276 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 76. 



most frequently met with in the present circuhi- 

 tiou), whilst the cotemporary crowns and half- 

 crowns have the correct orthography. R. W. C. 



Honeymoon. — Among; my memoranila I find 

 that, on January 31, 1843, an accomplished Welsh 

 lady said to me, that the common expression 

 " Honeymoon " was " probably derived from the 

 old practice in Wales of tlrinking inethiglin for 

 thirty days after the marriage of a bride and 

 bridegroom. A metheglin jollification for thirty 

 days among the relatives and fiiends of the newly 

 married pair." The metheglin is a fermented 

 liquor, of some potency, made from honey. The 

 lady aslied me, at the same time, if honey was 

 used by the ancient Greeks or Romans in the pre- 

 paration of a fermented liipior. I said that 1 re- 

 collected no such use of honey among them, but 

 that the ancient Greeks seemed to have brewed a 

 heer of some kind from barley or other grain, as 

 allusion was made to it by Aristophanes. Perhaps 

 this notice of the "honeymoon" may draw forth 

 some information from jour correspondents who 

 are learned in " folk lore." In the Old Testa- 

 ment there are many passages alluding to the use 

 of honey, but none of them appear to indicate its 

 having been employed in making a fermented 

 beverage. Lucretius alludes to the practice of 

 enticing children to swallow disagreeable medicine 

 by anointing the edge of the cup with honey. 



G. F. G. 



Edinburgh. 



Fees at Westminster *Abhey. — The custom of 

 taking fees at Westminster Abbey is of very 

 ancient date, and was always unpopular. Shirley 

 alludes to it in his pleasant comedy called The 

 Bird in a Cage, when Bonomico, a mountebank, 

 observes — 



" I talk as glib, 

 Mcthinks, as he that _/arms the monuments." 



The dean and chapter, however, in those days 

 were more moderate in their demands, for the price 

 of admission was but one penny to the whole. 



" This grant was made to the chapter in 1597, on 

 condition that, receiving the benefit of the exhibition 

 of the moninnents, they should koep the same monu- 

 ments always clean," &c. — See Hepb/ from the Dean and 

 Cliapter to an Order of the House of Commons, 1827. 



Blowen. 



Turning the Tables. — In Bingley's Useful 

 Knowledge, under the head of Mapi^e, I changed 

 to hit upon the following the other day : 



" By the Romans maple wood, when knotted and 

 veined, was highly prized for furniture. When boards 

 large enough for constructing tables were tbund, the 

 extravagance of purchasers was incrediblt; ; to such an 

 extent was it carried, that wln.-n a Roman accused his 

 wife of expending his money on pearls, jewels, or simi- 

 lar costly trifles, she used to retort, and turn the tables 



on her husband. Hence our expression of ' turning 

 the tables. ' " 



Can any of your kind contributors supply a 

 better derivation ? fl. *. 



AUTHORS OF THE KOLLIAD PURSUITS OF 



UTEKATURE. 



I cannot doubt but that many of your readers 

 feel with me under great obligations to your very 

 able and obliging correspondents. Lord Brat- 

 BROOKE and Mr. jMarkland, for the inibrmation 

 atlbrded us upon the subject of the writers of the 

 RoUiad. And, though not many of them are, 

 probably, sulHciently old to remember as I do — 

 if not the actual publication of that work, yet, at 

 least, the excitement produced by its appearance — 

 I apprehend that the greater number are aware 

 that it really did produce a great sensation ; and 

 that, as with the Lettei-s of Junius before it, and 

 the Pursuits of Literature subsequently, public 

 curiosity for a long time busied itself in every 

 directi(m to detect the able and daring authors. 

 With this impression, I have been not a little sur- 

 prised to find, since the notice of the work in your 

 pages, that I have (ailed in tracing any account of 

 it in the two books to which I naturally turned, the 

 Gentleman's Magazine and Nichols' Z(7erar?/ Anec- 

 dotes. Very thankful therefore sliould I be if any 

 of your correspondents would direct my inquiries 

 to a better channel, and particularly if they would 

 guifle me to information respecting the authors, — 

 for here I am completely at fault. I allude more 

 especially to Richardson, Tickell, and General 

 Fitzpatrick ; who, I doubt not, were men of such 

 notoriety and standing in their day, that " not to 

 know them, argues myself unknown." And yet, 

 humiliatinnr as is this acknowledgment, it is far bet- 

 ter to make it tJjan to remain in ignorance ; for the 

 case can surely not be one " where ignorance is 

 bliss," and where, consequently, " 'tis folly to be 

 wise." 



I need hardly beg it to be understood, that, in 

 grouping together the Rolliad, the Pursuits of 

 Literature, an<l Junius' Letters, I by no means in- 

 tended to place them upon an equality ; and here 

 I may inform your correspondent S. T. D. (what 

 a pity that you do not require every one to give 

 his name at length !) that the fact of Mr. Matthias 

 being the author of the second of these works was 

 scarcely made a secret by his family after he went 

 to Italy. Indeed, for some time previously, it 

 was well known to luyself from what passed at 

 this house, where he was a frequent visitor, and 

 where I should at any time be happy to give 

 S. T. D. ocular demonstration of it, by the pro- 

 duction of the letters addressed to the "Anony- 



