"Sept. 2, 1611. Job-rakt-out-of-the-asshes, as is mentioned in the register of christenings." The reference, of course, is to Job ii. 8: "And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes." This was somewhat grim fun, though. Probably _Job-rakt-out-of-the-asshes_, during his brief life, would be styled by the curter title of "Ashes." It is somewhat curious to notice that Camden, writing three years later, says Ashes existed. Perhaps this was the instance. A similar instance of waggery is found in the parish church of Old Swinford, where the following entry occurs:-- "1676, Jan. 18. Baptized Dancell-Dallphebo-Marke-Antony-Dallery-Gallery-Cesar, sonn of Dancell-Dallphebo-Marke-Antony-Dallery-Gallery-Cesar Williams." Allowing the father to be thirty years of age, the paternal christening would take place in 1646, which would be a likely time in the political history of England for a mimical hit at Puritan eccentricity. (_a._) _The Playwrights._ There is a capital scene in "The Ordinary" (1634), where Andrew Credulous, after trolling out a verse of nonsensical rhyme against the Puritan names, says to his friends Hearsay and Slicer, in allusion to these new long and uncouth names: "Andrew the Great Turk? I would I were a peppercorn, if that It sounds not well. Doe'st not? _Slicer._ Yes, very well. _Credulous._ I'll make it else great Andrew Mahomet, _Imperious Andrew Mahomet Credulous_. Tell me which name sounds best. _Hearsay._ That's as you speak 'em. _Credulous._ Oatmealman Andrew! Andrew Oatmealman! _Hearsay._ Ottoman, sir, you mean. _Credulous._ Yes, Ottoman." "Oatmealman Andrew! Andrew Oatmealman!" seems to have suggested to Thomson that unfortunate line: "O Sophonisba, Sophonisba O," so unkindly parodied into-- "O Jemmy Thomson, Jemmy Thomson O." From this quotation it will be seen that it is not to the church register alone we must turn, to discover the manner in which these new names were being received by the public. Calamy might wax wroth over the "profane wits" of the day, but one of the severest blows administered to the men he has undertaken to defend, came from his own side; for Thomas Adams, Rector of St. Benet, Paul's Wharf, must unquestionably be placed, even by Calamy's own testimony, among the Puritan clergy of his day. His name does not appear in the list of silenced clergy, and his works are dedicated to pronounced friends of the Noncomformist cause. In his "Meditations upon the Creed" (vol. iii. p. 213, edit. 1872), first published in 1629, he says--