FOURTH PERIOD : VICTORIA 265 



repetition of such foolish names as Ginnums, 

 Kittums, Oddums, and the like ; far less can 

 anyone wish for a return to the apparent irrever- 

 ence of Crucifix (which Lord G. Bentinck de- 

 clined to alter at the instance of Lady Grosvenor), 

 Bethphage (another of Lord George's queer 

 fancies, but the name was changed by the Duke 

 of Bedford to Villiers), Crucifixion, Vera Cruz, 

 Redemption, Atonement, and the brothers Elijah 

 and Elisha, though no irreverence may have been 

 intended, and though probably nobody would 

 object to Huz and Buz as the names of two 

 brother-horses, or to Mesopotamia for the name 

 of a mare, notwithstanding that these names also 

 occur in Scripture. It is all a question of the 

 associations connected with certain words, and 

 that should be the guide. 



At the same time, it may not always strike 

 the giver of a name that any suggestion of 

 irreverence can occur to anybody therefrom. 

 Take D. V., for instance, a colt (foaled 1863) 

 by Voltigeur and Rosa Bonheur ; it might 

 shock pious souls, who smell a rat where there 

 is not so much as a mouse, and they would 



