Saffron Walden.
_Isping Geil._--In a charter of Joanna Fossart, making a grant of lands and
other possessions to the priory of Grosmont in Yorkshire, is the following
passage as given in Dugdale's _Monasticon_ (I quote from Bohn's edition,
1846, vol. vi. p. 1025.):
"Dedi eis insuper domos meas in Eboraco; illas scilicet quae sunt inter
domos Laurentii clerici quae fuerunt Benedicti Judaei et _Isping Geil_,
cum tota curia et omnibus pertinentiis."
Can any of your readers, and in particular any of our York antiquaries,
inform me whether the "Isping Geil" mentioned in this passage is the name
of a person, or of some locality in that city now obsolete? In either case
I should be glad of any information as to the etymology of so singular
{550} a designation, which may possibly have undergone some change in
copying.
[Greek: Th.]
_Humbug._--When was this word introduced into the English language? The
earliest instance in which I have met with it is in one of Churchill's
Poems, published about the year 1750.