86 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 195. 



business before the meeting was too extensive to 

 admit of it. My object is not, of course, to offer 

 any objection to the proposition, but simply to put 

 in a chaim of merit for the idea oriijinally due to 

 Mr. Fox Talbot, and secondarily to Mr. Wenham, 

 who I believe was an earlier operator in this way 

 than any one. Geo. Shadbolt. 



Yellow Bottles for Photographic Chemicals. — 

 As light transmitted through a yellow curtain, or 

 yellow glass, does not affect photographic ope- 

 rations, would it not be desirable to keep the 

 nitrate of silver and its solutions in yellow glass 

 bottles, instead of covering the plain white glass 

 with black paper, as I see directed in some cases ? 



Cekidwen. 



Hfpltcd ta Minor <!B.utvitS. 



Donnyhrook Fair (Vol. vii , p. 549.). — Abhba 

 will find his answer in D' Alton's History of the 

 County of Dublin, p. 804. : 



" About the year 1 1 74, Earl ' Strongbow' gave Don- 

 nybrock (Devonalbroc), amongst other lands, to Walter 

 de Riddlesford ; and in 1204, King John granted to 

 the corporation of Dublin license for an annual eight- 

 day fair here, commenchig on the day of th2 finding of 

 the Holy Cross (May Srd), with similar stallages and 

 tolls, as established in Waterford and Limerick." 



This scene of an Irishman's glory has been 

 daguerreotyped in lines that may be left in your 

 pages, as being probably quite as little known to 

 your readers as is the Avork above cited : 

 " Instead of weapons, either band 

 Seized on such arms as came to hand. 

 And as famed Ovid paints th' adventures 

 Of wrangling Lapithae and Centaurs, 

 "Who at their feast, by Bacchus led, 

 Threw bottles at each others' head ; 

 And these arms failing in their scuffles, 

 Attack'd with andirons, tonges, and shovels : 

 So clubs and billets, staves and stones. 

 Met fierce, encountering every sconce. 

 And cover'd o'er with knobs and pains. 

 Each void receptacle for brains." 



J.D. 



Abigail (Vol. iv., p. 424. ; Vol. v., pp. 38. 94. 

 450.; Vol. viii., p. 42.). — Not having my *' N. & 

 Q." at hand, I cannot say what may have been 

 already told on this subject, but I think I can 

 answer the Queries of your last correspondent, 

 H. T. Ryt.ey. There can be, I think, no doubt that 

 the fixmiliar use of the name Abigail, for t\iQ genus 

 " lady's maid," is derived from one whom I may 

 call Abigail the Great ; who, before she ascended 

 King David's bed and throne, introduced herself 

 under the oft-reiterated description of a " hand- 

 maid." (See 1 Sam. xxv. 24, 25. 27, 28. 31.) I 

 have no Concordance at hand, but I suspect there 

 is no passage in Scripture where the word hand- 



maid is more prominent ; and so the idea became 

 associated with the name Abigail. An Abigail for 

 a hand-maid is therefore merely analogous to a 

 Goliath for a giant ; a Job for a patient man ; a 

 Samson for a strong one ; a Jezebel for a shrew, 

 &c. I need hardly add, that H. T. Ryley's con- 

 jecture, that this use of the term Abigail had any 

 relation to the Lady Masham, is, therefore, quite 

 supererogative — but I may go farther. The old 

 Duchess of Marlborough's Apology, which first 

 told the world that Lady Masham's Christian 

 name was Abigail, and that she was a poor cousin 

 of her own, was not published till 1742, when all 

 feeling about " Abigail Hill and her brother Jack" 

 was extinct. In fine, it will be found that the use 

 of the term Abigail for a lady's maid was much 

 more frequent before the change of Queen Anne's 

 Whig ministry than after. C. 



Honorary Degrees (Vol. viii , p. 8.). — Honorary 

 degrees give no corporate rights. Johnson never 

 himself assumed the title of Doctor ; conferred on 

 him first by the University of Dublin in 1765, 

 and afterwards in 1775 by that of Oxford. See 

 Croker's Boswell, p. 168. n. 5., for the probable 

 motives of Johnsou's never having called himself 

 Doctor. C. 



Bed Hair (Vol. vii., p. 616.). — The Danes are 

 said to have been (and to be even now) a red- 

 haired race. 



They were long the scourge of England, and to 

 this possibly may bo attributed in some degree 

 the prejudice against people having hair of that 

 colour. 



In Denmark, it is said, red-hair is esteemed a 

 beauty. 



That red-haired people are fiery and passionate 

 is undoubtedly true ; at least I vouch for it as far 

 as my experience goes ; but that they emit a dis- 

 agreeable odour when inattentive to personal 

 cleanliness, is probably a vulgar prejudice arising 

 from the colour of their hair, resembling that of 

 the fox — wide the term " foxy." A. C. M. 



Exeter. 



Historical Engraving (Vol. vii., p. 619.). — I 

 am glad I happen to be able to inform E. S. 

 Taylor that his engraving, about the restoration 

 of Charles II., is to be found in a book entitled — 



" Verhael in forme van Journal, van de Reys ende 't 

 Vertoeven van den seer Doorluchtige ende Machtige 

 Prins Card de II." &c. " In 's Graven- hage, by- 

 Adrian Vlack, M.DC.LX." &c. 



Folio. The names at the corner of the engraving 

 are apparently " F. T. vliet, jn. P. Philippe, 

 sculp." J. M. G. 



Proverbs quoted by Suetonius (Vol. vii., p. 594.). 

 — A full explanation of the proverb o-TreCSe fipaSfws 



