Notes and Queries, Number 09, December 29, 1849
Notes and Queries, Number 09, December 29, 1849
Book Excerpt
d scarlet and black, as this insect has on its
wing-covers. Some remains of the finery of the gravest
personages still exist on our academical robes of ceremony.
There is something inconsistent with the popish episcopal
character in the childish rhyme with which Bishop Barnabee is
thrown up and dismissed when he happens to light on any one's
hand. Unluckily the words are not recollected, nor at present
recoverable; but the purport of them is to admonish him to fly
home, and take care of his wife and children, for that his house
in on fire. Perhaps, indeed, the rhyme has been fabricated long
since the name by some one who did not think of such niceties."
G.A.C.
Sir,--In the explanation of the term Bishop Barnaby, given by J.G., the prefix "Bishop" seems yet to need elucidation. Why should it not have arisen from the insect's garb? The full dress gown of the Oxford D.D.--scarlet with black velvet sleeves--might easily have suggested the idea of naming the
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