Query, was this punishment peculiar to cooks guilty of poisoning? And when did the latest instance occur?
L.H.K.
Meaning of "Mocker."—To-day I went into the cottage of an old man, in the village of which I am curate, and finding him about to cut up some wood, and he being very infirm, I undertook the task for him, and chopped up a fagot for his fire.
During the progress of my work, the old fellow made the following observation:—
"Old Nannie Hawkins have got a big stick o' wood, and she says as I shall have him for eight pence. If I could get him, I'd soon mocker him."
Upon my asking him the meaning of the word mocker, he informed me it meant to divide or cleave in pieces; but, not being "a scholar" as he termed it, he could not tell me how to spell it, so I know not whether the orthography I have adopted is correct or not.
Can any of your readers give me a clue to the derivation of this word? I certainly never heard it before.
I ought perhaps to state, that this is a country parish in Herefordshire.
W.M.
Pembridge, Dec. 16.