io*s.v.MABcii3i.i906] NOTES AND QUERIES.
253
- Flash Dictionary,' 1812. Hughes mentions
it in chap. xl. of * Tom Brown at Oxford'; and I noticed it recently when reading Mr. Stanley Weyman's 'Starvecrow Farm,' the date of which story is 1819.
W. F. PRIDE AUX.
It is, I think, difficult to dogmatize as to the relative quantities of the component parts of this beverage All that one can safely assert is that it is composed of malt liquor and spirits, mixed according to the taste of the consumer. In that capital and very humorous naval story ' Gentleman Jack,' Mrs. Pipes's method of making it is described as follows :
- c She poured into a japanned drinking-cup, half
full of beer, what she called a teaspoonful of rum. It is very true that, in doing so, the rum ran from the bottle into a spoon, but continued running over the sides of the spoon so long that there was quite as much spirit as beer. ' Now, you young griffin, do you know what we calls that 'ere chink?' said she to Fitz. 'No, madam. J. do not.' * Why, we calls it dog's-nose.' "P. 52, Routledge & Sons, n.d.
T. F. D.
With reference to MR. RADCLIFFE'S note on "dog's nose," it may be interesting to men- tion that some few years ago I was staying at an inn on the Bath road, and the landlord informed me that the drink principally affected by the agricultural labourers in the district was known as "a penn'orth and a ha'p'orth." This is evidently dog's nose under another name. The inquiry in this form had at first mystified the landlord, but it is possible the name may be used in other parts of England. W. H. Fox.
Your correspondent has omitted one essen- tial in the compound, viz., that it should be served hot. In fact, the tipple takes its name from the conical metal vessel which, provided with a handle, was thrust into the live coals of an inn fire to warm the contents. Fifty years ago no country inn was without this utensil, which was in great demand when outdoor sports were going on in the neighbourhood in the winter.
Alternative names were "gin-hot" and " early purl " (? pearl). A considerate land- lady would add a dust of all-spice.
H. P. L.
[Purl is the spelling in all the quotations in
- Slang and its Analogues,' ranging from Pepys,
under date 19 February, 1680, to Mayhew's 'London Labour,' 1851.]
BALLAD BY REGINALD HEBER : W. CRANE (10 th S. v. 184). I can satisfy MR. CANN HUGHES as to the identity of VV. Crane, of Chester. He was the William Crane, a brother of my father (Thomas Crane), who,
with him, established the lithographic press?
in the first quarter of the nineteenth cen-
tury at Chester. I do not know the exact
date, but I think it must have been in the
twenties.
William Crane, however, died early, and I think the firm was given up on or before my father's marriage, about 1839, he (Thoinas Crane) living until 1859. An account of him. will be found in the * Dictionary of National Biography.' He designed much of the litho- graphic work for the Chester press, including many portraits of local and county worthies of the period.
The ballad MR. CANN HUGHES speaks of and quotes I never saw, but 1 remember as a child the 'Hunting Songs' quite well, and also 'The Adventures of Mr. Pig and Miss Crane 'a series of lithographed designs by T. Crane accompanied by verses, a tattered copy of which I still have, as well as some of the lithographed portraits. The brothers also issued a set of views of North Wales, including the Menai bridge.
I think William Crane (whom 1 never saw) principally looked after the printing, while my father was responsible for the designing and drawing on the stone.
The Thomas Crane ("sworn free of Chester- City ) must have been my paternal grand- father. I have a Bible with his annotations and Ex-Libris in a neat, careful hand.
I cannot give any information as to the Bishop of Calcutta or the ballad.
WALTER CRANE
HOMER AND THE DIGAMMA (10 th S. v. 168 1 , 215). So far as this "figure" has a history, it is Asiatic of ^Eqlia, where it represents the Semitic vau, and is found in Latin as our f t the Greek <. To me it appears to be only a "breathing," like our poor letter h, the Greek aspirate.
The .subject has been fought over in pasfc generations, and it seems curious that all the modern excavations and discoveries of papyri have not proved its character as genuine ia European Greek. A. H.
The point is, of course, that the digamma. is found long after Homer's time. A good example is given in the facsimile of 'The Treaty of Elis and the Herseans,' as pre- served in an inscription of about B.C. 500; see plate 78 of the facsimiles published by the Paloeographical Society. The inscription is ten lines long, and in the ./Eolic dialect. The digamma occurs seven times.* If we
- The editor says : " The digamma, which appears
so frequently, was retained in this alphabet [^Eolic], to a late period."
