Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/446

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NOTES AND QUERIES. tn s. vi. NOV. 9, 1912.

"NOTCH." On 16 September, PROF, SKEAT sent me an interesting note on this word, the substance of which, I think, may usefully find a place in the columns of ' N. & Q.' Alas ! it was the last communi- cation I was to receive from the facile pen of one who had been my valued friend and the inspirer of my studies for more than thirty-five years !

The importance of the communication consists in the fact that the Professor has found an instance of the word " notch " much earlier than any instance given in ' N.E.D. ,' either for substantive or verb : for the latter the earliest quotation is from Bishop Hall, 1597 ; for the former, from Harrison's ' England,' 1577.

But the word occurs in an Anglo-French document of the early fourteenth century, in 1314, in the exact sense and exact form (with the n prefixed). PROF. SKEAT found it in a book given him by Mr. Bolland the editor, namely, ' The Eyre of Kent,' 6 and 7 Edward II., A.D. 1313/14, ii. 35, Selden Society, vol. xxvii. (1912). In a passage about the tallies in which notches were cut, it is said : " Homme put anoccer ou amenuser ceux noches a sa volunte " (a man can cut new notches or diminish their number at will). " Et par les noches put homme conaistre la demande." (And by the notches on it a man can know the de- mand ie., the amount of the debt to be paid. )

The Professor asks the question, If this noche is the O.F. oche, where does the n- come from ? Is the n- due to the English indefinite article prefixed ? Or is it due to the A.F. composite verb anoccer (enoccer) = Lat. in-occare ? A. L. MAYHEW.

Oxford.

RING-, GUINEA-, MONEY-DROPPERS. (See ante, p. 288.) In 'A Living Picture of London for 1828,' by Jon: Bee, Esq., p. 137, is a description of the arts of ring-droppers, including guinea-droppers. It begins by saying :

" Ring-droppers is the general term for those

rogues who pick up soft-looking people in

the streets, by pretending to stoop down and find some valuable commodity, close to their feet, which they generously propose to share with the person to be done. As the article so troven, [is] most commonly assumed to be a gold riny, the term ' ring-dropping ' has been extended to the whole series of frauds, which consists in finding supposed valuable articles, wrapped up with a bill of parcels, stating their prices at very high sums. Formerly the same species of tricksters, for a similar reason, had the title of ' guinea-droppers,' employing, no doubt, th3 false or counterfeit coin of that time."

Then the quotation from Gay's ' Trivia,' iii. 249, which is given in the ' New English Dictionary,' s.v. ' Guinea-dropper,' is quoted. " As soon as the sharper pounces upon his ' find,' he cries ' adzooks ; no halves, 'tis all my own.' ' No,' remarks a bystander, one of the crew, ' No, part of it, be it whatever it may, belongs to this young fellow, and he can demand half ; you folloiv him up, young man, and I 'Ih go with you and see you righted.' "

The confederates and their dupe adjourn to a public-house, where the ring, parcel of trinkets, or whatever the " find " may be, is by the false invoice, or by a sham test, shown to be of real gold. Eventually, after calls for drink, mutual pledges, &c., the dupe is induced to buy the whole of the goods, " which may consist of gold seals, gold necklace, brooch, shirt-pin, bracelets, &c.," at half the apparent value (if possible), or at a third, a fourth, or less. In any case, of course, he is swindled.

According to John Camden Hotten in his edition (c. 1869) of Pierce Egan's ' Tom and Jerry, Life in London,' Introduction, pp. 10, 11, foot-note, ' A Living Picture of London for 1828 ' was written by John Badcock, whose " favourite pseudonym was ' Jonathan Bee.' "

In ' A New Dictionary .... of the Canting Crew,' by B. E. Gent, (c. 1690?), reprint, the word " Sweetners " includes guinea- droppers, cheats, and sharpers.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

REAL CHARACTERS IN FICTION. Efforts are constantly being made to identify actual persons with the characters described in works of fiction, and this notwithstanding the disclaimer on the part of the authors. For instance, the death of. the Rev. Augustus Orlebar has given the papers occasion to say that he was the " Tom Brown " in Hughes's book ; while another clergyman, still living, is identified with " Slogger Williams." Yet Hughes in the Preface to ' Tom Brown at Oxford ' writes :

" I have only, then, to say that neither is the hero a portrait of myself, nor is there any other portrait in either of the books, except in the case of Dr. Arnold, where the true name is given."

This statement, surely, should be sufficient to explode the foregoing theory, as well as the attempts to identify " Arthur " with Dean Stanley, or " East " with Major Hodson of Delhi fame.

Hughes may, of course, have uninten- tionally introduced characteristics of his schoolfellows which have led to such infer- ences ; it has always seemed to me that great resemblance existed between his own