St. Lucia, July, 1851.
Minor Queries.
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.
W. DN.
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.
J. H. C.
Adelaide, South Australia.