There is another like account rendered in 23 & 24 Hen.  VII.  These, and no doubt many other accounts and documents respecting the honor of Wigmore and its appartenances, are among the Exchequer records, and we are entitled to infer from them, firstly, that a parcarius and a pocarius are two different offices; secondly, that, whether the duty of the latter was performed on the dikes or in the woods of Boringwood chase, the theory of Mr. Bolton Corney (pace cl. viri dixerim) is very deficient in probability.  If the above authorities had not fallen under my notice, I should have confidently adopted the conjecture of the noble Querist, who first drew attention to the word, and, so far from considering the substitution of “poker” for “parker” an improbable blunder of the copyist, I should have pronounced it fortunate for the house of Harley that their founder had not been converted into a porcarius or pig-driver.

E. SMIRKE.

Pokership.—­I had flattered myself that Parkership was the real interpretation of the above word, but I have once more doubts on the subject.  I this morning accidentally stumbled upon the word “Porcellagium,” which is interpreted in Ducange’s Glossary, “Tributum ex porcis seu porcellis.”

Porcarius also occurs as Porcorum custos, and mention is made of “Porcorum servitium quo quis porcos domini sui pascentes servare tenetur.”

Now, considering how much value was formerly attached to the right of turning out swine in wooded wastes, during the acorn season, it seems probable that Sir R. Harley might be the king’s “Porcarius,” or receiver of the money paid for an annual license to depasture hogs in the royal forests; and, after all, Porkership is as like to Pokership as Parkership, and one mistake would be as easily made as the other.

BRAYBROOKE.

Audley End, Feb. 16.

[We are enabled to confirm the accuracy of Lord Braybrooke’s conjecture as to Pokership being the office conferred upon Sir Robert Harley, inasmuch as we are in expectation of receiving an account of the various forms of its name from a gentleman who has not only the ability, but also peculiar facilities for illustrating this and similar obscure terms.]

Havior—­Heavier or Hever.-Supposed etymology of Havior, Heavier, and Hever, as applied by park-keepers to an emasculated male deer.—­“NOTES AND QUERIES,” (No. 15. p. 230.)

Pennant, in his British Zoology, 8vo. edition, 1776, vol. i. p. 38., and 8vo. edition, 1812, vol. i. p. 45., under the article, “Goat” says:—­

“The meat of a castrated goat of six or seven years old, (which is called Hyfr,) is reckoned the best; being generally very sweet and fat.  This makes an excellent pasty, goes under the name of rock venison, and is little inferior to that of the deer.”

As Pennant was a Welchman, a scholar and a {270} naturalist, he will probably be considered good authority; and Hyfr, the most likely origin of the altered terms of the deer park-keepers.