E. L. N.
"By Hook or by Crook."—The destruction caused by the Fire of London, A.D. 1666, during which some 13,200 houses, &c., were burnt down, in very many cases obliterated all the boundary-marks requisite to determine the extent of land, and even the very sites occupied by buildings, previously to this terrible visitation. When the rubbish was removed, and the land cleared, the disputes and entangled claims of those whose houses had been destroyed, both as to the position and extent of their property, promised not only interminable occupation to the courts of law, but made the far more serious evil of delaying the rebuilding of the city, until these disputes were settled, inevitable. Impelled by the necessity of coming to a more speedy settlement of their respective claims than could be hoped for from legal process, it was determined that the claims and interests of all persons concerned should be referred to the judgment and decision of two of the most experienced land-surveyors of that day,—men who had been thoroughly acquainted with London previously to the fire; and in order to escape from the numerous and vast evils which mere delay must occasion, that the decision of these two arbitrators should be final and binding. The surveyors appointed to determine the rights of the various claimants were Mr. Hook and Mr. Crook, who by the justice of their decisions gave general satisfaction to the interested parties, and by their speedy determination of the different claims, permitted the rebuilding of the city to proceed without the least delay. Hence arose the saying above quoted, usually applied to the extrication of persons or things from a difficulty. The above anecdote was told the other evening by an old citizen upwards of eighty, by no means of an imaginative temperament.
J. D. S.
Putney, Feb. 1. 1851.
[We insert the above, as one of the many explanations which have been given of this very popular phrase—although we believe the correct origin to be the right of taking fire-bote by hook or by crook. See Notes and Queries, Vol. i., pp. 281. and 405.]
Record of Existing Monuments.—I have some time since read your remarks in Vol. iii., p. 14. of "Notes and Queries," on the Rev. J. Hewett's Monumentarum of Exeter Cathedral, and intend in
a short time to follow the advice you have there given to "superabundant brass-rubbers," of copying the inscriptions in the churches and churchyards of the hundred of Manley. The plan I intend to pursue is, to copy in full every inscription of an earlier date than 1750; also, all more modern ones which are in any way remarkable as relating to distinguished persons, or containing any peculiarity worthy of note. The rest I shall reduce into a tabular form.
The inscriptions of each church I shall arrange chronologically, and form an alphabetical index to each inscription in the hundred.
By this means I flatter myself a great mass of valuable matter may be accumulated, a transcript of which may not be entirely unworthy of a place on the shelves of the British Museum.
I have taken the liberty of informing you of my intention, and beg that if you can suggest to me any plan which is better calculated for the purpose than the one I have described, you will do so.