Mat 6. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



427 



(Vol. be., p. 272.) 



With respect to the wines called Sacks, much 

 diversity of opinion has prevailed ; and although 

 the question has been frequently discussed, it still 

 remains, in a great measure, undetermined. It 

 seems admitted, on all hands, that the term sack 

 was originally applied to certain growths of Spain. 

 In a MS. account of the disbursements by the 

 chamberlain of the city of Worcester for 1592, 

 Dr. Percy found the ancient mode of spelling to 

 be seek, and thence concluded that sack is a cor- 

 ruption of sec, signifying a dry wine. Moreover, 

 in the French version of a proclamation for regu- 

 lating the prices of wines, issued by the Privy 

 Council in 1633, the expression vins sees cor- 

 responds with the word sacks in the original. 

 The term sec is still used as a substantive by the 

 French to denote a Spanish wine ; and the dry 

 wine of Xerez is known at the place of its growth 

 by the name of vino seco. The foregoing account 

 is abridged from The History of Ancient and 

 Modern Wines, by Alex. Henderson, Lond. 1824. 

 The following is taken from Cyrus Bedding's 

 History of Modern Wines, Lond. 1833 : 



" In the early voyages to these islands (the Canaries), 

 quoted in Ashley's collection, there is a passage re- 

 lative to sack, which will puzzle wise heads about that 

 wine. It is under the head of ' Nicols' Voyage.' 

 Nicols lived eight years in the islands. The island of 

 Teneriffe produces three sorts of wine, Canary, Mal- 

 vasia, and Verdona, ' which may all go under the de- 

 nomination of sack.' The term then was applied 

 neither to sweet nor dry wines exclusively, but to 

 Canary, Xeres (£. e. sherry), or Malaga generally. In 

 Anglo-Spanish dictionaries of a century and a quarter 

 old, sack is given as Vino de Canarias. Hence it was 

 Canary sack, Xeres sack, or Malaga sack." 



'AAieus. 



Dublin. 



In reply to your correspondent, I believe sack 

 to be nothing but vino secco, dry wine, probably 

 identical with sherry or madeira. I once, when an 

 undergraduate at Oxford, ordered a dozen from 

 a travelling agent to a London wine merchant, pro- 

 bably from Shakspearian associations, and my belief 

 is that what he sold me under that name was an 

 Italian wine of some sort, bearing a good deal of 

 resemblance to the vino panto, of which Perugia is 

 the head-quarters. B. D. 



This is the same wine which is now named 

 sherry. FalstafF calls it sherris sack, and also 

 sherris only, using in fact both names indiscri- 

 minately (2 Henry IV, Act IV. Sc. 3.). For 

 various commentaries regarding it, see Blount's 

 Glossographia ; Dr. Venner's Via recta ad Vitam 

 longam, published in 1637 ; Nares' Glossary, &c. 

 Cotgrave, in his Dictionary, makes sack to be 



derived from vin sec, French ; and it is called 

 seek in an article by Bishop Percy, from an old 

 account-book at Worcester, anno Elizabethae 34. 



N. L. J. 



IRISH LAW IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 

 (Vol. ix., p. 270.) 



What has been mistaken by your correspondent 

 for a piece of Irish barbarity, was, until the Act 

 12 Geo. III. c. 20., the usual punishment awarded 

 by the law to culprits standing mute upon an 

 arraignment of felony (that is, without speaking at 

 all, or without putting himself upon God and the 

 country). The judgment in such case was : 



" That the man or woman should be remanded to 

 the prison, and laid there in some low and dark room, 

 where they should lie naked on the bare earth, without 

 any litter, rushes, or other clothing, and without any 

 garment about them, but something to cover their privy 

 parts, and that they should lie upon their backs, their 

 heads uncovered and their feet, and one arm to be 

 drawn to one quarter of the room with a cord, and the 

 other arm to another quarter, and in the same manner 

 to be done with their legs ; and there should be laid 

 upon their bodies iron and stone, so much as they 

 might bear, and more ; and the next day following, to 

 have three morsels of barley bread without any drink, 

 and the second day to drink thrice of the water next to 

 the house of the prison (except running water), without 

 any bread ; and this to be their diet until they were 

 dead. So as, upon the matter, they should die three 

 manner of ways, by weight, by famine, and by cold. 

 And the reason of this terrible judgment was because 

 they refused to stand to the common law of the land." 

 — 2 Inst 178, 179. 



In the Year-Book of 8 Henry IV. the form of 

 the judgment is first given. The Marshal of the 

 King's Bench is ordered to put the criminals into 

 " diverses measons bases et estoppes, que ils gisent 

 par la terre touts nuds forsque leurs braces, que 

 ils mettroit sur chascun d'eux tants de fer et poids 

 quils puissent porter et plus," &c, (as above). 



It appears also, from Barrington's Observations 

 on the Statutes, that, until the above-mentioned act, 

 it was usual to torture a prisoner by tying his 

 thumbs tightly together with whipcord in order to 

 extort a plea ; and he mentions the following in- 

 stances where one or more of these barbarous 

 cruelties have been inflicted : 



" In 1714 a prisoner's thumbs were thus tied at the 

 same place" (Old Bailey), "who then pleaded ; and in 

 January, 1720, William Spigget submitted in the same 

 manner after the thumbs being tied as usual, and his 

 accomplice, Phillips, was absolutely pressed for a con- 

 siderable time, till he begged to stand on his trial. In 

 April, 1720, Mary Andrews continued so obstinate, 

 that three whipcords were broken before she would 

 plead. In December, 1721, Nathanael Haws suffered 

 in the same manner by squeezing the thumbs ; after 



