Note 540 — SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12.
Reading edition
This word was at this time often used in a loose sense, though Johnson could not have so used it. Thus Horace Walpole, writing on May 16, 1759 (Letters, iii. 227), tells a story of the little Prince Frederick. 'T'other day as he was with the Prince of Wales, Kitty Fisher passed by, and the child named her; the Prince, to try him, asked who that was? "Why, a Miss." "A Miss," said the Prince of Wales, "why are not all girls Misses?" "Oh! but a particular sort of Miss—a Miss that sells oranges."' Mr. Cunningham in a note on this says:—'Orange-girls at theatres were invariably courtesans.'