26 



KOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2ndS.N»80., JoLYll. '57. 



swered, 'Through God and two spayed bitches.' A se- 

 cond battle ensued soon after with the same success and 

 interrogatories and answers. They afterwards fought a 

 third battle, in which the man was again successful. On 

 the Devil asking him who were the combatants, he an- 

 swered, ' Himself and God.' The Devil finding he could 

 not vanquish the man living, said he would have him at 

 all events, when dead, whether buried in the church he 

 was building or out of it. To elude this he ordered him- 

 self to be buried half in the church and half out of it. 

 His coffin, or rather the cup of it, is to be seen of exceed- 

 ing hard black stone." 



T. S. 



Old Rhyme. — I'he following is a curious 

 rhyme which I took down from the recitation of 

 an old woman the other day. She remembers her 

 father singing it to his children. I know not 

 whether it is a novelty, or has previously ap- 

 peared : 



" There was a wee ghaist, 

 Nae mair than a midge at maist : — 

 Wha married the wee ghaist ? 



Wha trow ye ? 



Wha but the Spanish flee ? 

 They had bairns them between ; 

 Archus and the Elf-king ; 

 King Cawn, Moose Skiriet — monj' mae. 



The wee ghaist was a settle, 



Staw falla, its ain whittle. 



Staw red an' dee-a milk-mug, 



An' a grey meer .... 



Whan ye see the wee ghaist come, 



Py, cry-killy lay zum ; 



Fy, cry-blutter, blatter ; 



Fy, cast halla' water. 



Plunge in wi' glim, glam ; 



The cat jamp ower the mill-dam." 



I have marked where, from the rhyme, we may 

 infer something to be lost. In those parts where 

 the sense could not guide my spelling, I have kept 

 as near to the sound as possible. The whole piece 

 seems to be a political satire composed at the time 

 when our throne had connexions with Spain. 



J. B. Etjsseix. 



Glasgow. 



■ liOFCOP. 



In The Times of May 27, 1857, p. 11. col. 4., is 

 the report of a case touching the right of H. R. H. 

 the Prince of Wales as Duke of Cornwall to 

 i^lofcop," i. e. to one moiety of the charges on ex- 

 ported grain, seeds, and corn, levied at a certain 

 town upon the coast. The court inquired what 

 was the proper meaning of the term " lofcop ? " 

 Counsel could not tell. Is not this a case for 

 "N. & Q. ?"* 



Having never before met with the word, I can- 

 not pretend to give such an explanation of it as 

 ought to satisfy the learned inquirer. Never- 



f* Some conjectures respecting the meaning of lofcop 

 I be found in our 1" S. i. 319. 37J. : iv. 411. : viii. 245. 

 — Ed.] 



theless, some light may be thrown upon its com- 

 ponent parts. 



In old and provincial English, "lof" apparently 

 signifies to levy, to take ; and " cop " is a certain 

 amount or measure of grain thus taken or levied. 

 Formerly, in all probability, the lofcop was an 

 excise in the strict sense of the word, that is, was 

 taken in kind. 



1. With "lof" compare the old English word 

 "laughe" (taken), which probably was pro- 

 nounced like lof, or nearly so. This old term 

 " laughe " appears to be a participle of the verb 

 " lache," to catch, or to take (" to lache fische," to 

 catch fish). 



" Lordes of Lorayne, and Lumbardj-^e botliene 

 Laughe [lof] was and lede ." 



Lof, then, may be viewed as " something taken," 

 a levy, a toll. Compare " lef-silver," a composition 

 formerly paid by tenants in the Weald of Kent. 



2. " Cop," as a certain quantity of grain, ap- 

 pears in the phrase " a cop of peas " (15 or 16 

 sheaves). In this sense, cop stands connected 

 with " kype," " cipe," " coupe " (a basket). 



" Cop " does not, however, mean simply a 

 certain amount of grain. It means also an amount 

 levied as tallage. Conf. " cope," a tribute ; but, 

 specially, a tribute paid to the lord of the manor ; 

 for instance, when lead was smelted at his mill. 

 Conf also coupe (a piece cut off) ; and " a cup of 

 sneeze," which is a pinch of snuff (une prise de 

 tabac). 



Nearly all the terms here cited are to be found 

 in Halliwell. 



The above remarks are merely offered in the 

 way of suggestion, with the hope that, among the 

 many able correspondents of " N. & Q.," some one 

 will throw further light upon " lofcop." 



Thomas Boys. 



THE "rule or THE PAVEMENT." 



Why will some people insist on keeping the 

 wall, though they have no right to it ? 



Is there not a "rule of the pavement" as well as 

 a " rule of the road ? " 



Here are two questions, which, after the fashion 

 of Parliamentary proceeding, I put to you or any 

 of your readers, in order that, having observed the 

 requisite forms, I may myself answer them. 



It is not always from a motive of Impertinence 

 that people do impertinent things, nor from a 

 mere wish to annoy do they persevere in a course 

 which must be productive of annoyance. Ig- 

 norance is, as often as anything else, the cause of 

 misconduct. Ladies are great offenders in this way. 

 They are not over-fond of historical inquiries ; 

 they adopt very readily any tradition of society, 

 and assume as of course its continued duration. 

 Even up to the days when Gay wrote his Trivia, 



