It appears, then, that during the first half of the seventeenth century a man could not have two Christian names.
Also, at what period did the custom arise of using as Christian names words which are properly surnames?
Ericas.
Lake of Geneva.—The chronicler Marius (in the second volume of Dom Bouquet) mentions that, in the reign of the sons of Clotaire, an earthquake or landslip, in the valley of the Upper Rhone, enlarged the Lemannus, or Genevese Lake, by thirty miles of length and twenty of breadth, destroying towns and villages. Montfaucon, in his Monumens de la Monarchie, i. p. 63., states that the Lake of Geneva was formed on this occasion: absurdly, unless he means that upon this occasion its limits were extended to Geneva, having previously terminated further east. What vestiges of this catastrophe are now perceptible?
A. N.
Clerical Portrait.—May I request the assistance of "N. & Q." in discovering the name of a reverend person whose portrait I have recently met with in my parish? The individual from whom I procured it could give me no other history of it, but that he had bought it at the sale of the effects of a respectable pawnbroker in the village many years ago.
Afterwards I learned from another resident in the parish that he well remembered visiting the shop of the same broker, in company with another gentleman still living, when this identical portrait was the subject of conversation, and the broker went into his private room and brought out a book, conceived to be a magazine, from which he read a description of the person of whom this was the portrait, to the following effect, viz., "That he was born of obscure parentage in the parish of Glemham, Suffolk; that he was sent to school, and afterwards became a great man and a dignitary of the church, if not a bishop; and became so wealthy that he gave a large sum for the repairs of Norwich Cathedral."
These are the only particulars which I have yet ascertained as to the portrait, for neither of the gentlemen who were present at this transaction with the broker, though they agree in the circumstances which I have above narrated, can remember the name of my great unknown.
I look, however, with confidence to the wide range of your correspondents, and hope to receive some clue which may guide me to the wished-for discovery.
The portrait is an oil painting, a fine full florid face, with a long wig of black curly hair resting on the shoulders, gown and band, date probably from Queen Anne to George II.