He was connected with a numerous gang, or set, of people, who had given up their minds and talents entirely to shortening." Here I interrupted the jockey.

"How singular," said I, "is the fall and debasement of words! You talk of a gang, or set, of shorters: you are, perhaps, not aware that gang and set were, a thousand years ago, only connected with the great and Divine; they are ancient Norse words, which may be found in the heroic poems of the north, and in the Edda, a collection of mythologic and heroic songs.

In these poems we read that such and such a king invaded Norway with a gang of heroes; or so and so, for example, Erik Bloodaxe was admitted to the set of gods; but at present gang and set are merely applied to the vilest of the vile, and the lowest of the low--we say a gang of thieves and shorters, or a set of authors.

How touching is this debasement of words in the course of time! it puts me in mind of the decay of old houses and names.

I have known a Mortimer who was a hedger and ditcher, a Berners who was born in a workhouse, and a descendant of the De Burghs who bore the falcon, mending old kettles, and making horse and pony shoes in a dingle." "Odd enough," said the jockey; "but you were saying you knew one Berners--man or woman?
I would ask." "A woman," said I.
"What might her Christian name be ?" said the jockey.
"It is not to be mentioned lightly," said I, with a sigh.
"I shouldn't wonder if it were Isopel," said the jockey, with an arch glance of his one brilliant eye.
"It was Isopel," said I; "did you know Isopel Berners ?" "Ay, and have reason to know her," said the jockey, putting his hand into his left waistcoat-pocket, as if to feel for something, "for she gave me what I believe few men could do--a most confounded wapping.