Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/184

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9*s. i. FEB. 26, m

principal histories of the other counties might be consulted in the first instance. J. T. F. Durham.

ANNE MAY (9 th S. i. 88). If she was married to Randall Fowke in India (on 21 December, 1713) some particulars of her parentage should appear in the entry of that marriage in the records of the India Office, Whitenall (Ad- ministrator-General's Department).

C. MASON.

29, Emperor's Gate, S.W.

" LAIR " (8 th S. xii. 507 ; 9 th S. i. 133). Any one Avho wishes to understand this word has only to look out the A.-S. leger in Bosworth and Toller's 'A.-S. Dictionary.' This, of course, is the most obvious source of informa- tion, and is therefore wholly neglected by many readers. ^ The same book explains leger-wlte, of which leirwite is a later spelling. The etymology is ^ correctly given in my 'Dictionary,' and is nothing new. It is correctly given by Kluge, in his ' German Etymological Dictionary,' s. v. ' Lage ' ; by Franck, in his ' Dutch Etymological Diction- ary,' s.v. 'Leger'; and in all foreign diction- aries of a like class. It is also rightly given even in the old edition of Webster, in Todd's ' Johnson,' and most English dictionaries of recent date. Certainly no foreign scholar would feel "tolerably safe in connecting it withW. llawr, 'S. floor."

WALTER W. SKEAT.

THE LATE DUKE OF KENT : THE FENCIBLES (9 th S. i. 108). H.R.H. Prince Edward, after- wards created Duke of Kent, the father of Her Majesty the Queen, arrived at Quebec from Gibraltar on 11 Aug., 1791, in either the Ulysses or the Resolution, the two frigates sailing in company. On 22 Jan., 1794, he left Quebec and travelled overland to Boston, whence he sailed for the West Indies in the Roebuck, of six guns, probably an armed merchant ship. On 10 May following he arrived at Halifax in the frigate Blanche, in ten days from St. Kitt's. He left Halifax on 23 Oct., 1798, in the frigate Topaz, and arrived at Portsmouth in due course. On 6 Sept., 1 799, he returned to Halifax in the frigate Arethusa, forty-three days from England. He left Halifax finally on 4 Aug., 1800, in the Assist- ance, either a fifty-gun ship or a frigate, and arrived at Portsmouth on 31 Aug. He was never afterwards in America. In November, 1798, the inhabitants of the island of St. John resolved to have the name changed to Prince Edward Island, and this was officially done in June, 1799. But there is no record that the Duke of Kent ever visited the island,

though he made tours in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. These particulars are given in the ' Life of the Duke of Kent,' by William J. Anderson; and in Beamish Murdoch's 'His- tory of Nova Scotia.'

During the war between England and the United States, in 1812, two regiments of Fencibles were raised in Canada, the Cana- dian Fencibles and the Glengary Fencibles. MR. WARREN might possibly obtain parti- culars about the officers of these regiments from the Secretary of the Quebec Historical Society. His name and exact address are hardly needed, but might be obtained at 17, Victoria Street, S.W., the office of the Cana- dian Commissioner in London. M. N. G.

Wiesbaden.

PORTRAIT OF NAPOLEON BY ROBERT LEFEVRE (9 th S. i. 7, 115). I have reason to think that the portrait of Napoleon to which the DUCHESS OF WELLINGTON alludes is now in my posses- sion. For fifty years it was in the keeping of Mr. Copling, a gentleman who possessed one of the finest collections of Napoleon relics in England. At Mr. Copling's death this pic- ture passed to Mr. W. Fenton, by whom it was sold at Christie's in 1893. A fine en- graving by Cousins taken from this portrait is now the property of Mr. Algernon Graves. It represents Napoleon in his usual uniform (green coat, red collar, orders and decorations), wearing a cocked hat, which casts a deep shadow on the upper part of his face. It is a lurid likeness of the great conqueror, and must have been taken most faithfully from the life. It certainly forms a strong con- trast to the other, far more nattering portrait of Napoleon by Robert Lefevre (otherwise Febure), which hangs in the Salon des Rois at Versailles. RICHARD EGDCUMBE.

33, Tedworth Square, Chelsea.

ACKERLEY (9 th S. i. 109). There is no diffi- culty. Acker- is our Mod. E. acre, from A.-S. cecer; and ley is Mod. E. lea, from A.-S. leak. In the A.-S. cecer the ce was short ; but it has been lengthened by dividing the word as a-cre, and stressing the former syllable. In the compound acker-ley the a remains short, because the additional syllable ley has been added. Compare nation with national, ration with rational, where the addition of -al has shortened an a which was once long. Middle- English has the compounds aker-land and aker-man, corresponding to Mod. G. Ackerland and Ackermann. The A.-S. ac, oak, has given us A c ton, Ackland, Ackworth, in which the long a has been shortened under stress, before two consonants ; whereas in Ackerley a short a has been preserved. The names of Oak-ham,