Whether the word cockney be derived from the the land of cockaigne, or the legend of cockaigne arise from cockney, it appears probable that both words have their origin in the same root with the verb _to cook_, and that the epithet originally conveyed the imputation to citizens, of a superfluous consumption of cooked meat; inasmuch as the inhabitants of large cities generally consider the daily use of fresh meat almost as a necessary of life, while the provincial population is content to exist on less nutritious food. Whatever may be the original import of the epithet, the modern application of it is, I believe, confined to the natives of the metropolis, and it corresponds in use and signification with the terms _rustic_ and _chaw-bacon_, which distinguish the natives of the provinces; the latter term being exclusively appropriated to agriculturalists. Epithets, apparently of similar origin, exist in the seaman's _land-lubber_, the landsman's _jack-tar_, the Englishman's _froggy_, and the Frenchman's _ros-bif_. Londoners themselves appear to have a theoretical notion that the inhabitants of Belgravia, and other enlightened metropolitan districts, are strictly entitled to the designation _cockney_, in virtue of their birth and residence within the sound of Bow-bells; but practically limit its application to those members of the lower, and more ignorant classes of the community, who traditionally retain some of the obsolete idioms, and other peculiarities of speech, of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers. A LONDONER. SIR EDMUND PLOWDEN OR PLOYDEN. (Vol. iv., p. 58.)