"Harriott, the companion of Sir Walter Raleigh in Virginia, and the friend of the Earl of Northumberland, in whose house he spent the latter part of his life, was destined to make the last great discovery in the pure science of algebra."
Are there any data to support Mr. Hallam's opinion? Such is his general accuracy, that few would be disposed to question any statement deliberately put forward by him. In this instance, however, he may have adopted, without inquiry, the tradition which has been current for the last two hundred and fifty years.
134. _Wife of St. Patrick._--Will some one of your Irish contributors inform me when the 18th of March began to be celebrated in honour of S. Sheelagh, and the ground on which it is asserted that she was the wife of St. Patrick? I cannot find that St. Patrick was married; I am aware, however, that the silence of the usual authorities goes but a little way to disprove the popular tradition, as in days when women were but beginning to assume their present equable station, the mention of a wife at any time would be only casual.
135. _Meaning of Mop._--In the midland counties, servants are hired by the year in the following manner. On the several Tuesdays about Michaelmas, all who wish for engagements collect together at the different towns and villages, whither the masters resort for the purpose of hiring them. Those meetings which occur previous to Michaelmas day are called _statute-fairs_, while those which take place after that day are termed _mops_. Query, What is the derivation of this word? I have been told that the later assemblies are so called because they consist of the inferior servants who were not engaged before,--such as use a _mop_ instead of sweeping clean and scouring. A friend conjectures that the name implies "an indiscriminate _mopping-up_ of all sorts, the greater number of servants having gone before, and there being only a few left." I have no book to which I can refer for information on this subject.
136. _William Lovel of Tarent Rawson._--In Hutchins's _Dorset_, vol. i. p. 91., is a pedigree of _Lovel_ of Tarrant Rawson carried back to the later years of Hen. VII. In that genealogy the first person is described as _William Lovel_ of Tarent Rawson, alias "_Antiocheston_." Under what circumstances did he come by this cognomen? Was he connected with any branch of the house of Yvery, and in what manner?