Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/404

 334 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9"‘ S- VI. Ovr- 27. 19011 lutelg necessary as a qualification thereto. In t e_s1xteenth and seventeenth centuries most, if not all, of those “called ” were, however, I believe, actuall “learned in the law,” with the intention ofypractisin it as a profession. But with regard to such inten- tion th1s_1s not the case in the present day, nor has it been for many years past, with a considerable number of those who become barristers, merely desirin nominally to be of _a profession supposed (as our worthy Editor remarks in his note) to confer a cer- tain social status, with, I would add, the right to the_t1tle of “Esc¥,” the probability of smoothing the pathto arliamentar honours to the_pos1t1on of a Justice of the lyeace, and to various practically sinecure, but well-paid appointments. Many distinguished persons in other walks of life (medicine, for instance) have been admitted of these Inns as a mark of honour in the zenith of their fame. W. I. R. V. “TWOPENNY-HALFPENNY DIME ” (9°*‘ S. vi. 249).-Qzme (Fr. dime, from eccles. Lat. decima.) means tithe. It occurs as early as 1377 in Langland’s ‘ Piers Plowman’ (B text, xv. 526), and although obsolete was used as recently as 1884 by. O1iphant(‘Haifa,’ . 133). See the ‘H.E.D.' F, ADAM3_ The half-dime equals live cents, or two- pence-halfpenny. ‘he twopenn -halfpenny element enters more emphaticall into the nickel, which also is equal in value to five cents, but, being of baser metal, is larger. They are, of course, United States coins. ARTHUR LIAYALL. The half-dime (five cents) is, or w common enough in the Southern Statesadf America. When I was there in the fifties it was th_e smallest coin in circulation. Copper was disdained ; the silver half-dime, if paid for a trifling article, entitled the buyer to no change. The meaning of not caring one “twopenny-halfpenny dime” is obvious _; it was its comparative insi nilicance in the culgregicy that coined the phrase. W. T. at. This is, of course, a literal im ossibilit as a U.S. dime is of the value df about bfive- pence English, so that it is probably an episcopal euphemism for the ambiguous “dam(n).” lt ention of the expression “two- penny-halfpenny” is made in an account of the great frost of January, 1608 (Arber’s ‘ Eng ish Garner/ i. 93, a reprint of Mr. Huth’s copié), slpeakmg of a lottery, the first recorded in ng and: “And the common burden of that song, when poor prizes were drawn, was Two-pence halfpenny”; also, “Which thre halfpeny entleman I reckon not in my Scrowe. is in whom resteth not so much as one ioate of honest, much lesse of N obility.” ‘Humfrey on Nobilityf 1563, fo. 1 verso (‘N _ it Q.,’ cw S. vi. ss, 134). J. HOLDEN hfACMICHAEL OTTER HUNTING : CHRISTENING (9“‘ S. vi. 270).-“ Blcoding ” is the proper term for the “ christening ” described, and is the orthodox ceremony b which the novice in foxhunting and deerstalking is admitted to the mystery of the chase. HERBERT MAXWELL The custom of “ blooding ” a bog' on seeing his first fox killed is very old an still very common. After the first whipper-in has per- formed the obsequies on the fox-such as cutting off the head, pads, and brush-it is not uncommon for him, when handing the body to the huntsman to give to the hounds, to keep a bit of the interior of the animal in his hands, and, walking quickly round the crowd of gaping rustics that often watch the operation, to smear as many of their faces as he can with the bloody fragment, much to the amusement of those who escage his visitation. . S. [Many similar replies received.] ‘ WEDDRD ’ (9*'*‘ S. vi. 209).-I possess a. cogy of a large and beautiful photogravure ( y Goupil) of this picture, published by the Fine-Art. Society, New Bond Street, in 1882. From the position of the woman’s hand there does not appear to be the least suggestion that the man has hold of the little nger at all ; at least, that particular finger is invisible. It seems q_u1te clear he is kissing or caressing with the lips the top of the forefinger of the left hand. Had he been in the act of biting his teeth would, I think, have been visihle. HARRY Haus. “ Pmnroc ” (9'=h S. vi. 250).-A fikkoc was possibly nothing other than a pi garlic, or a man whose hair had fallen off from dis- sipation. One would like to say that a pzlekoc was a lay brother whose duties were those 6f thief-taker (peZe=to rob); but it is questionable if the word cock had become applied to ministers of reli ion so early as the fourteenth century, and; the force that it has in such a word as tu-7‘7l(f0Ck does not apply, because the cock was not the man who turned, but the object turned. Halliwell gives “ Pill-pates. Shaven heads; friars.” Possibly also the expression was the jest of a. cloister humourist, and was no more than the equiva- lent of coquard. Was the word pile/coc added later than the original entry, and in another