126 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
T page 552 of your laft volume, a 
Correfpondent enquires the origin 
of the word hackney, as applied to 
coaches. 
The word is evidently tranfplanted 
(rather than derived) from the French 
baquenée ; a flow-paced, or ambling nag ; 
fuch as are now let cur to hire, whence 
they have obtained the title of hacks. 
The phrafe was early ufed in our lan- 
guage, as appears from Chaucer’s ‘* Ro- 
maunt of the Rofe :”” 
<¢ Dame Richeffe on her hand gan lede 
A yonge man full of femelyhede, 
That the beft loved of any thyng, 
lis luf&t was much in houfholdyng: 
In clothyng was he ful fetyfe, 
And loved wel to have horfe of prife: 
He wende to have reprovec be 
Of thifte or murdre, if that he 
Had in his ftable an backenay:” 
Fol. 125, ed. Pynfon. 
where it is meant to exprefs a fhort or 
under-fized fteed ; a fenfe in which it is 
now generally employed. When coaches 
came to be let for hire, is it probable they 
were drawn (for the moft part, as in the 
prefent day) by Rofmantes of this de- 
{cription ; and, by a tranflation, not un- 
common with us, the agent was put for 
the infrument ; and cdaz-at their original 
introduftion, as appears from the follow- 
ing account in Sirafford’s Leiters, dated 
April 1, 1634:—** I cannot omit to men- 
tion any new thing that comes up among 
us, though never fotrivial. Here is one 
Csptain Bailey ; he hath been a fea-cap- 
tain, but now lives on the land, about this 
City, where he tries experiments He 
hath ereéted, according to his ability, 
fome four hackney coaches, put his men in 
Jivery, and appointed them to fland at 
the May pole, in the Strand, giving them 
infiructions at what rates to carry men 
into feveral parts of the town, where all 
day they may be had; Other hackney- 
men feeing this way, they flocked to the 
fame place, and perform their journies at 
the fame rate. So that itometimes there 
is twenty of them together, which difperfe 
up and down; that they and others are 
to be had every where, as watermen aie 
to be had by the water-fide. Every body 
is much pleafed with it. For whereas, 
before, coaches cculd not be had but at 
great rates, now a man may have one 
much cheaper.”’——Vol, 1. page 227. 
By the above exiraét, the time of hack- 
ney-coacheas being introduced, is exactly 
afcertained ; and, by a ictier wiittena 
Origin of the Word Hackney.—On Englifh Grammar. (Sept. 15 
few months fubfequent, it appears when 
fedan chairs (though now degraded from 
«their pride of place’) were firlt ef- 
tablifhed. , ; 
‘© Here is alfo another project for car- 
rying people up and down in clofe chairs, 
for the fole doing whereof, Sir Sander 
Duncombe, a traveller, now a penfioner, 
hath obtained a patent from the King, and 
hath forty or fifty making ready tor ufe.’” 
—Strafferd’s Letters, vol. 1. p. 339. 
The additions to your former account 
of the late Marquis of Exeter are incor- 
rect. No daughter is living by the firit 
Lady Exeter, as faid to be married to 
John Chaplin, Efq. of Blakeny 5 that 
gentleman married a Mils Taylor. The 
eldeft daughter of the marquis is now in 
her thirteenth year. His fecond lady’s 
maiden name was Hoggins. The year 
in which I was elected a Fellow, he was 
one of the Council, but was neverVice-Pre- 
fident of the Society of Antiquaries. 
Stamford. O. G. G. 
— 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE Reply of G, in lat month’s Ma. 
gazine, refpecting the ufe of fub- 
ftantives ag adje€tives, 1s certainly worthy 
of attention ; but, I truft, the queftion in 
difpute may be fettled, to his fatisfaction, 
without trefpaffing much more upon your 
indulgence, or the reader’s attention. ~ 
It is afferted by CG, in his firit letter, 
that nene of our grammarians had noticed, 
that fubjtantives were fometimes ufed as 
adjeciives, and prefixed to other fubjian- 
tives. To this afiertion, I particularly 
replied, and referred G. to L. Murray’s 
Grammar, for feveral in@ances of fublftan- 
tives being fe applied. The anfwer of G. 
in his laft letter, is, that a// the examples 
adduced by me, donot come to the point. 
Now this remark admits that fome of L. 
Murray’s examples do prove that fubftan- 
tives ave fometimes ufed as adjectives: 
cnd this was the point in queflion. I(t is 
thus admitted by G. that, at leaft, one 
Englifh Grammar fhews what he had be- 
fore aflerted as his opinion that no Eng- 
lifh grammarian exhibited. Whether a 
L. Murray’s examples are appofite, or 
not, has nothing to do with the quettion. 
I may further remark, that all the in- 
ftances adduced by G, whether with or 
without the hyphen, are examples of fub- 
ftantives put adjectively : ** brick-houfe,”’ 
and ‘* brick houfe,”’ are alike inflances of ~ 
the word drick being ufed as an adjective. 
I think alio, that a** gold watch”’ is as 
proper an expreffion, as a ** filver watch,” 
a “brafs 
Se ae ee 
