Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/358

 29 G NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. iv. OCT. 7, to be brought through iron pipes from " the coast of Essex to Copenhagen Fields"; but the project proved a failure. HARRY HEMS. Fair Park, Exeter. "Coop," TO TRAP (10th S. iv. 165).—Bailey's 'Dictionary' (1733) does not give coop as a verb, but two of his nouns give the sense of a trap, or a place to be caught, viz.: "A Fish Coop, a vessel of twigs with which they catch fish in the Humber"; and " Coopertura, a thicket or covert of wood." The derivative of the modern slang "to do a coup," that is to get the best of a deal, Bai- ley marks as a country phrase thus: " To Coup, to exchange or swap"; while with his mark for an old word we get " Coupe, a piece cut off or out," and " Coupegorge, a cut throat," the latter being marked as from Chaucer. As an analogous expression to silver-cooped I might again quote Bailey : " Silver squinsey [Law Term] is when a Lawyer, bribed by the adverse party, feigns himself sick, or not able to speak." G. YARROW BALDOCK. In the West Yorkshire dialect cop, not coop, means catch, and is used actively, as of "coppin' buzzards " (=catching butterflies or moths), or passively, as "Tha'll cop it when thi mother knaws abaht it." Is not the same meaning common all over the country? A policeman is very generally known as a "copper" (or catcher), which is contracted (especially when used for detectives) into "cop." H. SNOWDEN WARD. Hadlow, Kent. Cop (not coop) is a word in very general use amongst the working classes. " Cop" means to "catch on the hop." The common term "copper," a policeman, comes from it. HARRY HEMS. CHARLES READE'S GRANDMOTHER (10th S. ii. 344; iv. 190).—The third Mrs. Scott-Waring (formerly Mrs. Esten) died at Kensington, a reputed centenarian, on 29 April, 1865 (Gent. Mag., June, 1865, p. 803), leaving her large fortune to the Coventry family. As Miss Harriet Bennet, she was married by banns, on 24 February, 1784, at Lower Tooting Graveney, Surrey, to James Esten, with the consent of her mother, Mrs. Anna Maria Bennet, of Bennet Street, Bath. Esten was a purser to the Quebec, but as she was not in commission his funds were soon exhausted, and his wife went on the stage. A deed ol separation was executed in July, 1789, when Mrs. Esten was acting at the Dublin Theatre, and Esten sought refuge from his creditors in France, where for a while he was sup- sorted by his mother-in-law. He eventually ?ot appointed to a ship, settled in St. Domingo, W.I., and did well. In February, 1798, Tie was granted leave to bring in a Bill to dis- solve his marriage, but after hearing his wit- nesses the House of Lords rejected it ('Lords' Journals,' xli. 471, 485-7'; Sporting Mag., March, 1798). The Miss Scott-Waring who became Mrs. Frye never acted; but her niece Harriet, •he daughter of Lieut. John T. Scott-Waring, did, she having married, as his second wife, an actor - manager at Newcastle-on-Tyne named Haddy, the son of a Dissenting minister. By his first wife he had two daughters, both actresses, one of whom, as Hiss Carlotta Addison, still adorns the stage. GORDON GOODWIN. GIBBETS (10th S. iv. 229, 251).—The real Jaxton Gibbet, mentioned by E. W. B., had disappeared before—perhaps, long before— [849, in the early part of which year I first passed that way. What " is still to be seen" s a sham one, erected some forty years ago, or less, not so much to mark the site of the original as for the convenience of those who ittend a well-known "meet" of the Cam- bridgeshire hounds. A. N. Two valuable papers on 'Some Norfolk Gibbets,' by Mr. W. G. Clarke, were printed in The Nonvich Mercury of 27 June and 11 Julv, 1903. In The Times of 15 November, 1895, ap- peared a note entitled 'A Unique Relic.' It contained the following paragraph : — " On the summit of the Hampshire and Berkshire range of hills, at an altitude of about a thousand feet above flea-level—the greatest elevation of the chalk in England—stands a solitary gibbet known far and wide around the country-side as 'Combe Gallows,' where a man and woman were hanged for murder on the 7th of March, 1676." Then follows an interesting story. The last case of gibbeting took place at Leicester in 1834. The irons in which the body was suspended are still preserved. In the current issue of The Northampton Merntnj (15 September) occurs the following para- graph :— " The last gibbet used in England is stored »w»y in Leicester Gaol. The local and British Museum authorities have both failed in their efforts to obtain possession of the relic, and to a corre- spondent who expressed a desire to photograph it. the Secretary of State has just replied regretting that he cannot accede to the application." See 6th S. viii. 394. JOHN T. PAOE. West Haddon, Northamptonshire. AMERICAN CIVIL WAR VERSES (10"1 S. iv. 229).—In reply to J. E. H. 1 send the poem