Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/241

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ii s.x. SEPT. 19, i9i4.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


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is supposed to have suggested to Sir Walter Scott the similar treatment of Isaac of York by Front-de-Boeuf in ' Ivanhoe.' By the slaughter of Kennedy of Bargany the head of a rival faction of the family in 1601 the " King of Carrick " attained the height of his power, and the lines quoted by MR. RATCLIFFE may well have been written about this time. The version he quotes differs from that usually given, but there are several variants. Mr. Stevenson in his recently published ' Heraldry in Scotland,' when discussing the practice of the assump- tion of clan -names by persons anxious for the protection of some powerful family, quotes the lines as follows :

'Twixt Wigtoune and the town of Aire, And laigh down by the cruive of Cree ;

You shall not get a lodging there, Except ye court wi' Kennedy. T. F. D. " SUPERSUBSTANTIAL " (11 S. viii. 105).

Looking through St. Cyril of Jerusalem's

  • Mystagogical Lectures ' for Catechumens, I

came, in the fifth of them, upon the following at 15, which relates to' the petition for " daily bread " in the Lord's Prayer :

6 CI/3TOS OVTOS 6 KOIVOS OVK ZfTTlV 7TtOrVtO9,

apros Se ovros 6 ayios tTTtowio? loriv, avrt TOV ri Trjv oixriav rfjs fax*)'* Ka.TaTaoxro/zei'os. It will be remembered that the date of St. Cyril's lectures on the Mysteries is about 386. The mistake in etymology is here not to the point which is that a sense other than quotidianus was by that time attached to the Greek word rtov<rios itself. The pas- sage goes on to say that this bread OVK els


iracrav crov rnv o-vcrracriv


PEREGRINUS.

LAXGBAINE : WHITFIELD : WHITEHEAD :

ETYMOLOGY OF GAELIC NAMES (11 S. x. 190).

Two thousand years ago Gaelic was the

language spoken in England, Scotland, and

Ireland. It is still spoken to a small extent

in Scotland, but not in England, yet I

< believe that there arejmore Gaelic personal and

place- names in England than in Scotland.

Whit field was originally Achadh cuit, meaning field of the cattlefold, but cuit had been made chuit, to show that it qualified achadk. When Gaelic began to give way to English, about 1100 A.D., achadh was translated into "field" and put last, and thuit was supposed to be an English word and made " white," shortened now to " whit."


Whitehead was originally Cuit, fold, which had been made chuit, and subsequently changed to "white," supposed to be an English adjective, and therefore put first. The second part (head) had been originally cuid, another form of cuit (fold), and it had been made chuid, and added to " white " to tell its meaning. Chuid is pronounced hu-id, c in ch being silent, and huid lapsed into "head," as it also did in Leatherhead and Maidenhead, in both of which it means " fold."

Whitehall represents the Gaelic word Cuitail, fold, which is cuit with the euphonic extension ail added. C had been made ch, which had become wh, and thus cuitail became "whitail," subsequently made " whitehill" to get an English word.

Langbaine had originally been Cuitail, which had been converted into Whitehill : but this had been supposed to be English, and "hill" had been turned into lamhan, a Gaelic word meaning a hill, pronounced Ian, because mh had became silent and had been lost. It is nasal, and Ian became lang. White, the first part, had been turned into ban, a Gaelic word meaning white, now made baine. Thus Langbaine means Whitehill. JOHN MILNE, LL.D.

Aberdeen.

BRITISH COINS AND STAMPS (11 S. x. 191). 1. The rule since the Restoration, with but few exceptions, has been that the head of the monarch is reversed, in successive reigns, on the coinage. Charles II. upon his hammered money (1660-62), like his father and Cromwell, looks to the left ; but upon his milled money (1662 onwards) with the exception of the copper and tin issue to the right. James II., therefore, almost always looks to the left. The profiles of William and Mary, and of William III. alone, are turned to the right ; and so on, until we come to George V., who looks to the left again.

The profile of Queen Victoria is turned to the left the heraldic dexter. This is the more obvious and convenient position of the two ; for in the West we read and write from left to right, from the heraldic dexter to the sinister. This may account for the head on the stamps and postal orders.

2. The lighthouse and ship made, I think, their first appearance upon the penny and its subdivisions of 1860-94. These were of bronze, the former issue being of copper. L. C. Wyon, chief engraver at the Royal Mint, was responsible for them. On the penny and its subdivisions of 1895, Queen