Perhaps the analogy may assist Mr. Johnson in
respect to Tickhill.
Let me take this opportunity to add to my flim-flam on pet-names in your
late Number, that Jack appears to have been a common term to designate a
low person, as "every Jack;" "every man-jack;" "Jack-of-all-trades?"
"Jackanapes;" &c.
B.H. KENNEDY.
Shrewsbury, Feb. 18.
_Bishop Blaise_ (No. 16. p. 247.).--Four lives of the martyr Blasius,
Bishop of Sebaste in Cappadocia, are to be found in the Bollandine _Acta
Sanctorum_, under the 3rd of February. It appears that the relics and
worship of this saint were very widely spread through Europe, and some
places seem to have claimed him as indigenous on the strength merely of
possessing one of his toes or teeth. The wool-comb was one of the
instruments with which he was tortured, and having become a symbol of
his martyrdom, gave occasion, it would seem, to the wool-combers to
claim him as their patron, and to ascribe to him the invention of their
art. See Ellis's Brand's _Popular Antiquities_, vol. i. pp. 29, 30; and
query whether the veneration of St. Blaise by these artizans were not
peculiar to England. Blasius of Sebaste is said to have been a
physician; in consequence of the persecution raised by Diocletian, he
retired to a mountain named Argaeus, whither all the wild beasts of the
country resorted to him, and reverentially attended him.
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