[Florio has "Feriato, vacancy from labour, rest from worke, blindman's holiday." That amusing old antiquary, Dr. Pegge, made a query of this term about half a century ago. He says, "The twilight, or rather the hour between the time when one can no longer see to read, and the lighting of the candle, is commonly called blindman's holiday: qu. the meaning or occasion of this proverbial saying? I conceive, that at that time, all the family being at leisure to converse and discourse, should there be a blind person in the family, it is the time when his happiness is greatest, every one then being at liberty to attend to, and to entertain him."—Anonymiana, cent. iii. sect. xviii.]
Ab. Seller.—Any information respecting Ab. Seller, rector of Combentynhead, Devon, and author of The Devout Communicant, assisted with Rules for the Worthy Receiving of the Blessed Eucharist, London, 1686, will be much valued by
E. D. R.
[Abednego Seller was a native of Plymouth, educated at Lincoln College, Oxford; minister of Combentynhead, in Devonshire, and subsequently vicar of St. Charles, Plymouth; but was deprived for refusing to take the oaths to William III. In Hearne's MS. Diaries, 1710, vol. xxv. occurs a notice of him:—"Mr. Abednego Seller was another Nonjuror, and had also collected an excellent study of books; but as he was a man of less learning than Dr. Thomas Smith [the editor of Bede], so his books were inferior to them, and heaped together with less discretion." Another notice of him occurs in Granger's Biog. Dict., vol. iv. p. 11.;—"Mr. Ashby, President of St. John's College, Cambridge, has a copy of Konigii Bibliotheca, interleaved and filled with MS. notes by A. Seller." He was the author of several works which are given in Watt's Bibliotheca Britan., but the following is omitted: Remarks upon the Reflections of the Author of 'Popery Misrepresented,' &c. in his Answerer, particularly as to the Deposing Doctrine, Anon., London, 4to. 1686. Another work has also been attributed to him, viz. Considerations upon the Second Canon in the Book entitled 'Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical,' &c. Lond., 4to. 1693. Seller died about 1720, aged seventy-three. A letter from Seller to Humphrey Wanley, concerning Greek music, &c., will be found in the Harl. MSS. No. 3782, Art. 26. Consult also Wood's Athenæ Oxon., vol. iv. p. 563. edit. Bliss.]
Martin-drunk.—1. Thomas Nash, in his classification of drunkards, describes the seventh species as "Martin-drunk, when a man is drunk, and drinks himself sober ere he stir." What is the origin of the expression "Martin-drunk?"
2. This passage reminds me of a line, which I fancied I had read in Lord Byron, but which I am now unable to trace. It is (if I remember aright):
"And drinking largely sobers one again."
Can you give me a reference for this, either in Byron or any other of our poets?
Henry H. Breen.
St. Lucia.