Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/47

 1'2 S. VI. FEB., 19LH).]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

35

other rarely met with occupations are " glaseman," in 1625 (Wigan), a hawker
 * in glassware, but in 1599 (Middleton) a

similar individual is described as a " carier of glasses " (alienigena) and in 1623 (Wigan) as a " glasyer." In 1677 (Croston) a " dryster " is met with, as a person em- ployed in drying something, probably in a "bleach field, although, of course, he may have been employed in a pottery, as there are mention "in the same Register of "Throwers, Fanners, and Pipers, all terms used in the manufacture of pottery, but 'these would probably be used by persons peregrinating the country as hawkers, as 'there were no potteries in the districts mentioned at the dates given.

ARCHIBALD SPABKE. Bolton.

PLOUGH-JAGS. We have this day, Jan. 7, "had a fine " gang " of plough- jags from Burton here. I remember when every village had its own " gang," but for many years Burton-on-Stather has provided the only " gang " in this neighbourhood. The word is given in ' N.E.D.,' with quotations from Peacock's ' Ralf Skirlaugh.' It is probably a variant of " plough jogger, one ^who jogs or pushes a plough " (1605, 1658, <<?, 1787), a ploughman. The local folk-lore should be put on record. A Winterton -woman used to say that " when flood was out over all the earth and they came out of ^Noah's ark they was all so pleased that they 'dressed theirselves up wi' bits o' things an' danced about, an' the's been plew-jags ever sin'." *

There is a list of the characters sustained at Bottesford near Brigg in 1882, in 'Between Trent and Ancholme,' p. 316.

J. T. F. 'Winterton, Doncaster.

IRONMONGERS' HALL. It should be noted in ' N. & Q.' that, following the damage -done by German air-raids in June, 1917, and with a view to the erection of a pile of -city offices, the Hall of the Ironmongers' Company at 117 Fenchurch Street has been demolished. The original hall of the Com- pany was in Ironmonger Lane in Cheapside : the Company acquired its Fenchurch Street property in 1457. A hall was built at the southern end of it in 1587, and that was rebuilt in 1750. The building now de- stroyed had no special features of interest, 'but the vanishing of such a landmark .should not pass unrecorded

W. ll. QUARREL.

" DEAD " RECKONING: " DEDUCED " RECKONING. Lloyd's List of October 29 draws attention to an article lately con- tributed by Mr. Henry Harries of the Meteorological Office to The Morning Post on the meaning and origin of the nautical locution " dead reckoning." Mr. Harries took pains to point out that all the lexico- graphers down to Sir James Murray repeat the old stereotyped definition of the formula as it occurs in Dr. Gregory's ' Complete Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences ' (1819):

." In navigation the calculation made of a ship's place by means of a compass and log ; the first serving to point out the course she sails on, and the other the distance run. From these two things given, the skilful mariner, making proper allowance for the variation of the compass, leeway Currents, etc., is enabled, without any observation of the Sim or stars, to ascertain the ship's place tolorably well."

While this description is specifically correct as far as it goes, there has been no enlightenment vouchsafed hitherto as to how the epithet " dead " came to be applied to the skipper's somewhat elaborate calcu- lation, the word's meaning being classed in the ' N.E.D.' s.v. 5, as " unrestricted, unbroken ; absolute, complete, utmost."

Mr. Harries, however, through long familiarity with the logs of the Royal Navy, which date back to about the year 1650, had the good fortune some little time back to make a valuable discovery. Before the date in question, it appears, printed log- books were not supplied by the Admiralty, and captains were in the habit of entering their runs in a journal ruled into different columns. Through lack of space the column that indicated the latitude deduced from the reckoning of the vessel's course bore sometimes the abbreviated heading " Ded. (Latt.) " ; and this formula came gradually into general use, and was adopted un- questioningly by English and American mariners throughout the world ; so that the true word's actual connotation was quite lost sight of, and its proper origin obscured. The greater illiteracy of seafaring men in those days no doubt contributed to the preservation of the secret, which may have been further aided by the frequency of naval wars with the Dutch, French, and Spaniards, and the many hostile encounters occurring with privateers, pirates, and smugglers.

The Dutch equivalent of the designation is ruwe berekening, rough estimate, and the French, route estimee. N. W. HILL.

35 Woburn Place, W.C.I.