_Mrs. Partington_ (Vol. ii., p. 377.).--IGNORANS no doubt refers to the oft-repeated allusion to "Dame Partington and her mop;" and taking it for granted that he does so, I will enlighten him a little on the subject. The "original Mrs. Partington" was a respectable old lady, living, at Sidmouth in Devonshire; her cottage was on the beach, and during an awful storm (that, I think, of Nov. 1824, when some fifty or sixty ships were wrecked at Plymouth) the sea rose to such a height as every now and then to invade the old lady's place of domicile: in fact, almost every wave dashed in at the door. Mrs. Partington, with such help as she could command, with mops and brooms, as fast as the water entered the house, mopped it out again; until at length the waves had the mastery, and the dame was compelled to retire to an upper story of the house. I well recollect reading in the Devonshire newspapers of the time an account similar to the above: but the first allusion to the circumstance was, I think, made by Lord Brougham in his celebrated speech in the house of Commons on the Reform Bill, in which he compared the Conservative opposition to the bill to be like the opposition of "Dame Partington and her mop, who endeavoured to mop out the waves of the Atlantic." ROBERT COLE. _Mrs. Partington._--Mr. Greene, the witty editor of the _Boston (N.E.) Post_, is believed to be the original of Mrs. Partington: at least he fathers all her sayings. He began to print them about twelve or fifteen years ago. G.M.B. [G.M.B. has also kindly forwarded to us some of "_Mrs. Partington's Queries_ from a recent number of the _Boston Post_, from which we select a couple of specimens, viz.,-- "Whether the Emperor of China is a _porcelain_ statue or a mere fiction?" "Is the _Great Seal_ alive, or only stuffed?"] _The East Anglian Word "Mauther"_ (Vol. ii., pp. 217. 365.).--Skinner's note on this word is "Mawther, vox Norfolciensi agro peculiaris: _Spelman_ ipse eodem agro ortus a Dan. _Moer_, Virgo, Puella, deflectit. Possit tamen et declinari a Belg. _Maegd_, Teut. _Magd_, idem signante, addita term. _er_ vel _der_, ut in proximo agro Lincolniensi in vocibus _Heeder_ et _Sheeder_ quae Marem et Feminam notant. Author Dict. Angl. scribit _Modder_, et cum Kiliano deducit a Belg. _Modde_, _Moddeken_, Pupa, Puella, Virgincula."--_Etymol._ sub voce. Webster merely gives (with strange neglect, having Skinner before him): {412} "Mauther, a foolish young girl(not used)."--_Ben Jonson._ Skinner is, I believe, wrong in assigning the _r_ termination to the Danish word. Such a termination of the word _maid_ is not to be found in any of the Teutonic dialects. The diphthong sound and the _th_ appear frequently; as, 1. Moeso-Gothic: _Magath_ or _Magaths_; _Mawi_, dim. _Mawilo_. 2. Anglo-Saxon: _Maeth_, _Maegth_, dim. _Meowla_. 3. Old-German: _Maget_. 4. Swedish: _Moe_. 5. Norse: _Moei_.