Nicknames (Vol. vi., p. 198.).—If your correspondent will look at Mr. Bellenden Ker's Archæology of Popular Phrases, vol. i. p. 184., he will find an attempt to show the origin of nickname; but, whether we agree or not with Mr. Ker, the whole paragraph is worth reading for its comparative philology: it may, perhaps, bear out that the "nic" in "pic-nic" is also allied.
Thomas Lawrence.
Ashby-de-la-Zouch.
Nugget (Vol. vi., pp. 171. 281.).—E. N. W. inquires the meaning of the word nugget; and W. S. replies that in Persian nuqud signifies "ready money." This may have satisfied E. N. W., but it reminds me of Jonathan Oldbuck and
A. D. L. L. I should have thought that any one who had the slightest skill in etymology would have seen at once that a nugget is nothing more than a Yankee (?) corruption of an ingot. As many may be in the case of E. N. W., you may as well, perhaps, give this a place in "N. & Q."
T. K.
Lawyers' Bags (Vol. vii., p. 85.).—I think the statement that "prior to the trial of Queen Caroline, the colour of the bags carried by barristers was green," will surprise some legal readers. I had been a barrister several years when that trial took place, and cannot think that I had ever seen (indeed that I have yet seen) a barrister or a barrister's clerk carrying a green bag. I suspect it is a mere blunder arising out of the talk about the "green bag" which was said to contain the charges against the Queen. That, however, I apprehend was not a lawyer's bag, whatever some lawyers might have to do with it.
A Templar.
J. St. J. Y. may assure himself that Colonel Landman is mistaken. I have been an attendant upon the Courts for fifty years, and therefore long before the terrible green bag containing the charges against Queen Caroline was brought into the House of Commons; and I can confidently assert that I never saw a green bag borne by a barrister or solicitor during that time. The only colours that were ever paraded in my experience by those legal functionaries, were purple and crimson; and they have so continued till the present time—I will not say without interruption, because I have been grieved to see that tailors and small London pedlars have invaded the privilege.
Causidicus.