COCKNEY
—is the distinguished appellation by which those gentlemen are honoured, who, being natives of the Metropolis, are supposed never to have very far exceeded the vibrative limits of St. Paul's clock, or Bow bell. The term, however, well known as it is, would not have been entitled to a place in this collection, had it not been thought necessary to communicate to the sporting world, a derivation so very little known. A citizen of the above description making an excursion with his son to the neighbourhood of Highgate, the lad (who had never before taken a journey of such magnitude and extent) happening to hear a horse neigh, (which was quite new to him,) hastily exclaimed, "How that horse barks!"—"Barks! you booby," replied the father; "Neighs! you mean. A dog barks; a horse neighs!" They had not proceeded far, when the youth, finding his ears assailed by the sudden crowing of a cock, was so fascinated with the shrill and unexpected sound, that he instantly attracted his companion's attention with, "Hark, father, how that cock neighs!" To which happy effusion of fancy, citizens will probably stand indebted for the name of cockney to the end of time.