I should have thought that the sheer disgustingness of the idea would have shut the word out of the vocabularies of English gentlemen.  It remains nevertheless a standard term in the vocabulary of an English soldier.  It is well, at all events, that future ages should know its etymology.

T.S.D.

Pokership, (ante, pp. 185. 218. 269. 282. 323, 324.)—­I am sorry to see that no progress has yet been made towards a satisfactory explanation of this office.  I was in hopes that something better than mere conjecture would have been supplied from the peculiar facilities of “T.R.F.”  “W.H.C.” (p. 323.) has done little more than refer to the same instruments as had been already adverted to by me in p. 269., with the new reading {370} of poulterer for poker!  With repect to “T.R.F.’s” conjecture, I should be more ready to accept it if he could produce a single example of the word pawker, in the sense of a hog-warden.  The quotation from the Pipe-roll of John is founded on a mistake.  The entry occurs in other previous rolls, and is there clearly explained to refer to the porter of Hereford Castle.  Thus, in Pipe 2 Hen.  II. and 3 Hen.  II. we have, under Hereford,

  “In liberatione portarii castelli ... 30s. 5d.”

In Pipe 1 Ric.  I. we have,

  “In liberatione constituta portarii de Hereford, 30s. 5d.”

Again, in Pipe 3 Joh.

  “In liberatione constituta portario de Hereford, 30s. 5d.”

A similar entry is to be found in other rolls, as well printed as inedited.  I could indulge some other criticisms on the communication of your correspondent in Spring Gardens, but I prefer encouraging him to make further inquiries, and to produce from the records in his custody some more satisfactory solution of the difficulty.  In the meantime, let me refer to a Survey of Wrigmore Castle in the Lansdowne Collection, No. 40. fo. 82.  The surveyor there reports, that the paling, rails, &c. of the park are much decayed in many and sundry places, and he estimates the repairs, with allowance of timber from the wood there, “by good surveye and oversight of the poker and other officers of the said parke,” at 4l.  The date of the survey is 13 May, 1584.

Comparing this notice of the office with the receiver’s accounts tempore Hen.  VII. and Hen.  VIII. (ante, p. 269.), in which the officer is called “pocarius omnium boscorum,” I cannot doubt that his duty, or at least one of his duties, was that of woodward, and that, as such, he assigned timber for repair of the premises.  How he came by his local title and style of poker is a mystery on which we have all hitherto failed to throw any light.

E.S.

Vox Populi Vox Dei,—­about the origin of which saying “QUAESITOR” asks (No. 21. p. 321.),—­were the words chosen by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon Mepham, as his text for the sermon which he preached when Edward III. was called to the throne, from which the nation had pulled down his father, Edward II.  This we learn from Walsingham, who says: