_Snooks._--This name, so generally associated with vulgarity, is only a
corruption, or rather a contraction, of the more dignified name of
_Sevenoaks_. This town is generally called _Se'noaks_ in Kent; and the
further contraction, coupled with the phonetic spelling of former days,
easily passed into _S'nooks_. This is no imaginary conclusion, for I am
told by a trustworthy friend that Messrs. Sharp and Harrison,
solicitors, Southampton, have recently had in their possession a series
of deeds in which all the modes of spelling occur from _Sevenokes_ down
to _S'nokes_, in connexion with a family now known as _Snooks_.