June 19. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



587 



• Life of St. Werburgh. — In King's Vale Royal, 

 -and other works on Cheshire antiquities, reference 

 is made to a Life of St. Werburgh in verse, by 

 Henry Bradshaw, a monk of Chester. I am 

 anxious to ascertain whether the original MS. is 

 now in existence ; and, if not, in what collection a 

 <opy of the poem is preserved ? T. H. 



[Mr. Hawkins of the British Museum edited a re- 

 print of this Life of St. Werburgh for the Chetham So- 

 ciety, and in Mr. H.'s preface will be found all that is 

 known of the existing copies of the printed work. The 

 Editor did not know of any manuscript copy of the 

 Life.] 



BlindmarCs Holiday. — I have frequently heard 

 the term "Blind Man's Holiday" used when it 

 IS getting dark in the evening, and one cannot 

 see to read or write, work, &c. I have asked 

 €everal persons if they knew the origin and reason 

 of application of this expression, but can obtain no 

 «atisfactory explanation. Can any of your readers 

 furnish one ? W. H. C. 



[Florio has " Feriato, vacancy from labour, rest from 

 worke, blindmans holiday." That amusing old anti- 

 quary, Dr. Pegge, made a query of this term about 

 half a century ago. He says, " The twilight, or rather 

 the hour between the time when one can no longer see to 

 read, and the lighting of the candle, is commonly called 

 hlindmaris holiday : qu. the meaning or occasion of this 

 proverbial saying ? I conceive, that at that time, all 

 the family being at leisure to converse and discourse, 

 should there be a blind person in the family, it is the 

 time when his happiness is greatest, every one then 

 being at liberty to attend to, and to entertain him."— 

 ^nonymiana, cent. iii. sect, xviii.] 



Ab. Seller. — Any information respecting Ab. 

 Seller, rector of Combentynhead, Devon, and 

 author of The Devout Communicant., assisted vrith 

 Rules for the Worthy Receiving of the Blessed 

 Eucharist, London, 1686, will be much valued by 



E.D.R. 



[ Abednego Seller was a native of Plymouth, educated 

 at Lincoln College, Oxford; minister of Combentyn- 

 head, in Devonshire, and subsequently vicar of St. 

 Charles, Plymouth ; but was deprived for refusing to 

 take the oaths to William III. In Hearne's MS. 

 Diaries, 1710, vol. xxv. occurs a notice of him : — " Mr. 

 Abednego Seller was another Nonjuror, and had also 

 collected an excellent study of books ; but as he was a 

 man of less learning than Dr. Thomas Smith [the editor 

 of Bedel, so his books were inferior to them, and heaped 

 together with less discretion." Another notice of him 

 occurs in Granger's Biog. Diet., vol. iv. p. 1 1 . : — " Mr. 

 Ashby, President of St. John's College, Cambridge, 

 has a copy of Konigii Bihliotheca, interleaved and filled 

 with MS. notes by A. Seller." He was the author of 

 several works which are given in Watt's Bihliotheca 

 ^ritan., but the following is omitted : Remarks vpon the 

 Mefleclions of the Author of ' Popery Misrepresented,' §-c. 

 an his Answerer, particularly as to the Deposing Doctrine, 

 Jiaon., London, 4ta. 1686. Another work has also 

 feaen attributed to him, viz. Considerations upon the 



Second Canon in the Book entitled ' Constitutions and 

 Canons Ecclesiastical,' &c. Lond., 4to. 1693. Seller 

 died about 1720, aged seventy-three. A letter from. 

 Seller to Humphrey Wanley, concerning Greek music, 

 &c., will be found in the Harl. MSS. No. 3782, Art. 26. 

 Consult also Wood's Athenat Oxon., vol. iv. p. 563. edit. 

 Bliss.] 



Martin-drunk.— \. Thomas Nash, in his classifi- 

 cation of drunkards, describes the seventh species 

 as_ " Martin -drunk, when a man is drunk, and 

 drinks himself sober ere he stir." What is the 

 origin of the expression "Martin-drunk?" 



2. Tiiis passage reminds me of a line, which I 

 fancied I had read in Lord Byron, but which I am 

 now unable to trace. It is (if I remember aright) : 

 " And drinking largely sobers one again." 



Can you give me a reference for this, either ia 

 Byron or any other of our poets ? 



Henry H. Bbeeh*. 

 St. Lucia. 



[2. The latter passage occurs in Pope's Essay on 

 Criticism, line 215 : — 



" A little learning is a dangerous thing ! 

 Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring : 

 There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, < 

 And drinking largely sobers us again."] 



Bagster's English Version. — Who edited Bag- 

 ster's English version of the Polyglott Bible ? The 

 preface is signed T. C. Whence is the motto : 

 XioWai fj.ev dvijTois ThwTTai, fiia 5* AOayaTotffti' ? 



A.A.D. 



[The late Dr. Thomas Chevalier was the editor, and 

 wrote the Preface ; and the Rev. H. F. Cary supplied 

 the Greek motto.] 



EEPLT TO MR. HICKSON's OBJECTIONS. 



(Vol. v., pp. 554. 573.) 



That Mr. Hickson should have discovered n() 

 graver objections to certain suggestions of mine 

 respecting the text of Shalcspeare than those he 

 has brought forward, is of itself no slight testi- 

 monial in their favour. 



In one instance I have already (Vol. v., p. 210.) 

 shown Mr. Hickson (I trust satisfactorily) that 

 his then somewhat similar objection had no weight; 

 nor do these now advanced appear much more 

 formidable. 



As to the passage from As You Like It, which 

 Mr. Hickson remarks is capable of a moral as 

 well as a physical interpretation — undoubtedly it 

 Is ! But, in the first place, it must still remain a 

 matter of opinion which sense best accords with 

 the context : and, secondly, even admitting the 

 moral sense to be the true one, still it does not 

 necessarily disturb the analogy between it and 



