_By Hook or by Crook--Pokership--Gib Cat--Emerod._--I regret that very
pressing business has hitherto prevented me from supplying an omission
in my communication relating to the probable derivation of "By Hook or
by Crook;" namely, my authority for saying there was evidence of the
usage I referred to in forest customs. I now beg to supply that
omission, by referring to the numerous claims for fuel wood made by
divers persons at the justice seats held in the reigns of Charles I. and
Charles II. for the New Forest, and which will be found at the Tower and
Chapter House. Among others of these claims, I would mention that made
by the tenant of land in Barnford, No. 112., who claims to have had the
privilege, from _time immemorial_, of going into the king's wood to take
the _dead branches_ off the trees therein, "with a cart, a horse, a
_Hook and a Crook_, and a sail cloth." Verily this necessity for a sail
cloth seems to point very distinctly to his being obliged to collect his
fire-wood "by Hook or by Crook." May I add, that I do not think that any
of the notes I have seen hitherto, with reference to this subject,
invalidate the supposition of the origin being forestal; all that they
{282} appear to me to prove is, that the saying is of long standing.
With reference to the query regarding the word Pokership (No. 12. p.
185.), I would observe, that the word is correctly copied from the
grant, and that it was so spelt in all the previous grants that I have
been able to refer to. As to the meaning of the word, I am of the
opinion that it is intended to express the office of keeping the hogs in
the forest, i.e. Porcarius. Pokership was probably spelt in early times
Pawkership, from Pawn, I apprehend; subsequently it was either spelt or
pronounced Paukership or Pokership. In corroboration of this view, I
would mention, that on referring to the Pipe Roll, 6 John, county of
_Hereford_, the following will be found:--"Hubert de Burgo, Et i libæ
const. Parcario de heford, xxxs. vd." If, however, Parkership be deemed
the more correct reading, still it does not of necessity apply to the
custody of a park; it might have denoted the pound-keeper, for, in
matters relating to manors, _parcus_ means a pound.
With respect to the query about Gib Cat, you will find the subject
treated on largely in the _Etymologicon_--I may say, exhausted.
By the bye, there can be no doubt that Emerod means Emerald; formerly
Emerald would be spelt Emeraud, and the transition is natural to
Emerode--Emerod. With regard to the supposed size being an objection to
this reading, it will be found that anciently the _matrix_ of the
Emerald, which is _tinged_ green, went by the name of the more valuable
jewel.