486 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. VII. June 11. '59. 



last occasion the person (a man) was confined in 

 them for about six hours. R. P. 



Licblield. 



Mop (2°'* S. vii. 454.) — With my best re- 

 spects to your valuable and always interesting 

 correspondent Cuthbert Bede, I beg leave to 

 suggest that for an explanation of the terms 

 " mop " and " mapp," as applied to a statute fair, 

 we must go back to the times of the Romans. 

 The older term, "mapp," comes nearest to the 

 original. " Mappa " was a title applied by the 

 Romans to their public games, specially the ludi 

 circenses. The games are said to have acquired 

 this title in the following manner. Nero sat at 

 table ; the people, impatient, shouted for the spec- 

 tacle to commence ; and the emperor, as a signal 

 to begin, ordered the mappa, or napkin with which 

 he wiped his fingers after eating, to be thrown 

 out of the window. The practice, however, of 

 giving the signal with a mappa, is said to have 

 been of much earlier date than Nero. But, be 

 that as it may, mappa became the title, not only 

 for the signal that the games might begin, but for 

 the games themselves ; and hence, in the later ages 

 of the Roman empire, the persons charged with 

 the ceremony, of giving the said signal came to be 

 called mappai'ii, fMamcdpeoi. (See article Mappa in 

 Du Cange, Forcellini, and Zedler.) 



From this title of mappa, thus applied to the 

 festivities of the Romans assembled at their public 

 games, and probably used also by the Romans in 

 Britain, may not the term "mapja" have attached 

 to our own rural fairs, which are generally a 

 scene of festivity and rural sports ? 



" Mop," in both its meanings, a statute fair and 

 a household implement, appears to be a modifica- 

 tion of the older " mapp : " as when we speak of 

 mopping with a handkerchief or napkin (mappa). 



Thomas Boys. 



Mop, in the sense of a statute fair for the 

 hiring of servants, is proved by Cuthbeet Bede's 

 references to have been formerly written map. 

 This change of pronunciation shows that it is 

 identical with the word as used in its ordinary 

 sense : see " N. & Q." 2°^ S. ii. 315. 472. Is it 

 possible that a mop could have been used as an 

 emblem of such fairs ? Could it have referred to 

 the maid-servants of all-work who were hired at 

 them? -L. 



Hop-plance (2"'^ S. vii. 218.) —This is simply 

 an error of spelling for hop-plants. The field 

 mentioned in the terrier would be that where the 

 young hops are propagated before they are trans- 

 planted out into the hop-garden. A. A. 



Poets' Corner. 



Female Christian Names (2"^ S. vii. 182.) — In 

 reply to your correspondent Alfred T. Lee's 

 Query, regarding living men, or, as I understand 



it, men of the present time, who have received 

 female names at their baptism, a friend of mine 

 has permitted me to state that some fifteen years 

 ago, he remembers one answering to this descrip- 

 tion. He was the clergyman of St. Katherine's 

 Church, Regent's Park, and by name the Rev. 

 Louisa Nicolay. R. 



Saugor, Central Italy. 



Inn Signs hy Eminent Artists : Sign of Shak- 

 speare (2""* S. iv. 299. 355.; vii. 183.) — Robert 

 Dalton, keeper of the pictures to George III., 

 Ralph Kirby, father of Mrs. Trimmer, author of 

 a book on Perspective, and drawing-master to 

 George IV. when Prince of Wales, were appren- 

 ticed to a coach, house, and sign-painter. So 

 also was Thomas Wright of Liverpool. (Arts and 

 Artists, by James Elmes, M.R.I. A., iii. 241.) : — 



" Before the change which took place in the general 

 appearance of London, soon after the accession of George 

 the Third, the general use of signs, not only for taverns 

 and ale-houses, but also for tradesmen, furnished no small 

 employment for the inferior rank of painters, and some- 

 times for the superior professors. Mr. Catton painted 

 several good signs ; but among the most celebrated 

 practitioners in this branch was a person of the name of 

 Lamt, who possessed a considerable degree of ability. 

 His pencil was bold and masterly, and well adapted to 

 the subjects on which it was generally employed. Mr. 

 Wale, who was one of the founders of the Royal Academy, 

 and appointed the first Professor of Perspective in that 

 institution, also painted some signs, the principal of which 

 was a whole-length of Shakspeare, about five feet high, 

 which was executed for, and displayed before the door of, 

 a public-house at the northwest corner of Little Russell 

 Street, Drury Lane. It was enclosed in a sumptuous 

 carved gilt frame, and suspended by rich iron-work ; but 

 this splendid object of attraction did not hang long before 

 it was taken down, in consequence of the acf of Parlia- 

 ment which was passed for paving and removing the 

 signs and other obstructions in the streets of London. 

 Such was the total change of fashion, and the consequent 

 disuse of signs, that this representation of the immortal 

 Shakspeare was sold for a trifle to a broker, at whose 

 door it stood for several years, until it was totallj' de- 

 stroyed b}' the weather and other accidents." (Art and 

 Artists, iii. p. 1.) 



Apropos to this, I may mention that the front 

 of the public-house called "The Shakspeare" in 

 Coventry Street, Kidderminster, is ornamented by 

 a bust of the poet, modelled from that at Strat- 

 ford-upon-Avon, and excellently carved in stone. 

 About thirty years ago it was the property of the 

 late Arthur Dixon, Esq., surgeon of Kiddermin- 

 ster. The bust has been painted to the life. 



There are now six signs of Shakspeare in Lon- 

 don. (Weale's London and its Vicinity, p. 228.) 



Cuthbert Bede. 



Sir Thomas Lawrence (2""J S. vii. 296. 444.) — 

 The following is extracted from the Bristol Times 

 and Felix Farley's Bristol Journal of Saturday, 

 4th June : — 



" A friend informs us we were quite right in saying Sir 

 Thos. Lawrence's father kept the 'White Lion' Hotel, 

 Bristol. He afterwards removed to the ' Bear,' Devizes, 



