Bridget

And when Miſtreſſe Briget loſt the handle of her Fan, I took't vpon mine honour thou hadſt it not.

Of all the beautiful Christian names of women which were in use a century or two ago Brighid (Breed), under the ugly form of Bridget, or still worse, Biddy, and Eiblin under the form of Eveleen, and perhaps Norah, seem to be the only survivals, and they are becoming rarer.

So long as any Bridget just landed (even before she has learned to walk comfortably in American shoes) can be sure of four dollars a week and her board and prequisites, it is the Bridgets who are really mistress of the situation.

My nurse, my Bridget, has gone back North. She said she wouldn’t stay another day down here among the ‘naygurs’ as she calls them.

Beggar lads, emigrants, mowers, slaves, rustics, Malays, Bridgets, and porters peopled her work […]