Spes.
Spick and Span-new (Vol. iii., p. 330.).—In Dutch, spyker means a warehouse, a magazine: and spange (spangle) means anything shining
and thus spick and span-new means, shining new from the warehouse. (See Tooke's Div. of Purley, vol. i. p. 527.) This, with the guesses of Wachter and Ihre, may be seen by your correspondent in Richardson.
Q.
Junius Rumours (Vol. v., pp. 125. 159. 474.).—"N. & Q." contains abundant speculation about the "Vellum-bound" to which your correspondent refers (p. 474.). Some persons, I know, consider it doubtful whether the printer did have a copy bound in vellum as Junius directed, and they strengthen their doubts by, as they assert, no such copy having ever been met with. Mr. Cramp, on the contrary, maintains that such copies are so common that the printer must have taken the Junius copy as a pattern. As Mr. Cramp, I observe, is become a correspondent of "N. & Q.," I will take leave to direct his attention to the question asked by V. B. (Vol. iii., p. 262.) Others, again, assuming that the printer did have a copy specially bound for Junius, think it doubtful whether it ever reached him. Of these differences and speculations your correspondent is evidently unaware; and he therefore raises a question as if it were new, which has been under discussion for thirty years. As a set-off, however, he favours us with an entirely original anecdote, so original, that neither the anecdote nor the tea-service were ever heard of by H. S. Woodfall's family. Yet it must be admitted that his story has all the characteristics of authenticity—names, dates, places. I know, indeed, but one objection, viz. that Mr. Woodfall never was "in prison on account of the publication of these redoubtable letters." He was tried, but acquitted, under the somewhat celebrated verdict of "guilty of printing and publishing only."
T. S. W.
Cuddy, the Ass (Vol. v., p. 419.).—Jamieson is sometimes very absurd; but in my edition of his Dictionary (Edinburgh, 1808), I do not find the Hindoo root for cuddy which you attribute to him. I only find: "Cuddie, an ass—probably a cant term;" with a reference to the Lothian dialect.
But if it be worth while to answer such questions, I would remind the inquirer that in Northumberland, and the adjoining districts of Scotland, cuddie is the contraction of the very common name of Cuthbert (teste "Cuddie Headrig"); and that as the ass is called in other districts "Ned" and "Neddy," and in others again "Dick" and "Dicky," so he is called in Northumberland Cuddie by a name familiar in the locality. Everywhere the male is called "Jack," and the female "Jenny;" are these also derived from the Hindoostanee?
C.
The Authorship of the Epigram upon the Letter "H" (Vol. v., p. 258.).—I observe that a controversy has lately been carried on in your columns upon the authorship of the celebrated enigma on the letter H. Permit me, as one well acquainted with the circumstances, to corroborate the statement of E. H. Y. The epigram in question was written at the Deepdene, the seat of the late Thomas Hope, Esq., by Miss Catharine Fanshawe, in the year 1816, as is recorded in the heading of the original MS. of it contained in a contemporary Deepdene Album still existing.