Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/415

 n s. XL M AY 22, i9i5.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

405

NECESSARY NICKNAMES (11 S. xi. 320). It is not. easy, perhaps it is not possible, to account for the prevalence of " to -names " among fisher folk. The habit is certainly not confined to Lancashire. No official lists are more carefully pruned of superfluity than the roll of Parliamentary voters ; yet it has been found necessary to admit these to -names to the lists of voters in the fishing communities of Aberdeen, Banff, and Elgin, otherwise identification would become im- possible.

The late Mr. Dudgeon collected between 300 and 400 of these queer sobriquets from the lists of voters in those counties, such as William Flett, " Yankie " ; James Murray, "Costie Bird"; George Mair, "Shy Bob- bin " ; and so on. Among other affixes were " Bukie," " Caukie," "Cock Carrot," " Shavie," " Bosie Bowie," " Helen's Dod," "Upple," "Dosie," " Gug," and " Bussie."

In Blackwood's Magazine for March, 1842, there is an amusing paper on the subject of these " tee-names," as they are called on the North -East coast. It seems that there were then in the little seaport of Buckie no fewer than twenty-five males rejoicing in the name of George Cowie, distinguished from each other as Carrot, Doodle, Neep, Biglugs, Beauty, Bam, Helldom, Collop, Stoattie, Snuffers, Bochie, Toothie, Tod- lowrie, &c. The writer of the article vouches for the following story being authentic :

"A stranger had occasion to call on a fisherman of the name of Alexander White, but he \vas

ignorant both of his house and his tee-name

Meeting a girl, he asked :

'Could ye tell me fa'r Sanny Fite lives? '

'Filk [which] Sanny Fite?'

'Muckle Sanny Fite ? '

'Filk muckle Sanny Fite?'

' Muckle lang Sanny Fite.'

1 Filk muckle lang Sanny Fite ? '

'Muckle lang gleyed [squinting] Sanny Fite.' ' 0, it 's Goup-the-lif t [stare-at-the-sky] ye 're seeking,' cried the girl; 'and fat the deevil for dinna ye speer [inquire] for the man by his richt name at ance ! ' " Monreith. HERBERT MAXWELL.

Nicknames are often necessary. When I was for some years doing Parliamentary Begistration work in Gloucestershire, we were often bothered with many voters of the same name at the same address. There were no numbers to the houses ; and we had to give the address of one William Nash as " next Mrs. Jones's shop." Another William Nash was " not next Mrs. Jones's shop " ; but there were so many of them that one was long described as " Susan."

When he was addressed as " Susan," he- was offended and would not vote ; and if not so addressed, he never got his polling card. H. K. H.

"There were lately living in the small town of Folkestone, Kent, fifteen persons whose hereditary name was Hall, but who gratia distinctionis bore the elegant designations of Doggy Hall, Feather toe. Bumper, Bubbles, Pierce -eye, Faggotts, Cula, Jiggery, Pumble - Foot, Cold Flip, Silver - Kye r Lumpy, Sutty, Thick-Lips, and Old Hall." Lower's 4 History of Surnames,' vol. i. p. 41.

There appeared many years ago in The Folkestone Express a list of singular nick- names used in the town in order, it is supposed, to mislead the Customs officers in old smuggling days. This list arranged by Mr. Bichard Cullen as a doggerel was reprinted in Mr. John English's 'Beminis- cences of Old Folkestone Smugglers.'

I know of two instances in Sandgate : a man with the Christian name of Charles was known as " Old George " ; another, William as "Dicky Darford." B. J. FYNMORE.

[CoL. FYNMORE has kindly sent us a copy of the doggerel. We regret that, running to thirteen six-line stanzas, it is too long for insertion.]

Thirty years ago the family of Harvey was so fully represented at Newhall, near Burton -on -Trent, that I was asked by one of the tenants on an estate there, then in Chancery, to add "Slam" after his surname when I addressed letters to him bv post.

A. c. a

" THE LADY OF THE LAMP " (11 S. xi. 249). Mr. Macdonald, connected with the staff of The Times, acted as almoner of The Times Fund in the Crimea. WTien leaving Scutari, he wrote a letter to The Times in which is the following :

form, and the hand of the despoiler distressingly nigh, there is this incomparable woman [Florence Nightingale] sure be seen ; her benignant presence is an influence for good comfort, even amid the struggles of expiring nature. She is a ' minister- ing angel,' without any exaggeration, in these hos- pitals ; and as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired for the night, and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds." See 'Pictorial History of the Russian. War, 1854-5-6' [by G. D.], W. & R. Chambers, 1856, p. 310.
 * Wherever there is disease in its most dangerous

To find such a passage as the above in the volumes of The Times is a very difficult affair, even with the help of Palmer's Index. I have failed in my attempt.