Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/622

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XIL DEC. 25, 1909.

they cut into bits, and put into bottles partly filled with water, shaking the mix- ture until the water tasted of the liquorice. The day was not called by any other name.

2. The belief then was, and perhaps still is, that a person died " hard " if there was a pigeon's feather in the pillow on which the head rested. As a lad of five or six that is a long time ago I remember the talk then of the women folk concerning this matter ; pillows were removed from under the head in the hope that death would " come easy." THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

CABRIOLET : CAB : MB. PICKWICK (10 S. xii. 385). The extract given by MB. PIEB- POINT from The Gentleman's Magazine of 1823 in regard to the introduction of the cabriolet into London is obviously derived from The Times of the period ; and the fuller original account seems of sufficient interest to furnish.

It was announced in The Times of 15 April, 1823, that

" cabriolets are about to be established in London as public conveyances. We understand licenses have been issued by the Lords of the Treasury to nfty of them to ply at the hackney-coach stands at a tare one half the price of hackney-coaches. It is said that the speculation is to be entered into by the firm of a banker in the city and a legal gentle- man of the Temple."

Nine days later The Times was able to add : " The cabriolets in honour of his Majesty's birth- day, were introduced to the public yesterday. I hey are built to hold two persons besides the driver (who is partitioned off from his company) and are furnished with a book of fares for the use of the public, to prevent the possibility of imposi- tion ; these books will be found in a pocket hung inside of the head of the cabriolet. The drivers are selected from gentlemen's servants only, who have produced good characters from their last place for sobriety and civility, and are dressed in a plain stable livery, and who will be discharged for any incivility or fraud. They have had a private trial, and were found to answer all the purposes intended.

ALFRED F. BOBBINS.

Cruiksh ank's drawing of a cabriolet

in Sketches by Boz, ? at chap, xvii.

W. C. B.

A reference to old almanacs shows that during the reign of George IV. (born 12 August) against 23 April is to be read " St George. K[in g 's] B[irth] D[ay] kept." The

T fV he pre *, ent rei n thus finds *

edent, if a precedent not entirely apt. Rossall School, Fleetwood. T> NlCKLIN '

" SCABPINE,"- INSTRUMENT OF TORTURE (10 S. xii. 407). Kingsley's 'Westward Ho * appeared in 1855. In referring to the scarpine he gave it a signification different from that found in previous English usage, reverting to the French or Italian sense of the word. The question arises why he should have made the change. May I venture to suggest the following explanation ?

In 1831 the deformity known as club-foot was successfully operated on for the first time by a German surgeon, who removed the affliction by dividing the tendons of the contracted muscles, and forcing the foot into its natural shape. After the knife had done its work, an apparatus was employed to keep the foot from returning to its former position. This apparatus was known as " Scarpa's shoe, n so called from Antonio Scarpa (1747-1832), a celebrated Italian surgeon. Whether termed a scarpine or not, it would, at all events, prove for some time to the patient an instrument of torture, with, however, the ultimate result that the deformity disappeared. In the same way the inquisitors in ' Westward Ho ' employed the scarpine to rectify the diseases of the soul. Perhaps the use of " Scarpa's shoe " suggested to Kingsley the sense he gave to the word scarpine.

WALTEB SCOTT.

Stirling.

HOCKTIDE AT HsxTON (10 S. xi. 488 ; xii. 71, 139, 214, 253). The ' N.E.D.' states that the derivation of Hocktide is unknown, while PBOF. SKEAT lately held out small hope for the discovery of its history. I believe, notwithstanding, that the question may be decided practically, if not precisely, and in a very simple and matter-of-fact way.

All writers agree that the names Hockday, Hocktide, Hock Monday, Hock Tuesday, Hocking, connote a certain festival during Easter, at which there was much friendly intercourse between the opposite sexes, such as is still observable on the Continent during Carnival week. Furthermore, the hint thrown out as far back as 1786 by the Rev. Mr. Denne in the quotation given by MB. C. NICHOLLS (ante, p. 214), that the word is related to Germ. Hochzeit, whatever the erudite may still say to the contrary, is, I believe, correct, though hardly for the reason there given. Germ. Hochzeit means firstly a festival, secondly a wedding ; the same is true of Du. hoogtijd, though the word bruiloft is the ordinary term in the latter signification. In Icelandic ha tid also means " high day," " festival.' 4 What has puzzled