L.
Archbishop King (Vol. vii., p. 430.).—A few days since I met with the following passage in a brief sketch of Kane O'Hara, in the last number of the Irish Quarterly Review:
"In the extremely meagre published notices of O'Hara (the celebrated burletta writer), no reference has been made to his skill as an artist, of which we have a specimen in his etching of Dr. William King, archbishop of Dublin, in a wig and cap, of which portrait a copy has been made by Richardson."
This extract is taken from one of a very interesting series of papers upon "The Streets of Dublin."
Abhba.
Devonianisms (Vol. vii., p. 544.).—Pilm, Forrell.—Pillom is the full word, of which pilm is a contraction. It appears to have been derived from the British word pylor, dust. Forell is an archaic name for the cover of a book. The Welsh appear to have adopted it from the English, as their name for a bookbinder is fforelwr, literally, one who covers books. I may mention another Devonianism. The cover of a book is called its healing. A man who lays slates on the roof of a house is, in Devonshire, called a hellier.
N. W. S. (2.)
Perseverant, Perseverance (Vol. vii., p. 400.).—Can Mr. Arrowsmith supply any instances of the verb persever (or perceyuer, as it is spelt in the 1555 edition of Hawes, M. i. col. 2.), from any other author? and will he inform us when this "abortive hog" and his litter became extinct.
In explaining speare (so strangely misunderstood by the editor of Dodsley), he should, I think, have added, that it was an old way of writing spar. In Shakspeare's Prologue to Troilus and Cressida, it is written sperr. Sparred, quoted by Richardson from the Romance of the Rose, and Troilus and Creseide, is in the edition of Chaucer referred to by Tyrwhitt, written in the Romance "spered," and in Troilus "sperred."
Q.