Some other of our sea terms might receive apt illustration in "N. & Q.;" and I should beg to suggest "unde derivatur" a boat's painter,—the name of the rope which confines a ship's boat to the vessel, when at sea.
Turner gave a world-wide interest to the phrase when he called, in his eccentric manner, one of his finest marine pictures "Now for the painter."
J. C. G.
Tavistock Square.
Lord Reay's Country.—Formerly the parish of Durness comprehended the whole of the district known as "Lord Reay's country," or, as it is called in Gaelic, "Duthaic Mhic Aoi," i. e. the land of the Mackays, extending from the river of Borgie, near Strathnaver, to the Kyle of Assynt, and comprehending a space of about 800 square miles! Since 1734 it has been divided into three parishes, viz. Eddrachillis, Durness, and Tongue, with the parish of Farr: it was disjoined from the presbytery of Caithness, and by an act of the Assembly attached to the presbytery of Tongue.
Kirkwallensis.
Queries.
UNANSWERED QUERIES.
I think it may be permitted to Querists, who may fail in obtaining answers, to recur to their questions after the lapse of a reasonable time, in order to awaken attention. I asked a question at page 270., Vol. vi., in which I was, and still am, much interested. Perhaps Mr. Collier will do me the favour to answer it, particularly as his annotated folio is remarkably rich in "stage directions."