_Warning to Watchmen._--The following _Warning_, addressed to the
Watchmen of London on the occasion of a great fire, which destroyed
nearly 100 houses in the neighbourhood of Exchange Alley, Birchin Lane,
the back of George Yard, &c., among which were Garraway's, The Jerusalem
Coffee House, George and Vulture, Tom's, &c. &c., is extracted from the
_London Magazine_ for 1748, and is very characteristic of the then state
of the police of the metropolis:--
"Mr. Touchit's _Warning to the Watchmen of London_. From the
_Westminster Journal_, April 2nd, No. 331. (1748).
"Whereas it has been represented to me, _Thomas Touchit_, Watchman
Extraordinary of the City of _Westminster_, that the Watchmen of
_London_ were very remiss during the dreadful Fire on _Friday_
morning, _March_ 25, in not giving timely Notice of that Calamity
over their several _Beats_, whereby the Friends of many of the
unhappy Sufferers, who would have flown to their Assistance, were
ignorant of their Distress till it was too late to do them Service;
and also that most of the said Watchmen, on other Occasions, are
very negligent, whence it happens that many Robberies, Burglaries,
and other Offences, which their Care might prevent, are committed;
and that even some of them are in Fee with common Harlots and
Streetwalkers, whom they suffer at unseasonable Hours, unmolested
to prey on the Virtue, Health and Property of His Majesty's Liege
Subjects: Be it known to the said Watchmen, and their Masters,
that, having taken the Premises into Consideration, I intend
whenever I set out from _Spring Gardens_ with my _invisible Cap_,
my _irradiating Lanthorn_, and my _Oken Staff_ of correction, to
take the City of _London_, under Leave of the Right Hon. the Lord
Mayor, into my Rounds, and to detect, expose, and punish all
Defaulters in the several Stands and Beats: Whereof this fair
Warning is given, that none may be surprized in Neglect of Duty, I
being determined to shew no Favour to such Offenders."
Euston Square, 12th Dec. 1849.
_Aelfric's Colloquy_.--Permit me to correct a singular error into which
the great Anglo-Saxon scholars, Messrs. Lye and B. Thorpe, have been
betrayed by some careless transcriber of the curious _Monastic Colloquy_
by the celebrated Aelfric. This production of the middle ages is very
distinctly written, both in the Saxon and Latin portions, in the Cotton
MS. (Tiberius, A 3, fol. 58_b_.) Mr. Lye frequently cites it, in his
_Saxon Dictionary_, as "_Coll. Mon._," and Mr. Thorpe gives it entire in
his _Analecta Anglo-Saxonica_. The former loosely explains _higdifatu_,
which occurs in the reply of the shoewright (_sceowyrhta_),
thus--"Ca_l_idilia, sc. vasa _quoedam.--Coll. Mon._"--and Mr. Thorpe
prints both _higdifatu_ and _ca_l_idilia_. _Higdifatu_ is manifestly
vessels of hides, such as skin and leather bottles and buckets. The _ig_
is either a clerical error of the monkish scribe for _y_, or the _g_ is
a silent letter producing the quantity of the vowel. "I buy hides and
fells," says the workman, "and with my craft I make of them shoes of
different kinds; leathern hose, flasks, and _higdifatu_." The Latin word
in this MS. is _casidilia_, written with the long straight _s_. Du Cange
explains _capsilis_ to be a vessel of leather, and quotes Matt.
Westmon.: "Portans _cassidile_ toxicum mellitum."--_Gloss_. tom. ii.
col. 387. The root _caps_, or _cas_, does not appear to have any
Teutonic correspondent, and may merit a philological investigation.
R.T. Hampson.
_Humble Pie_.--the proverbial expression of "eating humble pie,"
explained by A.G., will be found also explained in the same manner in
the Appendix to Forby's _Vocabulary_, where it is suggested that the
correct orthography would be "umble pie," without the aspirate. Bailey,
in his valuable old _Dictionary_, traces the word properly to
_umbilicus_, the region of the intestines, and acknowledges in his time
the perquisite of the game-keeper.