The Jockey's Tale - Thieves' Latin - Liberties with Coin -The Smasher in Prison - Old Fulcher - Every One has His Gift - Fashion of the English.
"MY grandfather was a shorter, and my father was a smasher;the one was scragg'd, and the other lagg'd."I here interrupted the jockey by observing that his discourse was, for the greater part, unintelligible to me.
"I do not understand much English," said the Hungarian, who, having replenished and resumed his mighty pipe, was now smoking away; "but, by Isten, I believe it is the gibberish which that great ignorant Valther Scott puts into the mouths of the folks he calls gypsies.""Something like it, I confess," said I, "though this sounds more genuine than his dialect, which he picked up out of the canting vocabulary at the end of the 'English Rogue,' a book which, however despised, was written by a remarkable genius.
What do you call the speech you were using?" said I, addressing myself to the jockey.
"Latin," said the jockey, very coolly, "that is, that dialect of it which is used by the light-fingered gentry.""He is right," said the Hungarian; "it is what the Germans call Roth-Welsch: they call it so because there are a great many Latin words in it, introduced by the priests, who, at the time of the Reformation, being too lazy to work and too stupid to preach, joined the bands of thieves and robbers who prowled about the country.Italy, as you are aware, is called by the Germans Welschland, or the land of the Welschers; and I may add that Wallachia derives its name from a colony of Welschers which Trajan sent there.Welsch and Wallack being one and the same word, and tantamount to Latin.""I dare say you are right," said I; "but why was Italy termed Welschland?""I do not know," said the Hungarian.
"Then I think I can tell you," said I; "it was called so because the original inhabitants were a Cimbric tribe, who were called Gwyltiad, that is, a race of wild people, living in coverts, who were of the same blood, and spoke the same language as the present inhabitants of Wales.Welsh seems merely a modification of Gwyltiad.Pray continue your history," said I to the jockey, "only please to do so in a language which we can understand, and first of all interpret the sentence with which you began it.""I told you that my grandfather was a shorter," said the jockey, "by which is meant a gentleman who shortens or reduces the current coin of these realms, for which practice he was scragged, that is, hung by the scrag of the neck.And when I said that my father was a smasher, I meant one who passes forged notes, thereby doing his best to smash the Bank of England; by being lagged, I meant he was laid fast, that is, had a chain put round his leg and then transported.""Your explanations are quite satisfactory," said I; "the three first words are metaphorical, and the fourth, lagged, is the old genuine Norse term, lagda, which signifies laid, whether in durance, or in bed, has nothing to do with the matter.What you have told me confirms me in an opinion which I have long entertained, that thieves' Latin is a strange mysterious speech, formed of metaphorical terms, and words derived from the various ancient languages.Pray tell me, now, how the gentleman, your grandfather, contrived to shorten the coin of these realms?""You shall hear," said the jockey; "but I have one thing to beg of you, which is, that when I have once begun my history you will not interrupt me with questions, I don't like them, they stops one, and puts one out of one's tale, and are not wanted; for anything which I think can't be understood, Ishould myself explain, without being asked.My grandfather reduced or shortened the coin of this country by three processes.By aquafortis, by clipping, and by filing.
Filing and clipping he employed in reducing all sorts of coin, whether gold or silver; but aquafortis he used merely in reducing gold coin, whether guineas, jacobuses, or Portugal pieces, otherwise called moidores, which were at one time as current as guineas.By laying a guinea in aquafortis for twelve hours, he could filch from it to the value of ninepence, and by letting it remain there for twenty-four to the value of eighteenpence, the aquafortis eating the gold away, and leaving it like a sediment in the vessel.He was generally satisfied with taking the value of ninepence from a guinea, of eighteenpence from a jacobus or moidore, or half-a-crown from a broad Spanish piece, whether he reduced them by aquafortis, filing, or clipping.From a five-shilling piece, which is called a bull in Latin because it is round like a bull's head, he would file or clip to the value of fivepence, and from lesser coin in proportion.He was connected with a numerous gang, or set, of people, who had given up their minds and talents entirely to shortening."Here I interrupted the jockey."How singular," said I, "is the fall and debasement of words; you talk of a gang, or set, of shorters; you are, perhaps, not aware that gang and set were, a thousand years ago, only connected with the great and Divine; they are ancient Norse words, which may be found in the heroic poems of the north, and in the Edda, a collection of mythologic and heroic songs.In these poems we read that such and such a king invaded Norway with a gang of heroes; or so and so, for example, Erik Bloodaxe, was admitted to the set of gods; but at present gang and set are merely applied to the vilest of the vile, and the lowest of the low, - we say a gang of thieves and shorters, or a set of authors.How touching is this debasement of words in the course of time;it puts me in mind of the decay of old houses and names.Ihave known a Mortimer who was a hedger and ditcher, a Berners who was born in a workhouse, and a descendant of the De Burghs, who bore the falcon, mending old kettles, and ****** horse and pony shoes in a dingle.""Odd enough," said the jockey; "but you were saying you knew one Berners - man or woman? I would ask.""A woman," said I.
"What might her Christian name be?" said the jockey.
