2"^ S. VI. 141., Sept. 11. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



217 



me, as one who has sojourned for a time in the 

 county, to inform him that the English language 

 is generally spoken to the south of the ancient 

 Roman line of road, which, passing through Car- 

 marthen, terminates at St. David's; and the Welsh 

 to the north. Of course, there arc many among 

 the labouring class in the southern division that 

 can talk Welsh, and do when the opportunity 

 serves, but the English is the prevalent language. 



Tee-Bee. 



Hocus Pocus (2'"' S. vi. 179.) — Blount, in 165G, 

 and Phillips in 1658, give these words as a noun 

 substantive, and define them to mean ^^ a Juggle?; 

 one that shows tricks by sleight of hand." Skinner, 

 in 1671, defines the phrase to mean both a con- 

 juror and a conjuration. Nares says, 



" To Hocus, to cheat, to impose upon ; from hocus po- 

 cus, the jargon of pretended conjurors, the origin of whicli 

 seems to be rightly drawn from the Italian jugglers, who 

 said Oclius Bochus, iu reference to a famous magician of 

 those names." 



He adds, 



"L'Estrange has hocus-poc7issing, at length; Mr. Ma- 

 lone says, the modern word hoax is made from this, and I 

 prefer this derivation to those which are more learned 



It is a strong confirmation of this origin, that 



hoax is not a word handed down to us from our ancestors, 

 but very lately introduced by persons who might have 

 retained hocus, a word hardly obsolete, but could know 

 nothing of Saxon, or the books in Lambeth Library."' 



The new edition of Nares's Glossari/, by Messrs. 

 Halliwell and Wright, does not contain anything 

 additional upon the subject. AVebster derives 

 hocus pocus from the Welsh " koced, a cheat or 

 trick, and perhaps bwg or pwca, a hobgoblin." 

 He defines it in nearly the same words as Blount 

 and Phillips do, and gives Hudibras as his autho- 

 rity. Webster has also hocus pocus, as a verb 

 transitive, meaning " to cheat," and quotes L'Es- 

 trange as his authority. Pishey Thompson. 



Stoke Newington. 



Dr. Donne's Discovery of a Murder (2"'* S. v. 

 68.; vi. 18.) — In the Gentleman's Magazine for 

 August, 1841, 1 pointed out that this story could 

 not be true of Dr. Donne ; my authority being a 

 book which had at that time been lately reprinted 

 by the Shakspeare Society, Gosson's School of 

 Abuse. J. C. R. 



Pronunciation of the Latin Language (2"'' S. vi. 

 49. 117.) — I suspect that the soi-disant Hun- 

 garian sailor described by O. C. Ciieed had the 

 art of varying his pronunciation to suit those 

 wliom he addressed. The same man was in Nor- 

 wich and Yarmouth at the time alluded to. He 

 accosted me in very good Latin, whicii he spoke 

 readily, hiut aware whom he was addressing, he 

 began by making the sign of the cross, and sa- 

 luting me in familiar phrases of the Catholic 

 liturgy. He told me his adventures at some 



length, and related the particulars of a disastrous 

 shipwreck, which had thrown him and two com- 

 panions upon the English coast. He said that his 

 companions were lying ill of fever a few miles off, 

 and that he had no resource but to beg for them 

 and himself. He obtained a little money in this 

 neighbourhood, and deceived us all by his appa- 

 rent distress and gratitude. He pronounced his 

 Latin exactly as English Catholics do ; and it 

 struck me much that he had no foreign accent. 

 The mystery, however, was soon explained. For 

 I learnt the next moiming that he and his two 

 companions spent the night at an adjacent public- 

 house, drinking to excess, and that they spoke 

 English, but with an Irish brogue. I have no 

 doubt that the man was an Irishman ; and he had 

 probably been intended for the priesthood, and 

 educated at some college, and so had acquired his 

 correct knowledge of Latin. A short time after 

 I saw him drunk in the streets of Norwich ; and 

 subsequently he was committed to prison by the 

 magistrates at Yarmouth for having obtained 

 money under false pretences. Nothing, therefore, 

 can be inferred from this man's pronunciation, 

 who in all probability had never been in Hun- 

 gary, but had heard that Latin was commonly 

 spoken there, and turned the information to ac- 

 count with more ingenuity than honesty. 



F. C. H. 

 Cricket (2""i S. vi. 133, 178.) — This anecdote 

 of the Duchess of Barri is also told of Ibrahim 

 Pacha. Among other efforts made to amuse him 

 during the time that he was in England, he was 

 taken to see a cricket-match at Lord's ; and it is 

 said, that, after staring weariedly for the space of 

 two hours at the strenuous exertions of the picked 

 players of England, he at length, in despair, sent 

 a message to the captains of the eleven, that he 

 did not wish to hurry them, but that when they 

 were tired of running about, he would be much 

 obliged to them if they would begin their game. 



CXJTHBEET BeDE. 



Corporation Insignia (2""* S. v. 469. 519.) — 

 Allow me to correct an error which has crept into 

 Mr. Brent's communication as above (p. 470.) : 

 he says, "Hertford has a sword of state only." 

 It has also a mace, and has evidently possessed 

 one, or more, amongst its insignia for a consider- 

 able period. The mace now in use bears, I am in- 

 formed, the initials C. R., and therefore, in all 

 probability, dates from the Charter of Charles II. 

 (29 Nov. 1680), by which the privilege of carry- 

 ing a sword before the mayor on public occasions, 

 as well as a mace, is granted. With respect to 

 this sword and the defraying of the expenses at- 

 tending the grant of this charter generally. Tumor, 

 in his history of the town, says, that Sir Charles 

 Caesar of Benington Place, Knight, who at the 

 time represented the borough in Parliament, con- 

 tributed lOOZ., and that "out of this sum the 



