Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/488

 402 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io«- s. iv. NOV. is, im. the suggestion that Fryer's hosts were poking fun at him, as they watched the traveller filling his notebook? Such tricks were practised even upon that ancient traveller Herodotus. This now is my alternative suggestion : that punch was originally a drink or sailors, and that the name originated (howsoever) with them. In this way we shall at least have more elbow-room, not being restricted to 1614 as our terminus-a-quo. This way also we may get a very probable explanation of Anglo-Indians' addiction to punch. They would have ample time to learn it in a passage of five or six months. That punch was a favourite drink of sailors we have abundant evidence. Our very earliest autho- rity, Mandelslo the Dutchman, drank punch on a voyage from Gambroon to Surat.* Evelyn (' Diary,' 16 January, 1662), being en- tertained on board an Indiaraan, notes punch as a " curiosity." Another landsman, Henry Teonge, naval chaplain, going on board for the first time to take up his duty, is at once set down to a bowl of punch, " a liquor very strainge to me," and, unknowing of its insidious quality, is promptly made drunk by it, as was Robinson Crusoe in like cir- cumstances. The Frenchman Bernier (1664) notes the havoc wrought on ships' crews, both English and Dutch, by the excessive indulgence in bouleponges ('Voyages and Travels,' 1745, ii. 241). The same thing is deplored by Tryon, 'Way to Health,' 1683, p. 192. I give these examples for specimens. It is obvious that foreigners, Dutch and French, were far likelier to learn punch- drinking in seaport towns than in the land stations of India. Sailors of different nation- alities, when not fighting each other, are apt to be good comrades, and the Dutchmen and the Frenchmen may quite possibly have learnt to drink punch in seaports far from India. Moreover, they are very ready, I believe, to pick up from each other words which subsequently become current in the language of those who have taken the words. To me this seems a ready explanation of the appearance of palepunz and bolleponge. I have, in conclusion, only a hint to offer as to the possible origin of the word, if it •was indeed a sailor's word. May it have been adapted from the puncheon, to which all sailors would look for their allowance of rum ? There is not a scrap of evidence for this, but to me it seems at least as likely as the Hindi punch—five. C. B. MOUNT. English ship, the Swan. on an THE JUBILEE OF 'THE SATURDAY REVIEW.1 (See ante, p. 382.) THROUGH the courtesy of the present editor of The Saturday Review, Mr. Harold Hodge, I have had access to the early volumes. The following notes from the first two, 1855-6, are of interest. Although they contain no digest of the news of the week, the leading articles give a vivid picture of current events: the siege of Sebastopol ; the fall of K.-ir-, caused by ''unpardonable negligence"; the Crimea Commission; and the Treaty of Peace, which " may be considered satisfactory," and, "like the war which procured it, carries out and records the deliberate, earnest, and clear-sighted policy of the English people." The Austrian Concordat raises the question, "Are we living in the year 1077 ? Has the great world reversed its axis? Is it Henry II. or Franz Joseph who wears the imperial purple ? " By the Swedish Treaty "the Allies guarantee the territorial integrity of Sweden and Norway." The coronation of the Emperor Alexander inspires a hopeful article in regard to Russia: "Undoubtedly Russia has a great future before it. We may reasonably believe that dreams of universal empire will give way to a healthier ambition, and to the pursuit of more enduring triumphs than those which stimulated the ambition of Catherine or of Nicholas." The report of the Census Com- missioners for Ireland also affords matter for congratulation : " Wealth is visibly in- creasing, crime is fast abating, and disaffec- tion has vanished." "The number of emi- grants reached their maximum in 1852, since which year they have fallen from 190,000 to 90,000"; and there is a promise, in the absence of unforeseen calamities, of "an easy and rapid progress in the career of prosperity and tranquillity on which, for the first time in her history, Ireland has now fairly entered." The Brussels Free Trade Conference calls forth the remarks :— " We doubt if there is a man left in the United Kingdom who would unreservedly proclaim him- self a Protectionist. The marvellous profrraa of our exports, as shown by the returns of the tut ton years, is, in truth, an unanswerable argument. In 1846 the amount was 57.000.000'. ; in 1S55. i year of war, it reached 95,000,0001. Bat Utt present year of peace [1856] far surpasses all, tb* exports already returned being at the rat* rf 110,000,0002., or nearly double the amount of 1844" London and its buildings form the subject of many articles. On the llth of November, 1855, Mr. PBD- nington, the architect of the new .Record
 * It may be worth noting that be sailed