrey, Berkshire, and Buckinghamshire are in course of alternate monthly issue. It will, I think, be generally agreed that these catalogues deserve further mention in ' N. & Q. 5 ' than they obtain occasionally under the heading of ' Booksellers' Cata- logues.* WILLIAM McMuRRAY.

HENRY COMPTON, BISHOP OF LONDON. This celebrated prelate is embalmed in the saying that " St. Paul's was built by one architect (Wren), presided over by one Bishop (Compton), and had one Master Mason (Strong).' 1

Of this prelate, who had been tutor to the Princesses Mary and Anne, and had placed the crown on the head of King William III. and Queen Mary, Macaulay tells us that he was " cruelly disappointed " at not receiving the See of Canterbury, which was conferred per saltum on Tillotson. Afterwards Tenison was translated from Lincoln to Canterbury. Compton's claims were undoubtedly great, and he had not shrunk from braving a tyrant's rage. He died at Fulham in 1713, at the good old age of eighty.

There are many fine portraits of this celebrated prelate. One, a full-length, is on the staircase at Castle Ashby, the stately home of the race ; and my old friend Dr. Magrath, Provost of Queen's College, Oxford, where he was educated, has in his dining-room a portrait of the Bishop.

Many years ago I paid a visit to Compton Wynyates, the old home of the family before they became so great, and I can remember seeing in the hall window the arms of Henry VIII. impaling those of Aragon, showing that the house was built before the divorce. The little church is close at hand, and was then in a state of disrepair, bhe only memorial of the Comptons being a large hatchment of the family. Some ponds hard by were literally alive with fish.