agged, that is, hung by the
scrag of the neck. And when I said that my father was a smasher, I meant
one who passes forged notes, thereby doing his best to smash the Bank of
England; by being lagg'd, I meant he was laid fast, that is, had a chain
put round his leg and then transported.'

'Your explanations are perfectly satisfactory,' said I; 'the three first
words are metaphorical, and the fourth, lagg'd, is the old genuine Norse
term, lagda, which signifies laid, whether in durance, or in bed has
nothing to do with the matter. What you have told me confirms me in an
opinion which I have long entertained, that thieves' Latin is a strange
mysterious speech, formed of metaphorical terms, and words derived from
various ancient languages. Pray tell me, now, how the gentleman, your
grandfather, contrived to shorten the coin of these realms?'

'You shall hear,' said the jockey; 'but I have one thing to beg of you,
which is, that when I have once begun my history you will not interrupt
me with questions; I don't like them, they stops one, and puts one out of
one's tale, and are not wanted. 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 five-pence, 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