. that a schoolfellow would _sock_ him, _i.e._
treat him to _sock_ at the pastrycook's; and this favour was not
unfrequently granted _on tick, i.e._ on credit with the purveyor of
sweets.

In reply to your noble correspondent's Query, I beg to say that
Halliwell, in his _Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words_, both
spells and defines thus: "Brosier. A bankrupt. _Chesh._" Mr. H. says no
more; but this seems to decide that the word does not exclusively belong
to Eton. I could have fancied that on such classic ground it might
possibly have sprung from ~brosko~, fut. ~-so~, _to devour_.

Is _sock_ only a corruption of _suck_, indicating a lollipop origin? or
what is its real etymological root?

Richardson most satisfactorily says, that to "go on _tick_" is to give a
note or _ticket_ instead of payment.

ALFRED GATTY.

Ecclesfield, May 27. 1850.

This Eton phrase, the meaning of which is very correctly explained LORD
BRAYBROOKE (Vol. i., p. 485.), appears to be connected with the Cheshire
provincialism, which is thus interpreted in Wilbraham's _Cheshire
Glossary_:--

"'Brosier, _s._ a bankrupt.' It is often used by boys at play,
when one of them has nothing further to stake."

The noun _brosier_, as Mr. Wilbraham indicates, seems to be derived from
the old word _brose_, or, as we now say, _bruise_. A _brosier_ would
therefore mean a broken-down man, and therefore a bankrupt. The verb _to
brosier_, as used at Eton, would easily be formed from the substantive.
In the mediaeval Latin, _ruptura_ and _ruptus_ were used to signify
_bankruptcy_ and a _bankrupt_. See Duncange, _Gloss._ in vv.

ETONIENSIS.

The word _brozier_, or (as I always heard it pronounced) _brosier_, does
not, or did not exclusively belong to Eton. It was current at Hackney
School, an establishment formerly on the site of the present Infant
Orphan Asylum, and had the precise meaning attributed to it by Lord
Braybrooke. It was used both as a verb and as a substantive, but of its
origin and etymology I am ignorant. The last master of Hackney School
was the Rev. Dr. Heathcote, who died, I believe, about 1820. The
schoolhouse was a very large and a very old building. May I take this
opportunity of asking if anything is known of its history? There was a
tradition prevalent among the boys, that it had been an hospital in the
time of the Plague.

I recollect there was another singular word current at Hackney, viz.
"buckhorse," for