Brown, Bishop of Cork, who was a violent Tory, wrote a book (1715) to prove that drinking to the memory of deceased persons was a species of idolatry, his object being the abolition of the practice of drinking the glorious memory of William III. Instead of cooling the rage for the toast, however, he only inflamed it, for they completed it by the addition of “And a f*** for the Bishop of Cork." The bishop asserted a health to be "no other than a liquid Sacrifice in the constant sense and practice of the Heathen;" and he records Lord Bacon's answer to the invitation to drink the king's health; which was that "he would drink for his own health, and pray for the King's." In Edinburgh, says the Statistical Account of Scotland (1793), "The barbarous custom of saving the Ladies (as it was called) after St. Cecilia's Concert, by Gentlemen drinking immoderately to save a favourite Lady, as his Toast, has been for some years given up. Indeed they got no thanks for their absurdity." SUPERNACULUM. To drink supernaculum was the ancient custom, both in England and in several other parts of Europe, of emptying the cup or glass, and then pouring the drop or two remaining at the bottom upon the nail of him that drank it, by way of showing that he was no flincher. "Make a pearl on your nail," is among Ray's Proverbs (1768); and Tom Brown, in his Letters from the Dead to the Living, mentions a parson who had forgotten "even to drink over his right thumb.” The reference must be to some drinking custom now forgotten. From the British Apollo (1708) we take the following Which over the left Thumb they must, Sir." In The Winchester Wedding, a popular ballad preserved in Ritson's Antient Songs (1792), is another allusion to Supernaculum— "Then Phillip began her Health, And turn'd a Beer-Glass on his Thumb; But Jenkin was reckon'd for drinking Bingham has a quotation from St Austin on superstitious observations: "You are told in a Fit of Convulsions or Shortness of Breath, to hold your left umb with your right Hand," BUZZA; TO BUZZA ONE. Grose explains this word as signifying to challenge a person to pour out all the wine in the bottle into his glass, with the undertaking to drink it should it prove to be above the capacity of the glass; and as commonly applied to one who hesitates to empty a bottle that is nearly out. The expression is said to have been used in collegiate circles as a threat, by way of pleasantry, to black the face of the person so addressed with burnt cork, in the event of his flinching or failing to empty the bottle. Its derivation possibly may be from the German buzzen, equivalent to sordes auferre, or off with the lees at bottom." The antiquity of bumpers is a well-attested fact. Du Cange cites Paulus Warnefridus in its support, and Martial furnishes numerous examples. That it is good to be drunk once a month, says the learned author of Vulgar Errors, is a common flattery of sensuality supporting itself upon physic and the healthful effects of inebriation. It is a striking instance of "the doing ill," as we say, "that good may come out of it." It may happen that inebriation, by causing vomiting, may cleanse the stomach; but it seems a very dangerous kind of dose, and its too frequent repetition may prove that men may pervert what Nature intended for a cordial into the most baneful of all poisons. It is vulgarly called "giving a fillip to Nature." In the Statistical Account of Scotland (1791), the minister of Kirkmichael deposes "In extraordinary cases of distress, we have a Custom which deserves to be taken notice of; and that is, when any of the lower people happen to be reduced by sicknesses, losses, or misfortunes of any kind, a friend is sent to as many of their neighbours as they think needful, to invite them to what they call a Drinking. This Drinking consists in a little small Beer, with a bit of Bread and Cheese, and sometimes a small glass of Brandy or Whisky, previously provided by the needy persons or their friends. The Guests convene at the time appointed, and after collecting a Shilling a-piece, and sometimes more, they divert themselves for about a couple of hours with Music and Dancing, and then go he. Such as cannot attend themselves, usually send their charitable contribution by any neighbour that chooses to go. These meetings sometimes produce 5, 6, and 7 pounds to the needy person or family.' So also it is recorded of the parish of Gargunnock in Stirling "There is one prevailing custom among our Country People, which is sometimes productive of much evil. Every thing is bought and sold over a Bottle. The people who go to the Fair in the full possession of their faculties, do not always transact their business, or return to their homes, in the same state." UNDER THE ROSE. This saying is stated to have taken its rise from convivial entertainments whereat it was anciently the custom to wear chaplets of roses about the head; on which occasions those who desired to confine their words to the company present, that they "might go no farther," usually protested that they were spoken "under the Rose." Hence the Germans have a custom of picturing a rose in the ceiling over the table. In the Comedy of Lingua (1657), Appetitus says: "Crown me no Crowns but Bacchus' Crown of Roses." Gregory Nazianzen, according to Sir Thomas Browne, seems to im ply that the rose, from a natural property, has been made the symbol of Silence; while Lemnius and others trace the saying to another origin; representing that the rose was the flower of Venus, which Cupid consecrated to Harpocrates, the God of silence; of which it was therefore made the emblem for concealment of the mysteries of Venus.* Warburton's comment on the passage in the first part of Shakespeare's Henry VI.— "From off this Brier pluck a white Rose with me," is: "This is given as the original of the two Badges of the Houses of York and Lancaster, whether truly or not, is no great matter. But the proverbial expression of saying a thing under the Rose, I am persuaded, came from thence. When the nation had ranged itself into two great factions, under the white and red Rose, and were perpetually plotting and counter-plotting against one another, then when a matter of faction was communicated by either party to his friend in the same quarrel, it was natural for him to add, that he said it under the Rose; meaning that, as it concerned the faction, it was religiously to be kept secret." Warburton's criticism provokes Upton, another commentator, to the exclamation: "This is ingenious! What pity that it is not learned too! The Rose (as the fables say) was the symbol of silence, and consecrated by Cupid to Harpocrates, to conceal the lewd pranks of his mother. So common a book as Lloyd's Dictionary might have instructed Dr. Warburton in this: Huic Harpocrati Cupido Veneris filius parentis suæ rosam dedit in munus, ut scilicet si quid licentius dictum, vel actum sit in convivio, sciant tacenda esse omnia. Atque idcirco veteres ad finem convivii sub rosa (Anglicè under the rose) transacta esse omnia ante digressum contestabantur; cujus formæ vis eaddem esset, atque ista Μισῶμνάμονα συμποταν. Probant hanc rem versus qui reperiuntur in marmore ear. 'Est rosa flos Veneris, cujus quo furta laterent Inde rosam mensis hospes suspendit amicis, Newton's Herball to the Bible (1587) says "I will heere adde a common Countrey Custome that is used to be done with * It is worth noting that it was anciently the fashion to stick a rose in the The first Lord North had a juvenile portrait (supposed to be that of Queen Elizabeth) representing this mode. the Rose. When the pleasaunt and merry companions doe friendly meete together to make goode cheere, as soone as their Feast or Banket is ended, they give faithfull promise mutually one to another, that whatsoever hath been merrily spoken by any in that assembly, should be wrapped up in silence, and not to be carried out of the Doores. For the Assurance and Performance whereof, the tearme which they use is that all things there said must be taken as spoken under the Rose. Whereupon they use in their Parlours and Dining Roomes to hang ROSES over their Tables, to put the companie in memorie of Secrecie, and not rashly or indiscreetly to clatter and blab out what they heare. Likewise, if they chaunce to shew any Tricks of wanton, unshamefast, immodest, or irreverent behaviour either by word or deed, they protesting that all was spoken under the Rose, do give a straight charge and pass a Covenant of Silence and Secrecy with the hearers, that the same shall not be blowne abroad, nor tatled in the Streetes among any others." So Peacham in The Truth of our Times (1638): “In many places as well in England as in the Low Countries, they have over their Tables a Rose painted, and what is spoken under the Rose must not be revealed. The Reason is this: the Rose being sacred to Venus, whose amorous and stolen Sports, that they might never be revealed, her sonne Cupid would needes dedicate to Harpocrates the God of Silence." Whence the saying of "plucking a Rose," that needs no explanation, originated, if not in some modest excuse for absence in the garden dictated by feminine bashfulness, we cannot divine. The passage already quoted from Newton's Herball to the Bible may perhaps explain it. This mention of the sex reminds me of the remarkable saying, now almost forgotten, but noticed by Sir Thomas Browne as usual in England in his time and probably all over Europe, that “Smoak doth follow the fairest." "Whereof," writes he, "although there seem no natural ground, yet it is the Continuation of a very antient opinion, as Petrus Victorius and Casaubon have observed from a passage in Athenæus, wherein a Parasite thus describes himself— 'To every Table first I come, Whence Porridge I am called by some. HOB or NOB. Grose's Glossary explains Hob-Nob (sometimes pronounced HabNab) as a North Country word signifying "At a venture," or "rashly." Hob or Hub, he adds, is the North Country name for the back of the chimney; "Will you hob or nob with me?" being the question formerly in fashion at polite tables, signifying a request or challenge to drink a glass of wine with the proposer; and if the challenged individual answered nob, they were to elect between white and red. His explanation of the origin of the custom is highly improbable "This foolish Custom is said to have originated in the days of good Queen Bess thus: When great Chimneys were in fashion, there was, at each corner of the Hearth or Grate, a small elevated projection called the Hob, and behind it a Seat. In Winter time the beer was placed on the Hob to warm, and the cold Beer was set on a small Table, said to have been called the Nob; so that the Question Will you have Hob or Nob? seems only to have meant, Will you have warm or cold Beer; Beer from the Hob, or Beer from the Nob?" The exposition modestly hinted at by Reed, seems much more satisfactory. It occurs in the form of a note upon the passage in Twelfth-Night, in which the incensement of a duellist is said to be "so implacable that satisfaction can be none but by pangs of death, and sepulchre hob, nob, is his word; give't or take't." In AngloSaxon, habban is to have, and næbban to want. May it not, therefore, be explained to signify, "Do you chuse a Glass of Wine, or would you rather let it alone ?" Is not this the original of our hob nob, asks Mason, or challenge to drink a glass of wine at dinner? "The phrase occurs in Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub 'I put it Even to your Worship's bitterment hab nab I shall have a chance o' the dice for't, I hope;" to which Malone adds a passage from Holinshed: "The Citizens in their rage shot habbe or nabbe, at random." Heywood (1566) has the following passage "Where Wooers hoppe in and out, long time may bryng I hoppyng without for a Ringe of a Rush, And while I at length debate and beate the Bushe, Betwene these two Wives, make Slouth speede confounde In Harrington's Epigrams we read "Not of Jack Straw, with his rebellious Crew, That set King, Realme, and Lawes at hab or nab, In the popular ballad of The New Courtier (1790), we find Hab nah thus introduced "I write not of Religion For (to tell you truly) we have none. If any me to question call, With Pen or Sword, Hab nab's the word, So also in The Character of a Quack Astrologer (1673) we are told : He writes of the Weather hab nab, and, as the Toy takes him, chequers the Year with foul and fair." Jorevin, who was here in the time of Charles II., thus refers to |