Audley End, Feb. 16.
[We are enabled to confirm the accuracy of Lord Braybrooke's
conjecture as to _Pokership_ being the office conferred
upon Sir Robert Harley, inasmuch as we are in expectation of
receiving an account of the various forms of its name from
a gentleman who has not only the ability, but also peculiar
facilities for illustrating this and similar obscure terms.]
_Havior--Heavier or Hever_.-Supposed etymology of _Havior, Heavier_,
and _Hever_, as applied by park-keepers to an emasculated male
deer.--"NOTES AND QUERIES," (No. 15. p. 230.)
Pennant, in his _British Zoology_, 8vo. edition, 1776, vol. i. p.
38., and 8vo. edition, 1812, vol. i. p. 45., under the article,
"Goat" says:--
"The meat of a castrated goat of six or seven years old,
(which is called _Hyfr_,) is reckoned the best; being
generally very sweet and fat. This makes an excellent pasty,
goes under the name of rock venison, and is little inferior
to that of the deer."
As Pennant was a Welchman, a scholar and a {270} naturalist, he will
probably be considered good authority; and _Hyfr_, the most likely
origin of the altered terms of the deer park-keepers.
The word occurs twice in page 61. vol. ii. of the _Sportsman's
Cabinet_, in the article on the Stag or Red Deer, where it is printed
_Heavier_; and it will be found also as _Hever_, in Mr. Jesse's
_Scenes and Tales of Country Life_, at page 349.