"_By Hook or by Crook._"--I imagine that the expression "By hook or by
crook" is in very general use throughout England. It was familiar to my
ear forty years ago in Surrey, and within these four years its origin
was (to my satisfaction at the moment) brought home to my comprehension
in the North of Devon, where the tenant of a certain farm informed me
that, by an old custom, he was entitled to take wood from some adjoining
land "_by hook and crook_;" which, on inquiry, I understood to include,
first, so much underwood as he could cut with the _hook_ or bill, and,
secondly, so much of the branches of trees as he could pull down with
the aid of a _crook_.
Whether this crook originally meant the shepherd's crook (a very
efficient instrument for the purpose), or simply such a _crook_-ed
_stick_ as boys use for gathering hazel-nuts, is not very material. It
seems highly probable that, in the vast forests which once overspread
this country, the right of taking "_fire bote_" by "hook or crook" was
recognised; and we can hardly wish for a more apt illustration of the
idea of gaining a desired object by the ordinary means--"a hook," if it
lay close to our hand; or, by a method requiring more effort, "a crook,"
if it were a little beyond our reach.