36
NOTES AND QUERIES, no s. VIL JAN. 12, 1907.
nymic " van " dropped. The pronunciation
most frequently heard is " Rosevelt," but
the editor of one of the principal papers here
informs me that in higher circles it is better
rendered as a word of three syllables,
- ' Roos-eh-velt," which approximates closely
to its sound in present-day Dutch, i.e. Roosafelt. Other eminent men of the clan are Nicholas J. Roosevelt, the engineer who invented the steamboat paddle-wheel, and partner of the celebrated Robert Fulton ; and Robert Burnwell Roosevelt, author of
- The Game Birds of America,' &c., an uncle
of the President. N. W. HILL.
Philadelphia.
THE AINSTY OF YORK (10 S. vi. 462, 511). The explanation of ainsty given by PROF. SKEAT at the latter reference is identical with that given by me in ' N. & Q.' on 1 1 July, 1904, when I said (10 S. ii. 97) :
" The word with which we have to do is A.-S. dnstlg, 0. N. eiiistigi, Norwegian einstig, a single or one-by-one path, like the Northern dialectal bridle- sty, a road wide enough for one horse or carriage."
The reference to this note is given by MB. MACMICHAEL, but PROF. SKEAT over- looks it, and says : " The sense of Anstey, in Herts, is perfectly well known, and was explained two years ago in my ' Place- Names of Herts.' " The meaning of " The Ainsty of York " was, at any rate, explained by me at an earlier time. My explanation was founded on a passage which I quoted from the ' Hundred Rolls,' where the Aynesty of York is mentioned as having anciently been via regia. S. O. ADDY.
CALIFORNIA^ ENGLISH : AMERICAN COIN- NAMES (10 S. vi. 381). I have no personal knowledge of San Franciscan speech, and am not concerned to apologize for it ; but I may correct or supplement MR. DOUGLAS OWEN'S remarks on one or two matters of fact.
No doubt the colloquial application to a person of the adjective husky came about, as suggested, by transference from the name of the lusty sledge-dogs of the North, but the dog-name husky does not pertain merely to the leader of the team, as MR. OWEN supposes, though naturally the strongest and most capable dog is selected for this office ; it describes the breed. They are Eskimo dogs, Eskimos, shortened to Eskies, and corrupted to Huskies and they were so called in the early days of Hudson Bay Company travel.
Again, referring to prices, MR. OWEN speaks of a " bit, an imaginary coin of 12| cents," adding, " If such a coin as a bit ever
existed here, it is beyond the memory of the-
elderly." This coin is not at all imaginary,,
though it is no longer in circulation and wa&
not of United States coinage. When it i&
recalled that, practically, national coinage
did not begin till 1795, and that the amount
of its issue met the people's needs very
inadequately for a long time, it will be under-
stood why, during the first half of the last
century, the Spanish-American coins that
had been in use during colonial days were
quite as abundant as the national coins,,
and were considered legal tender. These
were the dollar (once the " piece of eight ")
and four smaller coins, representing its
aliquot parts from one-half to one-sixteenth.
The one representing one-eighth of a dollar, or 12J cents the real or so-called " Mexican shilling " was fully as familiar to my childhood as was the dime, and so, too, was the half-real, as a "sixpence," Some years ago, in examining letters left by a relative, I noticed that there were many, dated in the early forties, the postage of which was marked at 18| cents, an amount impossible to pay in national coins.
This Mexican real was current everywhere at the value of 12^ cents, but it had different names in different States, the name usually marking its proportion of the value of the shilling of such State the money of account by which people continued to reckon long after the adoption of the decimal system. In New York, e.g., where eight shillings were counted to a dollar, it was a " shilling," but in Connecticut, whose shilling of account was 16f cents, it was " ninepence " ; while in Pennsylvania, with a shilling worth 13^ cents, it was an " elevenpenny bit," shortened to levy ; and in Georgia, a " seven- penny bit," shortened to bit. The name bit was taken up by most of the Western and Southern States beyond the Mississippi as they were settled. In California, from special circumstances, the coin must have continued in circulation for some years after the San Francisco mint was opened in 1854, and, doubtless because it gives an easy way of reckoning, people still count by it.
My reply is so long that I will defer till, some possible future time comment upon, part of the colloquialisms noted by MR. OWEN. M. C. L.
New York City.
MR. DOUGLAS OWEN is to be praised as a zealous collector of phrases curiously dis- tressing to the ordinary English native of these days, for in this mustering we catch the index-finger of Time. Yet when one recalls the Hon. J. R. Lowell's charming
