2°'! S, VIII. Aug. C. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



115 



1831 (Hansard, Commons, Mar. 8, col. 225), Sir 

 James refers to some comments by the right hon. 

 member for Aldborough (Mr. Croker) on the ex- 



Srcssion of another member respecting Tavistock. 

 Tow some of the newspapers of that day report 

 Sir James's speech with (assuming Hansard to be 

 correct) extreme inaccuracy. May it not have 

 been so loosely reported somewhere, that Sir 

 James's reference to what had been said by the 

 right hon. member for Aldborough concerning 

 Tavistock may have been mistaken by the author 

 of Whig Reform for a reflexion on Aldborough 

 itself? 



Incredible as it may now appear, the sum-totals 

 of electors in the four places specified, when the 

 Eeform Bill was passed, are stated to have been, 

 respectively, Aldborough, SufF., about 40, Ald- 

 borough, Yorksh., about 60, Knar esboro ugh 28, 

 Tavistock 27 ! Thomas "Boys. 



" Hinc Hadenbergam sera sub nocte venimus, 

 Ridetur nobis veteri mos ductus ab £evo 

 Quippe ubi deligitur revoluto tempore Consul, 

 Barbati circum mensam statuunter acernani, 

 Hispidaque iniponunt attenti mente Quirites : 

 Porrigitur series barbarum desuper ingens, 

 Bestia, pes, mordax, sueta inter crescere sordes, 

 Ponitur in medio. Turn cujus numine Divum 

 Barbara adiit, festo huic gratantur murmure Patres, 

 Atque celebratur subjecta per oppida Consul." 



Huetius de Rebus ad eum, pertinentibus, p. 77. 

 Amst. 1718. 



The editor, to prevent mistakes, says in the 

 preface, — 



" Hardenberga oppidum est Transisalaniaj, hunc autem 

 morem in illo oppido, nee vigere nee unquam viguisse 

 liquido constat ; sed ex vano fortasse rumore, vel animi 

 laxandi gratia, hos versus efTectos esse facile crediderim." 



H. B. C. 



U. U. Club. 



I presume that Adenhorough represents 

 " Jamie's " pronunciation of Edinborougb. Sir 

 James must have alluded to the smallness of the 

 constituency of the Scotch capital, which was, in 

 ]o3], less than that of Knaresborough. 



E. H. D.D. 



LORD XRSKINE AND REV. WM. COCKIN. 



(2"'^ S. viii. 25.) 



On this subject the editor of the Gloucester 

 Journal inserted the following notice in his journal 

 of the 16th July: — 



" To Correspondents : — To tbe inquirj' of a ' Constant 

 Reader' we reply, that the trial he refers to occurred at 

 the Gloucester Summer Assizes in 1801. At that time it 

 was not the custom, as it is now, to give a detailed ac- 

 count of the proceedings in the provincial Courts of Law, 

 &c., and we are not aware of any other report of the trial 

 in question than what is contained in the following brief 



paragraph, which appeared in the Gloucester Journal of 

 August 10, 1801 : — 



" • Among the trials at Nisi Prius, before Mr. Baron 

 Thomson, was an action of ejectment, in which Mr. West- 

 ley, wine merchant, of Bristol (as heir-at-law of Mrs. 

 Pinfold, late of Minchinhampton,) was plaintiff, and the 

 Rev. William Cockin, curate of Minchinhampton, as de- 

 visee in the will of the said Mrs. Pinfold, defendant. 

 The leading counsel employed bj- Mr. Cockin was the 

 Hon. Mr. Erskine, who, in an able speech of two hours 

 displayed that .... consummate skill in his profession 

 which he never fails to testify. This gentleman, never 

 having been before . . . engaged as counsel in this place, 

 the court was unusually crowded, and the curiosity ex- 

 cited was amply repaid by his extraordinary eloquence 

 and peculiar humour. After an examination of two wit- 

 nesses, the counsel for Mr. Westley gave up the cause, 

 and a verdict was of course returned by the jury (which 

 was special) for the defendant.' " 



Among the "small courtesies which" "the two 

 old maiden ladies " " were pleased to value so 

 highly," I was told that one, and probably the 

 first, was the curate's furnishing them with an 

 umbrella on going from church on a rainy Sunday. 



I was present in court at the trial; and for 

 some time after was able to report to others the 

 whole line of argument which Mr. Erskine took 

 for the defence. But, at this distance of time, 

 I cannot venture to restate it with certainty or 

 precision. I think, however, it was founded 

 chiefly on the impression which those " courtesies" 

 (continued through life) were calculated to make, 

 — and was marked by the very skilful way in 

 which Mr. Erskine proceeded to draw out, and to 

 heighten and deepen the effects of the curate's 

 attentions, on the minds of the two solitary 

 " maiden ladies," who were sisters. P. H. F. 



" HAEPOYS ET riSSHEPONDE. 



(2°o S. viii. 49.) 



There is some choice of derivations, for both 

 these terms. First, for " harpoys," the med.- Latin 

 name for a harpoon, harpo ; and harpuis, a mix- 

 ture of pitch, tar, and resin ; and secondly, for 

 " fyssheponde," vischbeun, the well of a Dutch 

 fishing-smack, and fysshe-pund, of kindred mean- 

 ing ; — all supply tempting etymologies. 



But your correspondent finds the two words 

 linked together, " harpoys et fyssheponde ; " and 

 where articles, in an old Customal, stand thus 

 united, ought we not to suppose some measure of 

 affinity between them ? And is not that explana- 

 tion to be preferred which maintains the con- 

 nection between the two ? 



" Harpoys et fyssheponde." It may be sug- 

 gested, then, that in these two terms the last syl- 

 lables of each, poi/s and poncfe, mean the same 

 thing. Any stated quantity of a given article 

 was, in the old French employed by our fore- 

 fathers, called poi/s, poyse, or pois. " De chascun 

 poi/se de formage et de bure jd." {Costumal of 



