ATIN--LIBERTIES WITH COIN--THE SMASHER IN
PRISON--OLD FULCHER--EVERY ONE HAS HIS GIFT--FASHION OF THE ENGLISH

'My grandfather was a shorter, and my father was a smasher; the one was
scragg'd, and the other lagg'd.'

I here interrupted the jockey by observing that his discourse was, for
the greater part, unintelligible to me.

'I do not understand much English,' said the Hungarian, who, having
replenished and resumed his mighty pipe, was now smoking away; 'but, by
Isten, I believe it is the gibberish which that great ignorant Valther
Scott puts into the mouth of the folks he calls gypsies.'

'Something like it, I confess,' said I, 'though this sounds more genuine
than his dialect, which he picked up out of the canting vocabulary at the
end of the "English Rogue," {252} a book which, however despised, was
written by a remarkable genius. What do you call the speech you were
using?' said I, addressing myself to the jockey.

'Latin,' said the jockey, very coolly, 'that is, that dialect of it which
is used by the light-fingered gentry.'

'He is right,' said the Hungarian; 'it is what the Germans call
Roth-Welsch: they call it so because there are a great many Latin words
in it, introduced by the priests, who, at the time of the Reformation,
being too lazy to work, and too stupid to preach, joined the bands of
thieves and robbers who prowled about the county. Italy, as you are
aware, is called by the Germans Welschland, or the land of the Welschers;
and I may add that Wallachia derives its name from a colony of Welschers
which Trajan sent there. Welsch and Wallack being one and the same word,
and tantamount to Latin.'

'I dare say you are right,' said I; 'but why was Italy termed
Welschland?'

'I do not know,' said the Hungarian.

'Then I think I can tell you,' said I; 'it was called so because the
original inhabitants were a Cimbric tribe, who were called Gwyltiad, that
is, a race of wild people, living in coverts, who were of the same blood,
and spoke the same language as the present inhabitants of Wales. Welsh
seems merely a modification of Gwyltiad. Pray continue your history,'
said I to the jockey, 'only please to do so in a language which we can
understand, and first of all interpret the sentence with which you began
it.'

'I told you that my grandfather was a shorter,' said the jockey, 'by
which is meant a gentleman who shortens or reduces the current coin of
these realms, for which practice he was scr