ses. By
aquafortis, by clipping, and by filing. Filing and clipping he employed
in reducing all sorts of coin, whether gold or silver; but aquafortis he
used merely in reducing gold coin, whether guineas, jacobuses, or
Portugal pieces, otherwise called moidores, which were at one time as
current as guineas. By laying a guinea in aquafortis for twelve hours,
he could filch from it to the value of ninepence, and by letting it
remain there for twenty-four to the value of eighteenpence, the
aquafortis eating the gold away, and leaving it like a sediment in the
vessel. He was generally satisfied with taking the value of ninepence
from a guinea, of eighteenpence from a jacobus or moidore, or
half-a-crown from a broad Spanish piece, whether he reduced them by
aquafortis, filing, or clipping. From a five-shilling piece, which is
called a bull in Latin because it is round like a bull's head, he would
file or clip to the value of fivepence, and from lesser coin in
proportion. He was connected with a numerous gang, or set, of people,
who had given up their minds and talents entirely to shortening."

Here I interrupted the jockey. "How singular," said I, "is the fall and
debasement of words; you talk of a gang, or set, of shorters; you are,
perhaps, not aware that gang and set were, a thousand years ago, only
connected with the great and Divine; they are ancient Norse words, which
may be found in the heroic poems of the north, and in the Edda, a
collection of mythologic and heroic songs. In these poems we read that
such and such a king invaded Norway with a gang of heroes; or so and so,
for example, Erik Bloodaxe, was admitted to the set of gods; but at
present gang and set are merely applied to the vilest of the vile, and
the lowest of the low,--we say a gang of thieves and shorters, or a set
of authors. How touching is this debasement of words in the course of
time; it puts me in mind of the decay of old houses and names. I have
known a Mortimer who was a hedger and ditcher, a Berners who was born in
a workhouse, and a descendant of the De Burghs, who bore the falcon,
mending old kettles, and making horse and pony shoes in a dingle."

"Odd enough," said the jockey; "but you were saying you knew one
Berners--man or woman? I would ask."

"A woman," said I.

"What might her Christian name be?" said the jockey.

"It is not to be mentioned lightly," said I, with a sigh.

"I shouldn't wonder if it were Isopel," said th