Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/153

 19, '98.]

NOTES AND QUEKIES.

145

)f Advertisements, profess to give Receipts by which industrious persons of either sex may realize from II. to 51., and even 101. per week. With Remarks by Charles Dickens, Esq. London : Printed and Published for the Author, by H. Elliot, 475, New Oxford Street. 1852. Price Fourpence.

The "Remarks" consist of a lengthy quotation (extending from pp. 7 to 10 inclusive) from an anonymously -written article in No. 104 of Household Words (20 March, 1852), entitled 'Post-Office Money Orders.' That this was not written by Dickens is conclusively proved by the fact that it is reprinted in a collection of papers entitled ' Old Leaves : gathered from Household Words' (1860), the author of these being Mr. W. H. Wills.

It is, perhaps, worthy of remark that the preface to 'Methods of Employment' bristles with errors in orthography. I conjecture that Dickens's name was " writ large " upon the title-page in order that public attention might be directed to this curious production, as was the case with regard to other pamphlets, referred to in my article published in the Athenaeum, 11 September, 1897. F. G. KITTON.

" COLLEY THUMPER." In Mr. A. P. Hillier's recently published 'Eaid and Keform' the following passage introduces and explains the curious term " Colley Thumper," and perhaps it deserves a corner in our ever- beloved ' N. & Q.' :

" He [Mr. Barnato] took the keenest interest in our welfare, and undoubtedly used every influence he possessed to expedite our release. But when once inside the gates of the prison the lifelong habit of banter almost invariably came over him, and many were the little jokes he scored at our expense, and many the stories he told. On one occasion, when making somewhat caustic reference to the whole movement which had placed us there, and including Rhodes, Jameson, Reform Committee, and every one else connected with the movement in his strictures, he remarked that we had all tried to play a game of poker with the Transvaal Govern- ment on a ' Colley Thumper' hand. The term was a new one, and we asked him what he meant by a 'Colley Thumper.' In explanation he told the fol- lowing story : An English traveller with a not very extensive knowledge of poker found himself on one occasion engaged in a game with an astute old Yankee on board an American steamer. Playing cautiously, the Englishman did pretty well, until he suddenly found himself, to his great satisfaction, in possession of a full hand. The players alternately doubled the stakes until they were raised to 100?. The Englishman then called the American's hand, and the American deliberately put down a pair of deuces, a four, a seven, and a nine. The English-

aan with a triumphant smile, put down his full hand, ^and proceeded to gather up the stakes.

btop, said the Yankee, ' the stakes are mine ; yours is only a full hand, mine is a " Colley Thumper"; it beats everything.' The Englishman had never heard of such a hand before, but he determined not to

show his ignorance, and reluctantly relinquished the stakes. The game then proceeded, until at length the Englishman found himself in possession of a pair of deuces, a four, a seven, arid a nine. Betting went on freely until the stakes were raised to 500/. The Englishman again called, and the Yankee put down a straight. ' Ah,' said the joyful Englishman, ' mine is a " Colley Thumper." True,' said the American, ' but you forget the rules. It only counts once in an evening.' "

JAMES HOOPER.

" MOULDY." Walking on the Finchley Koad a few years ago, I was pestered by a lot of ragged urchins with the not more tempting than musical invitation, "Throw out your mouldy coppers." In Mr. Farmer's 'Slang and its Analogues' a " mouldy J un" is said to be a penny ; similar information is given in the ' Dictionary of Slang ' of Messrs. Barrere and Leland. In Douglas Jerrold's 'Kent Day,' however. Toby Hey wood says : " If my uncle had made me a ploughman instead of a mongrel scholar, I might have had a mouldy guinea or two " (Act I. sc. i.). This looks as if mouldy had been in use in the sense of hoarded. It seems worthy of the attention of the editor of the ' Dialect Dictionary,' over whose new honours I rejoice. H. T.

" DOWN TO THE GROUND." This phrase, in the sense of "completely," "utterly," seems to be now regarded as slang ; but it was once classical English. It is to be found in our Authorized Version, Judges xx. 21, 25, and one is glad to see that the Revisers have not been frightened from retaining it.

HAPHAZARD.

IRISH TROOPS AT THE FIRST CRUSADE, 1097. I see that Tasso, in his 'Jerusalem De- livered,' bk. i. st. 44, after saying that William (Rufus, I suppose), " the younger son of the monarch," conducted a body of English archers to the Crusade, mentions a num- ber of Irish troops who also went to Jeru- salem. I will insert the whole passage from Hoole's translation :

More numerous was the British squadron shown By William led, the monarch's younger son. The English in the bow and shafts are skilled ; With them a northern nation seeks the field, Whom Ireland, from our world divided far, From savage woods and mountains sends to war.

Can this be an historical fact 1 Tasso may be excused for writing that William went to the Crusade when we know that he stayed at home, but how could he make the mistake when he enumerates the different nations who went to capture Jerusalem? In st. 38 the poet had already alluded to Robert of Normandy and his followers. I have never read that in the time of our four Norman