LXIV. On Apostle-Spoons, and Peg-Tankards.

MR. URBAN,

WE have certain terms or expressions which in a very little time will become obscure; they are already obsolete, and in a few years may grow perfectly unintelligible. I would do to these, what Mr. Richard Warner proposes to do in respect of Shakespear, that is, prevent if possible, the total obscuration of those evanescent terms. The apostle-spoons are a sort of spoons in silver with round bits, very common in the beginning of the last century, but are seldom to be seen now. The set consists of a dozen, and each had the figure of an apostle, with his proper ensign at the top. I have seen in my time, two or three sets, but at present they are scarce, being generally exchanged for spoons of a more modern form, and consequently melted down.

Our ancestors were formerly famous for compotation; their liquor was ale, and one method of amusing themselves this way was with the peg-tankard. There are four or five of these tankards now remaining in this country, and I have lately had one of them in my hand. It had on the inside a row of eight pins one above another, from top to bottom. It held two quarts, (and was a noble piece of plate) so that there was a gill of ale, half a pint Winchester measure, between each peg. The law was, that every person that drank was to empty the space between pin and pin, so that the pins were so many measures to make the company all drink alike, and to swallow the same quantity of liquor. This was a contrivance for merriment, and at the same time a pretty sure method of making all the company drunk, especially if it be considered that the rule was, that whoever drank short of his pin, or beyond it, was obliged to drink again, and even as deep as to the next Fin. And it was for this reason, that in archbishop Anselm's canons, made in the council of London, A.D. 1102, priests were enjoined not to go to drinking bouts, nor to drink to pegs. The words are, ut Presbyteri non eant ad potationes, nec ad pinnas bibant,' Wilkins, Concil. I. p. 382. This shews the antiquity of the invention, as well as the evil tendency of it; and as it must have been some time before the abuse and inconvenience of the practice was noted, so as to be made a matter of prohibitory injunction, we must suppose

* Our Saxon ancestors, says Rapin, were so addicted to drunkenness, that they were wont to drink out of large cups and take great draughts, till Edgar, in order to reform this abuse, ordered certain marks to be made in their cups at a certain height, above which they were forbidden to fill under a severe penalty. E.

that these tankards were at least as old as the Norman Con-
quest; perhaps might be introduced by those jolly fellows
the Danes. The word tankard it is thought comes from the
Dutch Tankaerd, and probably it may, but quære, whether
the Dutch word may not, by a transposition of letters, be
the Latin cantharus. Such metathesises are frequent, and par-
ticularly in our language. Thus, though I meet with the
word galeo and galo, as Latin for a gallon in our monkish writers,
yet I conceive the original of the English word gallon to be
lagena, and that the monkish terms were formed upon the
English word. To give a third instance, Mr. Johnson and
Mr. R. Warner deduce Argosie from the ship Argo; the
authors of the Monthly Review incline rather to think it
comes from the old Italian, in which any thing watchful or
vigilant was termed an Argo, from Juno's spy, Argus. But
now, there is a third etymology, which may seem as plau-
sible as either of the above, for in Sir P. Rycaut's Survey
of the Ottoman Empire, it is suggested, that this sea-vessel
might be denominated from the little republic of Ragusa,
Argosie being only a transposition of Ragusie.
Yours, &c.

Derbyshire, Aug. 15. 1768, Sept.

Further thoughts on the Peg-Tankard.

T. Row.

UNWILLING as I am to extend the former memoir to an indecent and inconvenient length, I chose to drop it where I did with a design of resuming it.

It has been shewn that the Peg-Tankard, or in this case the Pin-Tankard, was very early, and also very generally known amongst us, and therefore it is most natural to think, that allusions to it would not be uncommon in our ordinary discourse. It is a saying with us, that a person is in a merry pin; this, I conceive, was borrowed from the tankard, being as much as to say he has drank to such a pin as to make himself cheerful and merry. Another expression is, to take a person a peg lower, by which we mean to humble or abase him in like manner as the liquor is made to diminish by a peg at a time, in the tankard. Mons. Du Fresne in his Gloss. v. Pinna, cites archbishop Anselm's canon of A.D. 1102. Nec ad pinnas bibant, and conjectures, forte legendum pilas,' because pila he finds signifies sometimes taberna, a tavern, or drinking house. But this is a most unhappy conjecture, as the sense is so plain and intelligible without it, and that all the MSS. agree in writing pinnas; and so Mr. Jolinson, in

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his Collection of Ecclesiastical Laws, &c. translates the canon without scruple, "that priests go not to drinking bouts, nor drink to pegs." However, Sir, as this Frenchman, and I may add the Benedictines, who have suffered his conjecture to pass without animadversion, knew little of ale, nor ever saw one of these tankards in their lives, they are entirely excusable, to do them justice, upon this head. 1 am, Sir, Yours, &c.

T.Row.

1768, Oct.

LXV. On the General Use and Introduction of Tobacco.

I OFTEN think it very wonderful, Mr. Urban, that a thing so unnatural as the use of tobacco in smoking, should prevail so generally over the face of the whole earth. I call it unnatural, because nothing seems to lead to it, that to many it is most disagreeable, and that others find it so difficult to learn it, whilst some, after many repeated trials, can never master it at all. And yet you find the practice of smoking tobacco in the north, and in the south, in the east, and in the west. In those immense regions of Siberia and Tartary, China, Japan, Indostan, Persia, Africa, America, and almost universally in the continent and islands of Europe.In most places, the usage is common to all ranks, and to both sexes.

The Chinese pretend they have known the use of tobacco many ages; and for what length of time the Americans have had it amongst them, cannot, I suppose, be discovered, but most anciently without doubt; possibly they might bring it with them from the east, from Tartary, when first they migrated from thence to the continent of America. To be a little more particular, as to its introduction amongst us; Stow says, tobacco was brought into England about the 20 Eliz. or 1578, and that "Sir Walter Raleigh was the first that brought tobacco in use, when all men wondered what it meant.' But afterwards, in the same page he tells us, "tobacco was first brought, and made known in England by Sir John Hawkins, about the year 1565+, but not used by Englishmen in many years after, though at this day commonly used by most men, and many women." This was about the year 1631, in the reign of James I. when, however, the use of the herb was under disgrace, Stow, in the index,

*Bell's Travels, II. p. 68.

+Dr. Brookes says it is called tobacco from the island of Tobago, from whence it was brought in the year 1560. But quære, as to the date,

calling it a stinking weed so much abused to God's dishonour." But the king himself also greatly discountenanced the use of it, and even wrote against it; and the gentleman who made the following will was heartily desirous, as it should seem, of concurring with his majesty in suppressing its use. Peter Campbell, a Derbyshire gentleman, made his will 20 Oct. 1616, and therein has the following very extraordinary clause, "Now for all such household goods, at Darley, whereof John Hoson hath an inventory, my will is, that my son Roger shall have them all toward housekeepinge, on this condition, that yf at any time hereafter, any of his brothers or sisters* shall fynd him takeing of tobacco, that then he or she so fynding him, and making just prooffe thereof to my executors, shall have the said goods, or the full valewe thereof, according as they shall be praysed, which said goods shall presently after my death be valewed and praysed by my executors for that purpose."

1769, April.

I am, Sir, &c.

T. Row,

LXVI. Great Entertainments given by Archbishop Parker, at Can terbury, extracted from Speed's Life of that Prelate.

ARCHBISHOP Parker, who was advanced to the Sce of Canterbury in 1559, visited his Cathedral and diocese in 1560, 1565, 1570, and 1573.

In 1564 he finished the repairs of his noble palace and great hall at Canterbury, both being in decay, partly by fire and partly by time, which cost him above 14001. which is equal to near ten times that sum in these days. This hall, built by Archbishop Hubert, in the 12th century, was famous in history for the great feasts that had been made there by Archbishops and Abbots in former times, in particular, at the nuptial feast of King Edward I. in 1290, at the installation of the Abbot of St. Austin's in 1309; at the inthronization of George Nevill, Archbishop of York, in 1464; and of Archbishop Warham, in 1504, when Edward' duke of Buckingham acted as Lord High Steward of his Household; and lastly, for the entertainment given by that Archbishop in 1519, to the Emperor Charles V. Henry VIII. Queen Catharine, &c.

* There were five brothers and three sisters, so that he must have had many eyes upon him.

In 1565, Archbishop Parker gave three entertainments in this hall at Whitsuntide (which lasted three days) on Trinity Sunday, and in Assize-time. At the two first of these the Archbishop himself sat in the midst of the uppermost table; on his left hand the mayor, &c. and so on one side of the hall, a continued row of men according to their rank filled the other tables; and on his right hand sat only some noble women and ladies of quality, the whole length of the hall, corresponding to the row of men on the other side; which order of placing the women was observed in honour of the Queen. The first rank of guests being risen, and the tables cleared, they were furnished again and filled the second time. At the last feast, which was grander than all the rest, the Archbishop entertained the two judges who went that circuit,* the Attorney-general, the High-sheriff, with all who met at these assizes, as Justices of the Peace, Advocates, and common Lawyers, and all the rest of Proctors and Attornies; who all (with a promiscuous company) in troops came in. The hall was set forth with much plate of silver and gold, adorned with rich tapestry of Flanders, and dainties of all sorts were served in excellent order by none but the Archbishop's servants, the table being often the same day furnished afresh with new guests. While the ladies were nobly entertained in inner parlours by Mrs. Parker, the hall being now filled only with gentlemen, Otherwise, at these feasts, it was the Archbishop's custom in honour of matrimony, to entertain both men and their wives. Of this noble hall and palace, now within 200 years, there is little or nothing left except a few ruins.

On Whitsunday, 1570, and the two following days, this Archbishop feasted the citizens of Canterbury and their wives in the same manner as he had done before; and on Trinity Sunday (after consecrating Bishop Curteis of Chichester) he made another most Archiepiscopal Feast, inviting another Archbishop, (viz. Grindal of York, who came thither for confirmation) to be his guest; besides whom were present Horn, Bishop of Winchester, and Curteis aforesaid, of Chichester. At the lower table sat all the ministers and servants whatsoever, even the children, who belonged to that church; and at the remotest tables, but in the same hall, in sight, sat the poor of both sexes of the hospitals of St. John's and Harbledown. On July 11,

This proves that the judges of Assize then came to Canterbury, though it was then a County in itself, being so made in 1461.