392
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. vn. MAY is, 1901.
witness reported that the head of the deceased was
opened, and the creature was there discovered as
big as a swallow, with a brazen beak and claws of
iron."* Chap. Ix.
JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.
" JUGGINS " (9 th S. yii. 247). I have drawn
DR. MURRAY'S attention to the miner " Jug-
gins " in Disraeli's 'Sybil,' III. i. He may
not be the particular object of philological
quest, but as a victim he has sufficiently
notable quality to warrant consideration. He
suffered from the iniquity of the tommy-shop.
Several miners, discussing their hardships in
an alehouse, are addressed thus by their
leading spokesman :
" ' Comrades,' continued Nixon, ' you know what has happened ; you know as how Juggins applied for his balance after his tommy-book was paid up, and that incarnate nigger Diggs has made him take two waistcoats. Now the question rises, what is a collier to do with waistcoats ? Pawn 'em 1 s'pose to Diggs's son-in-law, next door to his father's shop, and sell the ticket for sixpence. Now, there 's the question ; keep to the question ; the question is waistcoats and tommy ; first waistcoats, and then tommy.'"
Like many other sufferers, this "Juggins" may have helplessly bowed to the force of circumstances rather than to the pressure of his guileless nature, but he was wantonly imposed upon in the constraint under which he was fain to accept a consignment of waist- coats instead of the coin of the realm that was his due. THOMAS BAYNE.
I doubt if it will ever be known for certain who first introduced " Juggins " to the public. I think myself it was Mr. Punch ; that merry gentleman is usually up early in the morning when any novelty in slang is to hand. The word, I feel pretty sure, first " came in " about 1880 (not earlier); but it made very little headway, as regards general popularity, for three or four years. Although I was mixed up with a terribly slangy set during the eighties, my earliest recollection of "Jug- gins" dates no further back than 1883, when my attention was drawn to the word by big posters announcing, "Canterbury Theatre of Varieties. First appearance of the Bros. Horn in comic sketch entitled ' Juggins Junior.' Nov. 5, 1883." James Greenwood, writing as "One of the Crowd, " 25 August, 1884 (in a paper called 4 A Lucky Shilling '), in the Daily Telegraph, seemed to consider the word sufficiently new to require explanation. I used to regard "Juggins " as an evolution of
T *A! S , a A v a<} i ;, from the Talmud : ' Domin. Rom. en J udee, ii. 498.
"mug," but after looking over one or two
glossaries, I incline to the belief that " mug "
and "jug " were Elizabethan words, originally
applied to the silly tippler of the village, who
was often " muggy " or " jug-bitten " (for the
latter word see 'Nares's Glossary,' new edition,
1888, where a quotation upon the subject from
' Taylor's Werkes,' 1630, will be found). From
a passage in one of Lord Beaconstield's novels
it would seem that " Juggins " was used in
Lancashire over sixty years ago as a nick-
name for a simpleton one easily imposed
upon. The extract which follows refers to
a meeting of colliers to protest against
"tommy"; one of them, named "Juggins,"
deprecates strong measures :
"The cups of ale circulated, the pipes were
lighted, the preliminary puffs relieved 'The fact
is we are tommied to death.' ' You never spoke a truer word, Master Nixon,' said one of his com- panions ' Comrades,' continued Nixon, ' you know
what has happened ; you know as how Juggins applied for his balance after his tommy-book was paid up, and that incarnate nigger Diggs has made him take two waistcoats. Now the question rises, what is a collier to do with waistcoats? Pawn 'em I s'pose to Diggs's son-in-law, next door to his
father's shop, and sell the ticket for sixpence the
question is waistcoats and tommy ; first waistcoats,
and then tommy Juggins has got his rent to pay,
and is afraid of the bums,' said Nixon, 'and he has got two waistcoats.' " ' Sybil ; or, the Two Nations ' (1845), vol. ii. book iii. chap. i. pp. 6-7.
" Juggins " as a real surname is uncommon, but not unknown. Two of the name appear in the ' London Suburban Directory ' (Kelly's), while at least two may be found in the ' Birmingham Directory '; but I do not believe that the popular word takes its origin from a person of that name.
HERBERT B. CLAYTON. 39, Renfrew Road, Lower Kennington Lane.
' ATTUR. ACAD.' (9 th S. vii. 68, 198). If this work dates back to 1547, and if there is a reference, eo nomine, to " Interlopers in trade," DR. MURRAY will be delighted to have so early an instance of that difficult word, and I hope MR. RADCLIFFE will communicate it to him. The earliest edition that I have seen is of 1623, and "Interlopers in trade" are mentioned on p. 54a. So I fear that must be the book and edition cited by Minsheu.
Q.V.
THACKERAY (9 th S. vii. 188, 250). Mrs. Rich- mond Ritchie sends me the following :
" I oddly enough don't know anything for certain about this particular incident. Lord Steyne was certainly not Lord Lansdowne, for whom my father had a respect and admiration. I suppose my father may have been told the picture was like Lord Hert- ford, and thought it best to suppress it ; or perhaps the publishers advised him to do so. I remember
