Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/260

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NOTES AND QUERIES. 112 s. i. MAR. 25, igie.

"HACKNEY" (12 S. i. 150). The origin of the words " hackney " and " hackneyed " is ancient and obscure. Various ' countries a-ppear credited with them, but one of the
 * most ingenious derivations is drawn from

the Middle Dutch, with hacken or hakken = a chop ; the alternate lifting and dropping of the horse's feet in ambling, with the accom- panying sound, being compared to the alternating movement of a pair of chopping knives in chopping cabbage or the like (although the late Prof. Skeat took it in the sense of jolting) thus the horse, the coach, and even hired people have all fallen under the description of hackneys.

And so the word became known to convey the meaning to wear, weary, or exhaust by frequent or excessive use, as a horse. Thus Shakespeare, in ' Henry IV.,' has it : Had I so lavish of my presence been, So common hackneyed in the eyes of men.

Marvell wrote :

" Both men, and horses, and leather being ihackneyed, jaded, and worn out."

And Goldsmith says :

" I always held that hackneyed maxim of Pope."

While a charming living writer, Mr. George .A. B. Dewar, puts it thus :

" The Sahara desert could no more be vul- garized by a beanfeast than the Pacific Ocean by an excursion boat. Still less can such places be hackneyed by writers. The Sphinx how infinitely less it is than Sahara. Yet who can hackney the Sphinx ? "

J. LANDFEAR LUCAS.

Glendora, Hindhead, Surrey.

THE " FLY " : THE " HACKNEY" (12 S. i. 150). MB. ACKERMANN will find much information concisely conveyed in ' Omni- buses and Cabs,' by Henry Charles Moore (London, 1902). He says, at p. 182, that hackney-coaches were established in London early in the seventeenth century. At p. 189 is given a picture of a hackney-coach about 1680, and at p. 194 a picture of a hackney- coach about 1800. At p. 225 he says that .about 1837 the first four-wheeled cab was placed upon the streets, being called a " covered cab." It carried two passengers inside and one on the box seat :

" This cab was quickly improved upon, and the ' Clarence,' our much-abused ' growler,' was the result. Lord Brougham was highly pleased with ^the new vehicle, and in 1840 he instructed his coach-builder Mr. Robinson of Mount Street ix> make him one of a superior description. Hence <the brougham."

On the same page is given a picture of the <first four-wheeled cab. The old hackney-

coaches were generally discarded family- coaches.

At p. 204 Mr. Moore writes : " The origin of the word ' hackney ' cannot be decided. In all probability it was derived from bhe old French word hacquenee. which was applied bo horses and sometimes coaches let on hire. The claim that Hackney was the first place where coaches could be hired, and gave its name to the vehicles, does not bear investigation."

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

MK. ACKERMANN may like to know that the use of the name of "fly" for a vehicle commenced long before that of " four- wheeler,*' for it arose in 1809 at Brighton when a carpenter employed at the Royal Pavilion Stables injured himself, and on his recovery made a seat on wheels to be pulled about on by a single horse. The Prince Regent saw it, and ordered another, and this was used by him and his friends in their larks at night, who named it a " fly by night." The carpenter at once sent the pattern to obtain more from London.

HAROLD MALET, Col.

The ' N.E.D.' says :

" Fly the name of a light vehicle, introduced at Brighton in 1816, and originally drawn or pushed by men ; but a horse being soon employed the name was gradually extended to any one-horse covered carriage, as a cab or hansom, let out on hire. Local usage of the word varies ; in some places * fly ' is confined to a ' four-wheeler ' ; but it is generally applied to a vehicle hired from a livery stable, and not plying for hire."

1847, Act 10 & 11 Victoria, c. 89, 38 : " Every wheeled Carriage. . . .used in standing or plying for Hire in any Street. . . .and every Carriage standing upon any Street, public or private .... having thereon any numbered Plate required by this .... Act .... shall be deemed to be a Hackney Carriage."

A. R. BAYLEY. [G. F. B. B. thanked for reply.]

THE TURKISH CRESCENT AND STAR (12 S. i. 189). The Turkish badge was in use at least two centuries earlier than the taking of Constantinople in 1453. At the meeting of the British Association held at Leicester in 1907, 1 remember, Prof. Ridgeway maintained that this crescent has nothing to do with the moon, as is generally supposed, but represents an amulet of two claws placed back to back. He exhibited several such charms, I think, from his own collec- tion. No doubt COL. POWXETT would find an abstract of Prof. Ridgeway's paper in the Proceedings of the Association.

CHARLES J. BILLSON.

The Priory, Martyr Worthy, Winchester.