376 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 181. 



thougbts, referred it to venery, with which Mr. 

 Dyce consents : both erroneously. Several in- 

 stances are adduced by the latter, in his Critique of 

 Knight mid Colliers Shakspeare ; any one of which, 

 besides the passage in The Merchant of Venice, 

 should have confuted that origin of the phrase. 

 The hip of a chase is no term of woodman's craft : 

 the haunch is. Moreover, what a marvellous ex- 

 pression, to say, A hound has a chase on the hip, 

 instead of hy. Still more prodigious to say, that a 

 hound gets a chase on the hip. One would be loth 

 to impute to the only judicious dramatic commen- 

 tator of the day, a love of contradiction as the mo- 

 tive for quarrelling with Mr. Collier's note on this 

 idiom. To the examples alleged by Mr. Dyce, the 

 three following may be added ; Avhereof the last, 

 after the opinion of Sir John Harington, rightly 

 refers the origin of the metaphor to wrestling : 



" The Divell hath them on the hip, he may easily 

 bring them to any tiling." — Michael and the Dragon, by 

 D, Dike, p. 328. {IForkes, London, 1635). 



" If he have us at the advantage, on the hip as we 

 say, it is no great matter then to get service at our 

 hands." — Andrew es, " A Sermon preached before the 

 King's Majesty at Whitehall, 1S17," Library of Ang.- 

 Cath. Theology, vol. iv. p. 365. 

 '* Full oft the valiant knight his hold doth shift. 

 And with much prettie sleight, the same doth slippe ; 

 In fine he doth applie one speciall drift, 

 "Which was to get the Pagan on the hippe : 

 And hauing caught him right, he doth him lift. 

 By nimble sleiglit, and in such wise doth trippe : 

 That downe he threw him, and his fall was such, 

 His head-piece was the first that ground did tuch." 

 Sir John Harington's Translation of Orlando 

 Furioso, Booke xlvi. Stanza 117. 



In some editions, the fourth line is printed " namely 



to get," &c., with other variations in the spelling 



of the rest of the stanza. W. E,. Arrowsmith. 



( To be continued. ) 



I.ORD COKE. 



Turning over some old books recently, my at- 

 tention was strongly drawn to the following : 



" The Lord Coke, his Speech and Charge, with a 

 Discouerie of the Abuses and Corruptions of Officers. 

 8vo. Lond. N. Butter, 1607." 



This curious piece appears to have been published 

 by one R. P.*, who describes himself, in his dedi- 

 cation to the Earl of Exeter, as a " poore, dispised, 

 pouertie-stricken, hated, scorned, and vnrespected 

 souldier," of which there were, doubtless, many in 

 the reign of James the Pacific. Lord Coke, in 

 his address to the jury at the Norwich Assizes, 

 gives an account of the various plottings of the 



♦ No doubt the author of an ultra- Protestant poem, 

 entitled Times Anatomic, made by Robert Prickett, a 

 Souldier, Imprinted, 1606. 



Papists, from the Reformation to the Gunpowder 

 Treason, to bring the land again under subjection 

 to Rome, and characterises the schemes and the 

 actors therein as he goes along in the good round 

 terms of an out-and-out Protestant. He has also 

 a fling at the Puritans, and all such as would dis- 

 turb the church and hierarchy as by law esta- 

 blished. But the most remarkable part of the 

 book is that which comes under the head of " A 

 Discouerie of the Abuses and Corruption of 

 Officers ; " and believing an abstract might interest 

 your readers, and furnish the antiquary with a re- 

 ference, I herewith present you with a list of the 

 officials and others whom my Lord Coke recom- 

 mends the Jurie to present, assuring them, at 

 the same time, that "by God's grace they, the 

 offenders, shall not goe unpunished for their 

 abuses ; for we have," says he, " a coyfe, which 

 signifies a scull, whereby, in the execution of 

 justice, wee are defended against all oppositionsj. 

 bee they never so violent." 



1. The first gentleman introduced by Lord 

 Coke to the Norwich jury is the Escheator, who 

 had power to demand upon what tenure a poor 

 yeoman held his lands, and is an officer in great 

 disfavour with the judge. He gives some curious 

 instances of his imposition, and concludes by re- 

 marking that, for his rogueries, he were better 

 described by striking away the first syllable of hia 

 name, the rest truly representing him a cheater. 



2. The Clarke of the Market comes in for his 

 share of Lord Coke's denouncements. " It was 

 once," he says, " my hap to take a clarke of the- 

 market in his trickes ; but I aduanst him higher 

 than his father's sonne, by so much as from the 

 ground to the toppe of the pillorie" for hia 

 bribery. 



3. " A certaine ruffling officer " called a Pur- 

 veyor, who is occasionally found purveying money 

 out of your purses, and is therefore, says Lord 

 Coke, " on the highway to the gallowes." 



4. As the next officer is unknown in the present 

 day, I give his character in extenso : 



" There is also a Salt-peter -man, whose commlssiorr 

 is not to break vp any man's house or ground without 

 leaue. And not to deale with any house, but such a3 

 is vnused for any necessarie imployment by the owner. 

 And not to digge in any place without leauing it 

 smooth and leuell : in such case as he found it. This 

 Salt-peter-man vnder shew of his authoritie, though 

 being no more than is specified, will make plaine and 

 simple people beleeue, that hee will without their 

 leaue breake vp the floore of their dwelling house, 

 vnlesse they will compound with him to the contrary. 

 Any such fellow, if you can meete with all, let hiss 

 misdemenor be presented, that he may be taught better 

 to vnderstand his office : For by their abuse the 

 country is oftentimes troubled." 



5. There is another troublesome fellow called a 

 Concealor, who could easily be proved no better 



