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Things Not Generally Known: Lynch

Lynch, Judge. In America, a personification of violent and illegal justice, or of mob-law. The name is usually alleged to be derived from one Lynch, who lived in what is now the Piedmont district of Virginia, at a time when that district was the western frontier of the State, and when, on account of the distance from the courts of law, it was customary to refer the adjustment of disputes to men of known character and judgment in the neighborhood. This man became so prominent by reason of the wisdom and impartiality of his decisions that he was known throughout the country as "Judge Lynch." 'Mad as a Hatter." This phrase really means, as venomous as a viper," the old form, "mad as an atter" (i. e., an adder) having been so corrupted. Maid of Bath. A name given to Miss Lindley, a beautiful and accomplished singer who became the wife of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the celebrated dramatist and statesman.

Maid of Orleans. A surname given to Joan of Arc, from her heroic defence of the city of Orleans. Having been taken captive by the English, she suffered martyrdom, being burned alive by order of the Earl of Warwick, on the 24th of May 1431.