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were in turn rudely called up, to show that their services could be dispensed with.

'Moses & Son,' 'Rowlands' Kalydor,' and other advertising houses seem now to enjoy a monopoly of acrostics. It would seem to have been felt at last an unwise thing to prefer jolting along on Pegasus with hobbled feet, his wings (the especial glory of the celestial steed) the meanwhile trailing uselessly on the ground.

But lest there should still be some whose tastes incline them to the laborious amusement of anagram or acrostic writing, I would, as a warning of the fearful risks attendant on such pursuits, recall a lamentable story told by Addison as having happened in his day!

A gentleman, suddenly enamoured of a fair lady, whose name he was told was the Lady Mary Boon, determined to win her affections by the desperate achievement of an anagram on her name. For this purpose he shut himself up in the strictest confinement for six months. The enterprise was at last accomplished, but not without some liberties taken with his subject. Mary he found unmanageable he ventured therefore on its diminutive Moll. His task completed-we are not told what he did make outthe hopeful lover hastened to present the fruit of his labours to the lady of his love. But the fair one frowns. She is, in the first instance, vexed to see her Christian name Mary degraded to Moll, and she then coldly informs the gentleman that

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her surname he has mistaken altogether-it was the lordly name of Bohun, not the plebeian Boon. Horror-struck at the irretrievable mistake, the wretched lover—his mind previously weakened by long and continuous application to the anagram-being totally overthrown by the sudden downfall of his hopes, in a few days became a raving lunatic.

And yet one plea may be advanced for anagrams and acrostics, if they are composed with greater accuracy than that of the unfortunate lover of Mary Bohun. The laboured lines may be as the setting to encase some precious stone, as the fossil gum which has preserved uninjured some rare insect or unique leaf of far-off times. Amber is often quadrupled in value from the specimen which it contains. Anagrams and acrostics, sufficiently good to have outlived their day, might be esteemed as a means of discovering the original spelling of some sought-for name.

How numberless and perplexing are the various forms which names assume as they pass from mouth to mouth of successive generations, none but a name-hunter can tell.

We meet with these wonderfully varying names everywhere; but let us now turn to one of the pretty Cornish holy wells. It is on the Trelawney property. Its arched roof is overgrown with silvery willows. It is overspread by a huge oak-tree garlanded with ivy. It is known as St. Nun's Well. Her legend is still preserved. She

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is said to have been the daughter of an Earl of Cornwall, and mother of St. David, the famous Archbishop of Menevia (now called St. David's), the patron saint of Wales. The waters of this holy well were supposed to cure insanity. Her chapel has passed away, and her name, too, is passing away from her pretty well, which is often now called the 'Piskies'' (or the Fairies') Well; and yet there was an ample choice amongst the many forms which her name has assumed in various chronicles:

St. Nun, Nunne, Nonnet, Nunnites, Nunice, Nynnina, Neomena, and Niemyne.

And after all these variations of her name, other chroniclers speak of the mother of St. David as a nun, called by the name of Malearia.*

names

CHAPTER IX.

Antiquity of our baptismal names - Bible names the favourites in England - Art of name-making died out Names connected with French and English revolutions characteristic-English diminutives of names: their love for them of ancient date Christian converts clinging to old - Origin of the popularity of some names Peter, Catharine, Paul, and Margaret — Successive causes influencing the adoption of names Our patron saints — Heroes and saints, honoured men and women, romances, &c. Names beginning with Z - Suggestions for new names from the Spanish, &c. Nameless creditors · Names amongst Africans, North American Indians, Hindus - Jews and Arabians.

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WITH but very few exceptions, all our baptismal names are older than-as a people we are ourselves. Modern nations have done comparatively nothing to increase the treasury of individual names. Christianity-with its sublime inspirations, its deep and far-spreading influence over thoughts and words and deeds-has made but a very slender addition to the store.

It is by names borrowed from the Assyrian, the Persian, the Hebrew, the Greek, the Roman, the Celt, and the Goth, that Christian Europe enrols her children in the vast army of Christ.

To this rule the small exception will be found in a few names of Spanish, Italian, and French

invention, of which the greater number have been derived from the Latin.

The religious element, which is more strongly developed in Spain than in any other Roman Catholic country, there assumes with regard to names a different form from its simple manifestation in England.

Our open Bibles have given to us our favourite names of women's names especially, those most universally in use are all of Hebrew origin. Our poorer classes seldom care to go beyond 'Bible names,'* as they are most expressively called, for in that their charm enduring for many centuries consists, wholly irrespective of signification.

The great body of our people look upon names as typical of those that have borne them, and therefore it is that while Protestant England shrinks from undue homage to the Virgin Mary, her name, as that of the 'blessed among women,' the mother of our Lord, is heard in every house throughout the land; and almost as common among them is the name of the 'beloved' disciple John.

The sweet name of Mary, as 'Marie' or 'Maria,' is also the universal favourite in Roman Catholic countries; it is constantly prefixed to

* 'Bible names.' Amongst soldiers, sailors, agriculturists, and mechanics, even such names as Josiah, Jeremiah, Jesse, Noah, Obadiah, &c., may be commonly found; and Keziah, Rachel, and Ruth amongst the women of the same class. What joy to think that possibly a knowledge of the signification of such names may be blessed to some at least as an occasional reminder! Jeremiah, 'one who gives glory to Jehovah,' or God; Obad-iah, 'the servant of God.'