Note 252 — Chapter V · GOG AND MAGOG

I do not think this proverbially loving couple were exclusively Scotch. The darbies, i.e., handcuffs or clutches of the law may be connoted with Gascoigne’s line (1576): “To bind such babes in father Darbie’s bands”. “Old Joan” figures as one of the characters in the festivities of Plough Monday, and in Cornwall any very ancient woman was denominated “Aunt Jenny”.