That is
why Sterne puts it into the mouth of Maria.
C.B.
_Complutensian Polyglot._--"Mr. JEBB" asks (No. 14. p. 213.), "In what
review or periodical did there appear a notice of the supposed discovery
of the MSS. from which the _Complutensian Polyglot_ was compiled?"
He will find an article on this subject in the _Irish Ecclesiastical
Journal_ for April, 1847; from which I learn that there was a previous
article, by Dr. James Thomson, one of the agents of the British and
Foreign Bible Society, in the _Biblical Review_, a London periodical
publication. Dr. Thomson, if I understand the matter aright, professed
to have found at Madrid the MSS., so long supposed to have been lost.
There is also an article on the same subject by Dr. Bowring, in the
_Monthly Repository_, vol. xvi. (1821), p. 203.
_Tickhill, God help me_ (No. 16. p. 247.).--Of Tickhill I know nothing;
but Melverley in this county goes by the soubriquet of "Melverley, God
help;" and the folk-lore on the subject is this:--Melverley lies by
Severn side, where that river flows under the Breiddon hills from the
county of Montgomery into that of Salop. It is frequently inundated in
winter, and, consequently, very productive in summer. They say that if a
Melverley man is asked in winter where he belongs, the doleful and
downcast reply is, "Melverley, God help me;" but asked the same question
in summer, he answers quite jauntily, "Melverley, and what do you
think?" A friend informs me that the same story appertains to Pershore
in the vale of Evesham. Perhaps the analogy may assist Mr. Johnson in
respect to Tickhill.
Let me take this opportunity to add to my flim-flam on pet-names in your
late Number, that Jack appears to have been a common term to designate a
low person, as "every Jack;" "every man-jack;" "Jack-of-all-trades?"
"Jackanapes;" &c.
B.H. KENNEDY.
Shrewsbury, Feb. 18.
_Bishop Blaise_ (No. 16. p. 247.).--Four lives of the martyr Blasius,
Bishop of Sebaste in Cappadocia, are to be found in the Bollandine _Acta
Sanctorum_, under the 3rd of February. It appears that the relics and
worship of this saint were very widely spread through Europe, and some
places seem to have claimed him as indigenous on the strength merely of
possessing one of his toes or teeth. The wool-comb was one of the
instruments with which he was tortured, and having become a symbol of
his martyrdom, gave occasion, it would seem, to the wool-combers to
claim him as
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