of shoppe-keepers,” the court ordered them to be stripped naked and whipped. The flogging of women was common. Judge Jeffreys, in so sentencing a female prisoner, is reported to have exclaimed, “Hangman, I charge you to pay particular attention to this lady. Scourge her soundly, man: scourge her till her blood runs down! It is Christmas: a cold time for madam to strip. See that you warm her shoulders.” Lunatics, too, were whipped, for in the Constable's Accounts of Great Staughton, Hunts, occurs the entry, “1690-1, Paid in charges taking up a distracted woman, watching her and whipping her next day — 8/6d.” A still more remarkable entry is “1710-1, Pd. Thomas Hawkins for whipping two people yt had smallpox — 8d.” In 1764 the Public Ledger states that a woman who is described as “an old offender” was taken from the Clerkenwell Bridewell to EnCeld and there publicly whipped at the cart's tail by the common hangman for cutting wood in Enfield Chase. A statute of 1791 abolished the whipping of females.
WHISKER, a word chiefly used in the plural in the sense of the hair worn by a man on the cheeks as opposed to the beard on the chin and the moustache on the upper lip (see Beard). It is also applied to the bristly feelers growing round the mouth of a cat or other animal. The word by derivation means that which “whisks” or “brushes.”
WHISKY, or Whiskey, a potable spirit distilled from cereal grains. The name is probably derived from the Celtic uisgcbcalha (water of life), which was subsequently contracted to
usquebaugh, and still later to whisky (cf. Skeat, Elyin. Diet. s .v .).
The liquor known as "usquebaugh" in the 17th and 18th
centuries was not, however, of the same character as the whisky
of modern times, but was a compound of plain spirit with
saffron, nutmegs, sugar and other spices and flavouring matters.
Whether the term whisky to denote a plain type of spirit was used
concurrently with usquebaugh, or whether the latter name
covered both varieties, is not clear.
It is certain, however, that
an alcoholic liquor, derived mainly from grain, has been prepared
for very many centuries in both Ireland and Scotland (see
Spirits). There are three main types of whisky, namely, Scotch,
Irish and American.
Scotch whiskies may be broadly divided into two main groups,
namely (a) pot-still or malt whiskies, and (i) patent-still or grain
whiskies; the former are made practically without exception
from malted barley only, the latter from a mixture of malted
barley and other unmalted cereals, chiefly rye, oats and maize
(see Spirits), (a) There are four main varieties of Scotch malt
whiskies, namely, Highland Malts, Lowland Malts, Campbeltowns
and Islays.
The Highland Malts are produced (if we except a
few distilleries on the islands in the west and north) in the district
on the mainland lying north of an imaginary line drawn through
Dundee on the east and Greenock on the west. The largest
group of distilleries is in the famous Speyside or Glenlivet district.
The Lowland Malts are made south of the imaginary line alluded
to. The Campbeltowns are distilled in or near the town of that
name at the southern end of the Kintyre peninsula. The Islays
are produced in the island of that name. These different varieUes
of whisky, although made in much the same way, yet possess
distinctive characteristics of flavour.
The type of barley
employed, the quantity of peat employed in curing the malt,
the quality of the water, the manner of carrying out the various
distillery processes— particulari that of distillation— the shape
and size of the stills, &c., all these are factors which affect the
flavour of the final product. The Islays, which, as a rule, are
considered to be among the most valuable of Scotch whiskies,
possess a very full and peaty flavour together with a strong
ethereal bouquet. For this reason they -are much used for
blending with whiskies of a lighter type. The Highland Malts
proper (Speyside type) are less peaty than the Islays, yet possess
a full flavour, although many of them are inchned to be
" elegant " rather than " big."
The Lowland Malts, again, are,
as a class, less peated than the Highland Malls, and indeed,
nowadays, in view of the growing taste for a more neutral class
of beverage, there are some Lowland Malt distilleries which dispense
with the use of peat altogether.
Many of the Lowland
Malts possess considerable body and flavour, but, on the whole,
they are lighter and not so fine as those of the Highland variety.
Lowland distillers are now running their spirit at much the same
strength as their Highland colleagues, whereas formerly it was
the custom to work at a far higher strength. The result is that
the difference between the two classes of spirit is not so marked
as it was. The Campbeltowns, although in some respects simOar
to the Islays on the one hand, and the Highland Malls on the
other, are somewhat rougher and less elegant than these. They
usually possess a full peaty flavour,
(i) Patent-still or grain
whiskies are, as a class, lighter in flavour and " body " than the
poi-sii!I types. This is due to the fact that the rectification of
these whiskies is carried a good deal further than is the case with
the " malts."
They are made from a mixture of malted and
unmalted cereals, and, as no peat is employed in the curing of
the malt, they lack the " smoky " flavour of the other varieties.
Some controversy has arisen as to whether these patent-still
spirits have a right to the name of " whisky " or " Scotch
whisky, " but although, no doubt, this controversy is largely due
to conflicting trade interests, it has also, in the author's opinion,
been caused by a very general popular misconception as to the
true character of these whiskies.
The idea that they are true
" silent " or " neutral " spirits
—
i.e. alcohol and water pure and
simple— is quite incorrect. They possess a distinct flavour, which
varies at different distilleries, and analysis discloses the fact
that they contain very appreciable quantities of the" secondary
"
products which distinguish potable spirits from plain alcohol.
Indeed, as a result of an extensive investigation of the question
1)1
ari
Composition of Scotch Whiskies.
Note. — The figures below are based on a large number of analyses of typical samples. Cf. Schidrowitz and Kaye, Journal Soc.
Chem. Ind. (June 1905). Where two figures are given in the same column, they do not indicate extremes, but merely normal variation.
| Description. | (Results expressed in grams per 100 litres of absolute alcohol.) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alcohol. | Total Acid. | Non-volatile Acid. | Esters. | Higher Alcohols. | Aldehydes. | Furfurol. | |
| Highland Malts— | Practically all Scotch whiskies are distilled at about 25 O P (about 72% of alcohol by volume). Prior to storage they are reduced to 11 O.P. with water. Mature whiskies contain 45 to 60% of alcohol according to age, humidity of store, &c. For retail sale, whiskies are reduced to a strength of roughly 17 to 24 U.P. | ||||||
| New light type | 15 | Nil | 50 | 140 | 10 | 2.5–3 | |
| New heavy type | 20 | Nil | 75 | 200 | 20–40 | 3–5 | |
| Mature light type | 20–80 | 5-35 | 50–100 | 150 | 15–50 | 2–3 | |
| Mature heavy type | 220 | 2.5–4.5 | |||||
| Lowland Malts— | |||||||
| New | 15 | Nil | 25–50 | 110–180 | 15–50 | 2.5–4.5 | |
| Mature | 20–60 | 5–20 | 50–75 | 120–200 | 2–3.5 | ||
| Campbeltown— | |||||||
| New | 20–30 | Nil | 50–70 | 180–220 | 20–40 | 3–8 | |
| Mature | 30–80 | 5–25 | 60–120 | 230–250 | 30–70 | 2.5–7 | |
| Islay[1] | |||||||
| Grain Whiskies— | |||||||
| New | Trace to 5 | Nil | 20–40 | 50–60 | 2–10 | Trace to 0.75 | |
| Mature | 25–50 | 5–25 | 25–50 | 60–70 | 5–15 | ||
- ↑ The Islays give similar figures to the Highland Malts except that the Higher Alcohols and Furfurol are slightly higher.
