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 the jockey, with an arch
glance of his one brilliant eye.

'It was Isopel,' said I. 'Did you know Isopel Berners?'

'Ay, and have reason to know her,' said the jockey, putting his hand into
his left waistcoat-pocket, as if to feel for something, 'for she gave me
what I believe few men could do--a most confounded wapping. But now, Mr.
Romany Rye, I have again to tell you that I don't like to be interrupted
when I'm speaking, and to add that if you break in upon me a third time,
you and I shall quarrel.'

'Pray proceed with your story,' said I; 'I will not interrupt you again.'

'Good!' said the jockey. 'Where was I? Oh, with a set of people who had
given up their minds to shortening! Reducing the coin, though rather a
lucrative, was a very dangerous, trade. Coin filed felt rough to the
touch; coin clipped could be easily detected by the eye; and as for coin
reduced by aquafortis, it was generally so discoloured that, unless a
great deal of pains was used to polish it, people were apt to stare at it
in a strange manner, and to say, "What have they been doing to this here
gold?" My grandfather, as I said before, was connected with a gang of
shorters, and someti