"Pille, pile; that side of the coin which bears the head. Cross or pile, a game."—A Dictionary of the Norman French Language, by Robert Kelham of Lincoln's Inn: London, 1779, 8vo., p. 183.
Φ.
Old Fogie (Vol. vii., pp. 354. 559.).—J. L., who writes from Edinburgh, denies the Irish origin of this appellation, because he says it was used of the "veteran companies" who garrisoned the castles of Edinburgh and Stirling. My mother, who was born in 1759, often told me that she never had heard any other name for the old men in the Royal Hospital, in the vicinity of which she passed her early days. It was therefore a well-known name a century ago in Dublin, and consequently was in use long before; probably from the building of the hospital in the reign of Charles II. Can J. L. trace the Scotch term as far back as that? Scotch or Irish, however, I maintain that my derivation is the right one. J. L. says he prefers that of Dr. Jamieson, in his Scottish Dictionary, who "derives it from Su.-G. Fogde, formerly one who had the charge of a garrison." In thus preferring a Scottish authority, J. L. shows himself to be a true Scot; but he must allow me to ask him, is he acquainted with the Swedish language? (for that is what is meant by the mysterious Su.-G.) And if so, is he not aware that Fogde is the same as the German Vogt, and signifies governor, judge, steward, &c., never merely a military commandant; and what on earth has that to do with battered old soldiers?
I may as well take this opportunity of replying to another of your Caledonian correspondents, respecting the origin of the word nugget. The Persian derivation is simply ridiculous, as the word was not first used in Australia. I am then perfectly well aware that this term has long been in use in Scotland and the north of Ireland as i. q. lump, as a nugget of bread, of sugar, &c. But an ingot is a lump also: and the derivation is so simple and natural, that in any case I am disposed to regard it as the true one. May not the Yankee term have been made independently of the British one?
Thos. Keightley.
Another odd Mistake (Vol. vii., p. 405.).—On page 102. of Last Glimpses of Convocation, by A. J. Joyce, 1853, I read of "the defiance thrown out to Henry III. by his barons, Nolumus leges Angliæ mutare." I have never read of any such defiance, expressed in any such language, anywhere else.
W. Fraser.
Tor-Mohun.
Spontaneous Combustion (Vol. vii., pp. 286. 440.).—I have somewhere read an account of a drunkard whose body was so saturated with alcohol, that being bled in a fever, and the lamp near him having been overthrown, the blood caught fire, and burst into a blaze: the account added, that he was so startled by this occurrence, that on his recovery he reformed thoroughly, and prolonged his life to a good old age. Where is this story to be found, and is the fact related physically possible? It seems to bear on the question of spontaneous combustion.
W. Fraser.