the London wandering tribes by the sailors, foreign and English, who trade to and from the Mediterranean seaports, by the swarms of organ-players from all parts of Italy, and by the makers of images from Rome and Florence, all of whom, in dense thoroughfares, mingle with our lower orders. It would occupy too much space here to give a list of these words. They are all noted in the Dictionary.

"There are several Hebrew terms in our Cant language, obtained, it would appear, from the intercourse of the thieves with the Jew fences, (receivers of stolen goods ;) many of the Cant terms, again, are Sanscrit, got from the Gipsies; many Latin, got by the beggars from the Catholic prayers before the Reformation; and many, again, Italian, got from the wandering musicians and others; indeed, the showmen have but lately introduced a number of Italian phrases into their Cant language."* The Hindostanee also contributes several words, and these have been introduced by the Lascar sailors, who come over here in the East Indiamen, and lodge during their stay in the low tramps' lodging-houses at the east end of London. Speaking of the learned tongues, I may mention that, precarious and abandoned as the vagabond's existence is, many persons of classical or refined education have from time to time joined the ranks,-occasionally from inclination, as in the popular instance of Bamfylde Moore Carew, but generally through indiscretion and loss of character.† This will in some measure account for numerous classical and learned words figuring as Cant terms in the vulgar Dictionary.

In the early part of the last century, when highwaymen were by all accounts so plentiful, a great many new words were added to the canting vocabulary, whilst several old terms fell into disuse.

* Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, vol. iii., No. 43, Oct. 4, 1851.

+ Mayhew (vol. i., p. 217) speaks of a low lodging-house "in which there were at one time five university men, three surgeons, and several sorts of broken-down clerks." But old Harman's saying, that "a wylde Roge is he that is borne a roge," will perhaps explain this seeming anomaly.

CANT, for instance, as applied to thieves' talk, was supplanted by the word FLASH. In the North of England, the Cant employed by tramps and thieves is known as "the GAMMY." It is mainly from the old Gipsy corrupted. In the large towns of Ireland and Scotland this secret language is also spoken. All those words derived from "the GAMMY" are inserted in the Dictionary as from the "North Country."

A singular feature, however, in vulgar language, is the retention and the revival of sterling old English words, long since laid up in ancient manuscripts, or the subject of dispute among learned antiquaries. Disraeli somewhere says, "The purest source of neology is in the revival of old words"

"Words that wise Bacon or brave Rawleigh spake;"

and Dr Latham honours our subject by remarking that "the thieves of London are the conservators of Anglo-Saxonisms." Mayhew, too, in his interesting work, London Labour and the London Poor, admits that many Cant and Slang phrases are merely old English terms which have become obsolete through the caprices of fashion. And the reader who looks into the Dictionary of the vagabond's lingo, will see at a glance that these gentlemen were quite correct, and that we are compelled to acknowledge the singular truth that a great many old words, once respectable, and in the mouths of kings and fine ladies, are now only so many signals for shrugs and shudders amongst exceedingly polite people. A young gentleman from Belgravia, who had lost his watch or his pocket-handkerchief, would scarcely remark to his mamma that it had been BONED-yet BONE, in old times, meant, amongst high and low, to steal. And a young lady living in the precincts of dingy but aristocratic May-Fair, although enraptured with a Jenny Lind or a Ristori, would hardly think of turning back in the box to inform papa that she (Ristori or Lind) “ made no BONES of it"—yet the phrase was most respectable and well

OLD ENGLISH WORDS NOT FASHIONABLE NOW. 25 "A CRACK

to-do before it met with a change of circumstances. article," however first-rate, would, as far as speech is concerned, have greatly displeased Dr Johnson and Mr Walker-yet both CRACK, in the sense of excellent, and CRACK UP, to boast or praise, were not considered vulgarisms in the time of Henry VIII. DODGE, a cunning trick, is from the Anglo-Saxon; and ancient nobles used to "get each other's DANDER UP" before appealing to their swords,-quite FLABERGASTING (also a respectable old word) the half score of lookers-on with the thumps and cuts of their heavy weapons. GALLAVANTING, waiting upon the ladies, was as polite in expression as in action; whilst a clergyman at Paule's Crosse thought nothing of bidding a noisy hearer "hold his GAB," or "shut up his GOB." GADDING, roaming about in an idle and trapesing manner, was used in an old translation of the Bible; and "to do anything GINGERLY" was to do it with great care. Persons of modern tastes will be shocked to know that the great Lord Bacon spoke of the lower part of a man's face as his GILLS.

Shakspeare, or, as the French say, "the divine William," also used many words which are now counted as dreadfully vulgar. CLEAN gone," in the sense of out of sight, or entirely away; "you took me all A-MORT," or confounded me; "it won't FADGE," or suit, are phrases taken at random from the great dramatist's works. A London costermonger, or inhabitant of the streets, instead of saying, "I'll make him yield," or "give in,” in a fight or contest, would say, "I'll make him BUCKLE under." Shakspeare, in his Henry the Fourth, (Part ii., act i., scene 1,) has the word; and Mr Halliwell, one of the greatest and most industrious of living antiquaries, informs us that "the commentators do not supply another example." How strange, then, that the Bard of Avon and the Cockney costermongers should be joint partners and sole proprietors of the vulgarism! If Shakspeare was not a pugilist, he certainly anticipated the terms of the prize

ring—or they were respectable words before the prize ring was thought of-for he has PAY, to beat or thrash, and PEPPER, with a similar meaning; also FANCY, in the sense of pets and favourites, -pugilists are often termed the FANCY. The cant word PRIG, from the Saxon, priccan, to filch, is also Shakspearian; so indeed is PIECE, a contemptuous term for a young woman. Shakspeare was not the only vulgar dramatist of his time. Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Brome, and other play-writers, occasionally put Cant words into the mouths of their low characters, or employed old words which have since degenerated into vulgarisms. CRUSTY, poor tempered; "two of a KIDNEY," two of a sort; LARK, a piece of fun; LUG, to pull; BUNG, to give or pass; PICKLE, a sad plight; FRUMP, to mock, are a few specimens casually picked from the works of the old histrionic writers.

One old English mode of canting, simple and effective when familiarised by practice, was the inserting a consonant betwixt each syllable: thus, taking g, "How do you do?" would be "Howg dog youg dog?" The name very properly given to this disagreeable nonsense, we are informed by Grose, was Gibberish.

Another Cant has recently* been attempted by transposing the initial letters of words, so that a mutton chop becomes a cutton mop, a pint of stout a stint of pout; but it is satisfactory to know that it has gained no ground. This is called Marrowskying, or Medical Greek, from its use by medical students at the hospitals. Albert Smith terms it the Gower Street Dialect.

The Language of Ziph, I may add, is another rude mode of disguising English, in use among the students at Winchester College. Some notices of this method of conveying secret information, with an extensive Glossary of the Words, Phrases, Customs, &c., peculiar to the College, may be found in Mr Mansfield's recently-published School Life at Winchester College.

"Before 1848," a correspondent writes.

ACCOUNT

OF THE

HIEROGLYPHICS USED BY VAGABONDS.

ONE of the most singular chapters in a History of Vagabondism would certainly be "An Account of the Hieroglyphic Signs used by Tramps and Thieves." The reader may be startled to know that, in addition to a sacred language, the wandering tribes of this country have private marks and symbolic signs with which to score their successes, failures, and advice to succeeding beggars; in fact, that the country is really dotted over with beggars' fingerposts and guide-stones. The assertion, however strange it may appear, is no fiction. The subject was not long since brought under the attention of the Government by Mr Rawlinson.* "There is," he says in his report, "a sort of blackguards' literature, and the initiated understand each other by Slang [Cant] terms, by pantomimic signs, and by HIEROGLYPHICS. The vagrant's mark may be seen in Havant, on corners of streets, on door-posts, on house-steps. Simple as these chalk-lines appear, they inform the succeeding vagrants of all they require to know; and a few white scratches may say, 'Be importunate,' or 'Pass on.'”

Another very curious account was taken from a provincial newspaper, published in 1849, and forwarded to Notes and Queries,t under the head of MENDICANT FREEMASONRY. "Persons," remarks the writer, "indiscreet enough to open their purses to the relief of the beggar tribe, would do well to take a readily-learned lesson as to the folly of that misguided bene

* Mr Rawlinson's Report to the General Board of Health, Parish of Havant, Hampshire. t Vol. V., p. 210.