for anything which I think can't be
understood, I should myself explain, without being asked. My grandfather
reduced or shortened the coin of this country by three processes. By
aquafortis, by clipping, and by filing. Filing and clipping he employed
in reducing all kinds 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," sai