26
NOTES AND QUERIES.
I. JAN. 8, '98.
when they realized the total of 68 guineas, and
thence passed into the possession of the Earl of
Mansfield : this pair was exhibited at South Ken-
sington in 1867 (Nos. 433, 441). Quite recently a
second pair was acquired by the National Gallery
from Messrs. P. & D. Colnaghi, for a sum of about
400. the two; this is the pair from which the en-
gravings were made by P. Dawe (not G. Dawe as
stated in the sale catalogue). The portrait sold on
Saturday is that of the ironer, a lady in blue and
white dress and white cap and blue ribbon, seated
at a table, ironing cambric slips : it measures 30 in.
by 25 in., and is regarded as the finest of the several
examples of this picture : bidding started at 200
guineas, and the hammer fell at the extraordinary
price of 3,250 guineas, the purchaser being Mr.
Charles Wertheimer, Messrs. Agnew being the
underbidden. Hitherto no example of this artist,
sometimes called ' Old Morland,' has realized more
than a few pounds in the auction-room, so that the
above amount can only be described as perhaps the
most remarkable incident in the picture sales of
the present year. The portrait was among the
property of the Mary Ratcliff Chambers trust."
KlLLIGREW.
EYKE. (See 8 th S. xii. 461.) Eyre, as shown by the thirteenth century forms Le Heir and Le Eyr, doubtless usually means "the heir"; but Ayre seems to be of another origin, being a topographic name from the same source as the county town of Ayrshire and Air in the Orkneys; also the Point of Ayr in Man and in Cheshire. These we must refer to the Scandinavian eyrt\ meaning a gravelly bank, a beach, or a spit of shingle, which we have in Elsinore and Eyrar in Denmark.
ISAAC TAYLOR.
"Ox THE CARPET." The absurd and mis- leading translation of the French phrase sur le tapis dies hard. In a leading daily news- paper which enjoys a deservedly high reputa- tion for its literary articles, the following passage occurs :
"The book in which Prince Henry of Orleans describes his travels, ' From Tonkin to India,' has been on the carpet for some time."
HENRY ATTWELL.
Barnes.
"M.P." (See 8 th S. xii. 405.)-It may be noted, in connexion with D.'s statement that in the official * Hansard ' of the latest Australasian Federal Convention the letters M.P. are attached to the name of every member of both houses of all the colonial legislatures, that more than one authority is to be found for the idea that in this country the term "Member of Parlia- ment " is as applicable to a peer as to one who sits in the House of Commons. This scarcely accords with the statement of PROF. GAIRDNER in ' N. & Q.' (8 th S. iv. 137) :
"In 1642 an instance is supplied by Mr. W. D. Hamilton in which the term r Member of Parlia-
ment ' means distinctly a member of either House;
but its application, of course, became restricted by
the abolition of the House of Lords, and after the
Restoration men had become so accustomed to the
narrower use that it was not again extended to
members of the upper house."
It happens, however, that on 29 July, 1661, an entry was made in the ' Lords' Journals ' concerning Lord Abergavenny, "who is a Peer of this Kealm, and a Member of Parlia- ment " (vol. xi. p. 327); and this was in accordance with the idea of a reference in a petition from New College, Oxford, presented on 15 November, 1648, to " Members of both Houses of Parliament " (ibid., vol. x. p. 591); while D'Ewes, writing of 1597, had alluded to
"the Lord Burleigh, Lord Treasurer, the most ancient Parliament man of any that were at that time present either of the Upper House or House of Commons." Sir Simonds I) Ewes, ' Journals of All the Parliaments during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth,' p. 539.
"Parliament man," of course, is the obso- lete equivalent of the present "Member of Parliament."
The underlying idea has never died out, and it has more than once received dis- tinguished sanction. George, Prince of Wales (afterwards George IV.), in his maiden speech in the House of Lords on 31 May, 1792. upon the king's proclamation against seditious writings, observed that
" on a question of such magnitude he should be deficient in his duty as a member of parliament, unmindful of that respect he owed to the constitu- tion, and inattentive to the welfare and the happiness of the people, if he did not state what was his opinion.' Cobbett's 'Parliamentary His- tory,' vol. xxix. f. 1516.
And when the Earl of Malmesbury, as Lord Privy Seal, announced in the House of Lords on 25 February, 1868, the resignation by Lord Derby of the Premiership, he expressed the hope that the Legislature might again have the advantage of that statesman's experience, and enjoy the charm of his eloquence, "as an independent Member of Parliament" (Hansard's 'Parliamentary De- bates,' Third Series, vol. cxc. f. 1096).
There may be added, as a curiosity, an instance of a member of the House of Commons being styled a peer, for in the Kenyon MSS. is given a letter of 26 March, 1693, from one Francis Bayly, addressed to Roger Kenyon, "one of the Pears of the Parliment House in London " (' Royal His- torical Manuscripts Commission, Fourteenth Report,' Appendix, part iv. p. 271).
ALFRED F. ROBBINS.
THE SEVENTH DAY. Mistranslations of sab- batwrn as "Sunday" are sometimes made, from
