quarters of a century. They have been the orthodox cakes at the quarterly account meetings of the Corporation for more than a century, and are hence called "count cakes." It is conjectured that the three raisins represent the mayor and two justices, who were the governing body under the charter of James I. Be this as it may, Congleton has been noted from time immemorial, for its cakes, as well as for its gingerbread, which we find as recently as 1855, in an entertainment given by the Corporation of Congleton to the Lord Mayor of London, Sir F. G. Moon. Upon that occasion, beside the gold and silver maces of the borough, was the ancient and capacious china bowl belonging to the Corporation, filled with sack, and flanked by a pair of large two-handled silver flagons of sack, for brewing which one Joseph Speratti possesses the true receipt. On every plate was placed a count cake, and the centres of the tables were covered with cakes and other confectionery.

We are not, therefore, surprised to find among the Congleton records such convivial items as the following:

:

"1618. Bestowed upon the Earl of Essex, being money paid for figs and sugar, £1."

"1614. Bestowed upon Lord Byron one gallon of sack and one gallon of claret, 58. 8d."

"1619. A banquet bestowed upon Sir John Savage, being a gallon of sack and a sugar-loaf, 5s."

1627. Bestowed upon my Lord Brereton in wine and beer, 58." "1633. Bestowed on the Earl of Bridgewater, in wine, sack, and sugar, 88. "1632. Paid Randle Rode of the Swan, for wine, cakes, and beer, for a banquet which was bestowed upon the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, £1 48. 2d." "1671. Paid Mr. Drakeford for a pottle of wine, bestowed on Sir R. Wilbraham, 28."

"1662. Paid for sweetmeats bestowed upon Lord and Lady Brandon, 9s. 3d., because," as the book says, "he was our great friend."

This must have been in reference to the influence exerted by that nobleman in obtaining a re-grant of the Borough charter, which Charles II. on his accession had thought fit to call in along with several others, and that of London among the rest.

The Old English Inn.

Fynes Moryson, in his Itinerary, thus speaks of the English inns of his time (1617):

As soone as a passenger comes to an inne, the servants run to him, and one takes his horse and walkes him about till he is cool, then rubs him down and gives him meat; another servant gives the passenger his private chamber, and kindles his fire; the third pulls off his bootes and makes them cleane; then the host and hostess visit him, and if he will eate with the hoste, or at a common table with the others, his meale will cost him sixpence, or, in some places, fourpence; but if he will eat in his own chamber, he commands what meat he will, according to his appetite; yea, the kitchen is open to him to order the meat to be dressed as he likes beste. After having eaten what he pleases, he may with credit set by a part for next day's breakfast. His bill will then be written for him, and should he object to any charge, the host is ready to alter it.

Heywood has these lines upon houses of entertainment in 1608 :

The gentry to the King's Head,
The nobles to the Crown,

The knights unto the Golden Fleece,
And to the Plough the clown.

The churchman to the Mitre,

The shepherd to the Star,

The gardener hies him to the Rose,
To the Drum the man of war,

To the Feathers, ladies you, &c.

Origin of the Hammercloth.

In an old family coach, which is still preserved at Beau Manor Park, Leicestershire, and is 120 years old, is a budget, or stout leathern bag, hung under the coachman's seat, to contain "a hammer, a pair of pincers, a cold chisel, 24 clouts, 12 linchpins and hurtees, and 200 of clout nails," as specified in the estimate for building the coach. This forms a curious illustration of a fact which is otherwise well known, that the bad roads of the last century made it necessary that in travelling the coachman should have a hammer and other necessary implements for the repairs required after an occasional break-down. The hammercloth, which once covered the receptacle for these tools, still preserves its name in remembrance of the practice, though now used only for ornament, or heraldic display. The above coach was built in London, by Edward Harlee, in 1740, for William Herrick, Esq., of Beau Manor, whose arms, impaled with those of Gage, his wife, are still painted on its panels. Mr. Herrick, as sheriff of Leicestershire, in 1753, rode in this carriage to meet the judges; and probably he continued to use the carriage until his death in 1773, at the age of eighty-four. The estimate, which is preserved, shows the coach, with harness for four horses, and extras, to have cost 921. 58. It would be difficult to find elsewhere in England a family carriage of the reign of George II. still in good preservation.Proc. Soc. Antiquaries, 1859.

Hammercloth has also been set down as a corruption of armour-cloth, because in former times, and not unfrequently now, the cloth in question has affixed to it, or woven into it, the arms of the family to which the carriage belongs.

Dr. Pegge mentions, as another source, the word hamper, which formerly signified a box, and may have been applied to a coach-box, which was a bona fide box to hold articles useful in travelling by coach. Richardson in his Dictionary, adopts this explanation.

But there is still another explanation in Norfolk Words, 1855:-"The hammercloth means the skin cloth, and it was usually of bear-skin; the Icel. hamr is skin, or covering, connected with the term to 'hapup,' and also with hamus (the encircling hook), and ham, home.”

Bequests of Beer.

In certain parts of the country wealthy individuals, actuated by feelings of hospitality and kindly nature, have made bequests for the

provision of beer wherewith tired travellers might refresh themselves, a provision which was of greater significance in times when the roadside hostel was more rare than in our days.

About twenty years ago, this bequest was observed at Hoddesdon, Herts, where a brewer named Christian Catherow had bequeathed a barrel of ale, placed in the High-street, with an iron pot chained to a post, for any passer-by to drink. Some time after the brewer's decease it was a cask of good ale, then it got to table-beer, and at last it was done away with altogether. In the same county, at the foot of the hill leading out of Rickmansworth to Watford, a cask of beer is placed on the public road for the free use of all travellers-the bequest of a wealthy brewer of Rickmansworth.

In the Hospital of St. Cross, near Winchester, is another provision of this class. The house was founded and endowed in 1136, as a permanent retreat for 13 poor men, past their strength, and for 100 other poor, who were to be provided with a dinner. Here, in the "Hundred Menne's Hall" are several old black-jacks. The porter is allowed a certain quantity of bread and beer for the refreshment of " vellers and wayfaring men ;" and a glass of ale and a small loaf are offered to persons who call at the hospital.

poor tra

In the cases of this kind which have fallen within our notice we have, however, found the beer to be scarcely worth drinking.

"The Thunder has soured the Beer."

The highly electrical state of the atmosphere during a storm is often the cause of beer turning sour :

Thunder is apt to turn beer, ale, &c., sour by the violent agitation and new fermentation it causeth in these liquors, by which their spirituous parts are in a great measure dissipated or depressed, and their tartarous parts exhaled. Several, grounded, as they pretend, upon experience, will affirm that iron hath the peculiar property to prevent that effect; but others will tell you that it does it only by reason of its weight and pressure upon the vessel, and that any other ponderous body will have the same virtue; which last opinion seems more probable than the first, and may be confirmed by repeated experiments.-British Apollo, p. 533.

We have often seen a piece of iron placed upon a full barrel, which cannot be supposed to have the effect of pressure here conjectured.

Vinum Theologicum.

The best wine formerly made in England was named as above, (says Holinshed,) "because it was had from the clergie and religious men, unto whose houses many of the laity would often send for bottles filled with the same, being sure that they would neither drinke nor be served of the worst, or such as was any waies mingled or brued by the vintner; nay, the merchant would have thought that his soul should have gone streightway to the devil, if he should have served them with other than the best."-Description of England, vol. i. edit. 1587.

Raisin Wine,

Now so common, seems to have been unheard of in Ben Jonson's time; the making of it being stated among the schemes of a wild projector :

What hast thou there?

O' making wine of raisins; this is in hand now.

Engl. Is that not strange, sir, to make wine of raisins?
Meer. Yes, and as true a wine as the wines of France,
Or Spain, or Italy: look, of what grape

My raisin is, that wine I'll render perfect,

As of the Muscatel grape, I'll render Muscatel;

Of the Canary, his; the claret, his.

So of all kinds, and bate you of the prices

Of wine throughout the kingdom half in half.

Devil's an Ass, act ii. sc. 1.

Rhubarb Champagne.

It has been discovered that good wine, imitative Champagne, can be made from Rhubarb. An agriculturist in the West of England planted from 12 to 20 acres of rhubarb near Bath, for this purpose, and the produce was a wine with which no other imitation could be compared. Rhubarb Champagne may be made as follows :—

To every six pounds of "gooseberry rhubarb," cut in small pieces, put one quart of unboiled spring water, and well bruise the rhubarb. Let it stand twenty-four hours; strain off, and to every six pounds of rhubarb add one pound of sugar, dissolved, and one pint of river water. Let it stand a day more; remove all scum that rises, and put it into a flannel bag; put the liquor into a barrel, with the vent-peg not too low; let whatever liquor drains from the bag go into the cask, and let the whole work three days: cover the barrel close, and let it stand four months before it is bottled.

Origin of Brandy."

Brandy began to be distilled in France about the year 1343, but it was prepared only as a medicine, and was considered as possessing such marvellous strengthening and sanitary powers that the physicians named it "the water of life" (l'eau de vie), a name it retains, though now rendered, by excessive potations, one of life's most powerful and prevalent destroyers. Raymond Lully, a disciple of Arnold de Villa Nova, considered this admirable essence of wine to be an emanation from the Divinity, and that it was intended to reanimate and prolong the life of man. He even thought that this discovery indicated that the time had arrived for the consummation of all things-the end of the world, Before the means of determining the true quantity of alcohol in spirits were known, the dealers were in the habit of employing a very rude method of forming a notion of the strength. A given quantity of the spirits was poured upon a quantity of gunpowder, in a dish, and set on fire. If at the end of combustion the gunpowder continued dry enough, it took fire

and exploded; but if it had been wetted by the water in the spirits the flame of the alcohol went out without setting the powder on fire. This was called the proof. Spirits which kindled gunpowder were said to be above proof; those that did not set fire to it were said to be below proof. From this origin of the term "proof," it is obvious that its meaning must have been deemed at first very indefinite. It could serve only to point out those spirits which were too weak to kindle gunpowder, but could not give any information respecting the relative strength of those spirits which were above proof. Even the strength of proof was not fixed, because it was influenced by the quality of spirits employed-a smaller quantity of a weaker spirit might be made to kindle gunpowder, while a greater quantity of a stronger might fail. Clarke, in his hydrometer, which was invented about the year 1730, fixed the strength of proof spirits on the stem at the specific gravity of 0.920 at the temperature of 60 deg. This is the strength at which proof spirit is fixed by Act of Parliament, and at this strength it is no more than a mixture of 491b. of pure alcohol with 51lb. of water. Brandy, rum, gin, hollands, geneva, and whiskey, contain nearly similar proportions.Johnston's Chemistry of the World.

Gin.

*

The name of Gin is derived from that given in England to the spirit imported from Holland, viz. Hollands-Geneva, which was formerly much consumed in this country; the use of which has been nearly discontinued in favour of British Gin, made in imitation of the Dutch spirit. The principal flavouring ingredient used both in Holland and in England, the only one, indeed, the employment of which is acknowledged by the rectifiers, is the juniper berry, which gives gin its diuretic property. A less familiar flavourer is the calamus, sweet flag of the Song of Solomon, which imparts at once an aromatic taste and an agreeable bouquet or odour to gin: it is much used by rectifiers: it abounds in the rivers of Norfolk, and as much as 407. is sometimes obtained for the year's growth of sweet flag on a single acre of the river-side land, on which it naturally grows.

Odd things have been said of gin. Burke, in one of his spirituel flights, exclaimed: "Let the thunders of the pulpit descend upon drunkenness, I for one stand up for gin." This is a sort of paraphrase on Pope's couplet:

This calls the church to deprecate our sin,

And hurls the thunder of our laws on gin.

That the name of this popular spirit should be in sound like gin, a trap, or snare, reminds us of another line by Pope :

Gin-shops sourer sighs return.

* Juniper grows in great abundance on the Mickleham Downs, in Surrey, giving name to Juniper Hall, originally an ale-house on the road side; and Juniper Hill, long the seat of Sir Lucas Pepys, Bart., President of the College of Physicians.