summonses their employers had taken out, which it was
optional to the attorney on the opposite side to attend or not, and whose
business it was from time to time to cry out the opposite attorney's
name. For example, leaning against the wall . . . was an office lad of
fourteen with a tenor voice; near him a common law clerk with a bass one.
A clerk hurried in with a bundle of papers and stared about him.

"'Sniggle and Blink,' cried the tenor.

"'Porkin and Snob,' growled the bass.

"'Stumpy and Deacon,' said the newcomer."

These are fairly good names, though they have not the touch of Thackeray.
I like the names of the chief heroes in the cricket match at Dingley
Dell. Dumpkins and Podder went in first for All-Muggleton, the bowlers
on the other side being Struggles and Luffey. These names are so
familiar that it is hard to judge them, but on the whole they seem to me
fairly good, as being slightly comic and not impossible. But when we
come to Horatio Fizkin, Esq., of Fizkin Lodge, and Hon. Samuel Slumkey,
of Slumkey Hall, we are indeed depressed. But there are worse names in
_Pickwick_. When Mrs Nupkins and her daughter have discovered Captain
Fitz-Marshall to be a scamp: "How can we ever show ourselves in society?"
said Miss Nupkins.

"'How can we face the Porkenhams?' cried Mrs Nupkins.

"'Or the Griggs?' cried Miss Nupkins.

"'Or the Slummintowkens?' cried Mrs Nupkins."

This last seems to me about as bad a name as any writer ever invented.
But Nockemorf, the name of Bob Sawyer's predecessor in the apothecary
business, is almost equally tiresome in a different style.

Why he chose such names it is hard to say, since he certainly could
invent improbable names which are nevertheless appropriate. For
instance, Smangle and Mivins are quite good names for the offensive
scamps on whom Mr Pickwick is "chummed" in the Fleet Prison.

Daniel Grummer, the name of Mr Nupkins' tipstaff, is roughly of the same
type, and Wilkins Flasher, as an objectionable stockbroker is called, is
quite a passable name. The only name in _Pickwick_ which is comparable
to those of Thackeray is Mrs Leo Hunter, while Count Smorltork, who
occurs in the same scene, is unbearable. On the other hand, Captain
Boldwig is quite a good name.

I now pass to Sir Walter Scott. It must be confessed that in the two
books chosen for analysis--_Guy Mannering_ and _The Antiquary_--he is
disappointing as an artist in nomenclature. To begin w