io s. xii. JULY 10, im] NOTES AND QUERIES.
31
"*' kacab," and in his list of the fishes of
Amboina (p. 342) describes the " Zap-Zap
fish " as " very small." (The cockup,
according to Yule, " grows to an immense
size, sometimes to eight feet in length.")
This siap or zap may possibly be identified
with the (ikan) siya of Wilkinson's ' Malay-
English Dictionary,' where it is described as
" a freshwater fish (unidentified)," and the
final p may have got in through confusion
with the alternative name of the estuarial
fish.
No instances of the literary use of the word " cockup " are given in ' Hobson- Jobson,' and the ' N.E.D.' contains only two one of 1845, and the other of 1854. 'The second, from the Rev. C. D. Badham's
- Prose Halieutics ; or, Ancient and Modern
Pish Tattle,' p. 114, gives an amusingly incorrect derivation of the word : " the Lates nobilis, somewhat freely rendered ' cock-up fish ' by the Bengalese." I wonder where the reverend M.D. found this explanation.
Tenneiit, in his ' Natural History of Ceylon' (1861), gives the alternative scien- tific name of the cockup, Lates calcari/er, Bl., but says nothing about the fish. Nor, as far as I have been able to find, do any of the other writers on Ceylon mention it, with the exception of Cordiner, who in his
- Description of Ceylon' (1807), i. 444,
says :
" The fishes are the same as those found in other parts of the Indian seas. But few of them are equal in flavour or delicacy to those which inhabit colder
climates Many of those of the ocean are larger
than cod or salmon. The most common are seer- fish, cockup, pomfret," &c.
As Cordiner was chaplain in Ceylon from 1799 to 1804, it is evident that the word
- l cockup " was well established by the end
of the eighteenth century, and earlier in- stances of its use may very probably be found. Meanwhile, however, this example, from Cordiner is some forty years earlier than the first, given in the ' N.E.D.'
DONALD FERGUSON.
MECHANICAL ROAD CARRIAGES : TIMOTHY
BARSTALL (10 S. xi. 305, 374, 431, 498).
Timothy Barstall of Leith had in hand,
14 July, 1825, a "steam coach," which was
expected to start in about a fortnight. On
10 Nov. it was not moving yet, but was
expected to do so in a month. On 19 Nov.,
1828, a relative wrote :
"After all, Timothy is very likely to succeed in his steam coach affair, and to be most amply remunerated for all his labour. It has run on the
Ferry Road and in the Fort several times at the
rate of eight to ten miles an hour with 16 or 20
people upon it." 'Correspondence of William
Fowler ' (50 copies privately printed, 1907 ; one in
B.M. Library), pp. 539, 541, 551, 607.
As Mr. Barstall was first cousin to my
father, I should be glad to know whether
anything further came of his enterprise.
J. T. F. Durham.
"POT-GALLERY" (10 S. vii. 388, 431; viii. 172, 254, 312, 493, 517 ; ix. 36, 212 : xi. 333). I am afraid Miss LEGA-WEEKES'S suggestion that " putt-gallery " was the original spelling of the word will be found to be incorrect. To begin with, the earliest quotation given by SIR JAMES MURRAY at the first reference from Stow dates back to 1598, and the following ones have the orthography " pot-gallery," " pott-gallery " where the meaning is clearly that of a land- ing-stage. I see no reason for altering my opinion expressed at 10 S. ix. 36 that the word is corrupted from " boat-gallery." The ' N.E.D.' gives the early forms of " boat " as " boot," " bote," and " botte," while the mutation of b into p has been sufficiently accounted for. Why does the 'N.E.D.,' by the way, omit the above 1598 citation, and give one of 1630 as its earliest ?
As to " putt-gallery," a shed built over a mill-stream at Paris Garden, your lady correspondent may be right in deriving it from "to put," with the meaning of "a structure built out from another like a balcony " : but I think this may be a dis- tinct word, and probably an afterthought owing its existence to the prior term.
Finally, if I am wrong as to the derivation from " boat-gall ery," there is the alternative of the word being a shortened form of " port-gallery," which might easily occur through its constant use by sailors and watermen. The examples " port - bar," " port-highway," and " port-street " will all be found in the 'N.E.D.' by those who may take the trouble to hunt for them ; while " portage," from port, i.e. " to carry," would align itself more closely with the rather inelegant variant " putt-gallery."
N. W. HILL.
New York.
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR AND BARKING (10 S. xi. 447). The Rev. J. W. Cobb in his
- History of Berkhamsted,' 1883, says :
"After the battle of Hastings, William crossed the Thames at Wallingford and proceeded to Berk- hamsted, where he halted, not, as (Jhauncy says, being compelled to do so by a stratagem of Frederick, Abbot of St. Albans, but in order to
