Jan. 29. 185^ 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



103 



tea. Two visitors were particularly expected. 

 They soon arrived. The first, if I remember 

 rightly (for my whole attention was singuhu-ly 

 riveted to the second), was a pleasant-looking, 

 lively young man — very talkative and entertain- 

 ing ; his companion was above the middle height, 

 broadly made, but not stout, and advanced in 

 years. His countenance had a peculiar charm, 

 that I could not resist. It alternately exhibited 

 a deep sadness, a thoughtful repose, a fearful and 

 iin intellectual fire, that surprised and held me 

 captive. His manner was embarrassed and re- 

 served. He spoke but little. Yet once he was 

 roused to animation ; then his voice was full and 

 dear. I have a faint recollection that I saw his 

 face lighted up with a momentary smile. His 

 hostess kindly welcomed him as "Mr. Cooper." 

 After tea, we walked for a while in the garden. 

 I kept close to his side, and once he addressed me 

 as " My little master." I returned to school ; but 

 that variable, expressive, and interesting coun- 

 tenance I did not forget. In after years, standing, 

 as was my wont, before the shop windows of tlie 

 London booksellers (I have not quite left olF this 

 old habit !), reading the title-pages of tomes that 

 I intensely longed, but had not then the money, 

 to purchase, I recognised at a shop in St. Paul's 

 Churchyard that well-remembered face, prefixed 

 to a volume of poems, " written by William Cow- 

 per, of the Inner Temple, Esq." The cap (for 

 ■when I saw "Mr. Cooper" he wore a wig, or his 

 hair, for his age, was unusually luxuriant) was 

 the only thing that puzzled me. To make " assur- 

 ance doubly sure," I hastened to the house of a 

 near relation hard by, and I soon learnt that "Mr. 

 Cooper" was AVilliam Cowper. The welcome pre- 

 sent of a few shillings put me in immediate posses- 

 sion of the coveted volumes. I will only just add, 

 that I read, and re-read them ; that the man 

 ■whom, in my early boyhood, I had so mysteriously 

 reverenced, in my youth I deeply and devotedly 

 admired and loved I Many, many years have 

 since passed away : but that reverence, that ad- 

 miration, and that love Lave experienced neither 

 diminution nor change. 



It was something, said Washington Irving, to 

 have seen even the dust of Shakspeare. It is some- 

 thing too, good Mr. Editor, to have beheld the 

 face and to have heard the voice of Cow])er. 



George Daniel. 



YANKEE, ITS ORIGIN AND MEANING. 



The meaning of the term Yankee, which our 

 transatlantic brethren now willingly adopt as their 

 collective name, has acquired more notoriety than 

 it deserved from the unlucky and far-fetched de- 

 rivations which it has received in so many different 

 publications. The term is of Anglo-Saxon origin, 

 and of home-growth. We all know, from the 



veritable Dledricht Knickerbocker's History of New 

 York, that its earliest settlers were exclusively 

 Dutchmen, who naturally named it, though from 

 anything but similarity in local situation, New 

 Amstei-dam. We may, of course, suppose that 

 in the multitude of these Dutch settlers the names 

 they carried over would be pretty nearly in the 

 same proportion as at home. Both then and now 

 the Dutch Jan (the a sounded very broad and 

 long), abbreviated from the German Johann, our 

 John, was the prevailing Christian appellative ; and 

 it even furnished, in Jansen, &c. (like our John- 

 son), frequent patronymics, particularly with the 

 favourite diminutive che, Jancke : and so common 

 does It still remain as such, that it would be diffi- 

 cult to open the Directory of any decent-sized 

 Dutch or Northern German town without finding 

 numerous instances, as Janche, Jaanche, Jahncke, 

 &c., according as custom has settled the ortho- 

 graj)hy in each family. It is scarcely necessary to 

 say that the soft J is frequently rendered by Y in 

 our English reading and speaking foreign words 

 (as the Scandinavian and German Jtde becomes 

 our Ytde), to show how easily and naturally the 

 above names were transformed into Yahnkee. So 

 much for the name as an appellative ; now for its 

 appropriation as a generic. The prominent names 

 of Individuals are frequently seized upon by the 

 vulgar as a designation of the people or party in 

 which it most prevails. AVe have Paddies for 

 Irishmen, Taffies fur Welshmen, and Saivnies (ab- 

 breviated Alexandei") for our Scotch brethren : so, 

 therefore, when English interests gained the upper 

 hand, and the name of New Amsterdam succumbed 

 to that of New York, the fresh comers, the English 

 settlers, seized upon the most prominent name by 

 which to designate Its former masters, whicli ex- 

 tended to the whole of North America, as far as 

 Canada : and the addition of doodle, twin brother 

 to noodle, was Intended to mark more strongly the 

 contempt and mockery by the dominant party; 

 just as a Sawney is, in most of the northern 

 counties, a term next door to a fool. It is, how- 

 ever, to the credit of our transatlantic brethren, 

 and the best sign of their practical good sense, tliat 

 they have turned the tables on the innuendo, and 

 by adopting, carried the term into repute by sheer 

 resolution and determinate perseverance. 



The term slave Is only the misappropriation, by 

 malevolent neighbours, of the Slavonic term slavs 

 or laus, so frequent in the proper names of that 

 people ; Ladislaus, Stanislaus, Wratislaim, &c., 

 meaning, in their vernacular tongue, glory or 

 praise, like the Latin laus, with which It is no 

 doubt cognate : and so servi and sei-vants is but a 

 derivative from the Serbs, Sorbs, or Servians, 

 whose glorious feats in arms against their Turkish 

 oppressors have proved that there is nothing servile 

 in their character. William Bell, Phil. Dr. 



17. Gower Place, Euston Square. 



