_Bishop Barnaby_.--The origin of the term "Bishop Barnaby," as applied
to the Lady-bird, is still unexplained.
I wish to observe, as having some possible connexion with the subject,
that the word "Barnaby" in the seventeenth century appears to have had a
particular political signification.
For instance, I send you a pamphlet (which you are welcome to, if you
will accept of it) called "_The Head of Nile, or the Turnings and
Windings of the Factious since Sixty, in a dialogue between Whigg and
Barnaby_," London, 1681. In this dialog, Whigg, as might be expected, is
the exponent of all manner of abominable opinions, whilst Barnaby is
represented as the supporter of orthodoxy.
Again, in the same year was published Durfey's comedy, "_Sir Barnaby
Whigg_," the union of the two names indicating that the knight's
opinions were entirely regulated by his interest.