Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/575

 iv. DEC. 9.1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 477 Bannatyne's manuscript collection of Scottish poems is dated 1568, which is about twenty- six years after the death of James V. Bannatyne may fairly be considered to have been almost contemporaneous with the king, and it might be justifiably assumed that he would have known had James V. written the poems in question, not to mention the fact that the internal evidence of 'Christ's Kirk of the Green' is of an earlier age than James V.; while it is improbable that these two princes wrote two poems resembling each other like ' Christ's Kirk of the Green ' and ' Peblis to the Play.' In Bannatyne's book ' Christ's Kirk of the Green1 is first, and it is given with the signa- ture "Quod King James I." This song appears in Ramsay's ' Evergreen ' of 1761, in the preface of which llamsay gratefully acknowledges the kindness of the brother of the Earl of Hyndford in lending the Ban- natyne MS., of which llamsay took full advantage. At the end of ' Christ's Kirk of the Green' is, "Finis Quod King James I." 'The Gaberlunzie Man'appeared in 'The Tea Table Miscellany'of 1730 (the fifth edition in four years). It is said to have been written by James V., and supposed to relate par- ticulars of one of his doubtful adventures •when disguised. The same is said of ' The Jollie Beggar,' but the language of the latter indicates that it is a production of a much later date. No approach to authority, that I am aware of, exists to prove that the author of either song was James; while both can hardly be said to bear any similarity in point of language to 'Christ's Kirk of the Green' and ' Peblis to the Play.' It may be here observed that John Major •was born in 1469-70, and lived to the age of seventy - nine years. When speaking of James 1., he tells us that the king wrote " an ingenious little book about the queen " ('The King's Quair,' first published in 1783), 'At Beltayne' ('Peblis to the Play '). <kc. ALFRED CHAS. JONAS. Thornton Heath. PUNCH, THE BEVEKAGK (10th S. iv. 401).— MR. C. B. MOUNT is doubtful of the common derivation of this word from the Hindi, or Hindustani, panch, meaning five. Until, however, he can bring forward something more definite than he has done in his recent article in ' N. & Q ,' I fancy the derivation must stand. It will be interesting, however, to see what the ' N.E.D.' has to say on the subject, when that part of the great dictionary is published. It is curious that the word " toddy," universally applied in Scotland to a beverage composed of whisky, hot water, and sugar, should also be derived from a Hindustani word—"tari" or "tadi." Per- iiaps some of the contributors to ' N. <fe Q.' can account for this, and at the same time sxplain why the drink called "toddy" in Scotland should always be called " punch " in Ireland. Not that punch is unknown in the former country ; on the contrary, it was formerly in common use, especially in Glas- gow and the west of Scotland. This was, no doubt, in great part due to the intimate connexion between Glasgow and the West Indies. Indeed, during the last twenty years of the eighteenth century, and the first thirty of the nineteenth, rum punch was the favourite drink of the upper classes in and about Glasgow. Readers of Scott will recollect that in ' Rob Roy ' Bailie Nicol Jarvie entertained Francis Osbaldistone and Mr. Owen to a bowl of brandy punch, the limes used in the concoction of this beverage being "from his own little farm yonder-awa (indicating the West Indies with a knowing shrug of his shoulders)." In ' Kid- napped,' when David Balfour met the " Red Fox," Campbell of Glenure, in the wood of Lettermore, he noticed that the servant carried "a net of lemons (to make punch with) at his saddlebow." Lockhart, in his ballad of ' Captain Paton,' begins the lament:— Touch once more a sober measure, and let Punch and tears be shed ; while, in recounting the entertainment prof- fered by the worthy captain of a Sabbath evening, he says :— Or if a bowl were mentioned. The Captain he would ring. And bid Nelly from the West Port A stoup of water bring. Then would he mix the genuine stuff, As they made it long ago, With limes that on his property In Trinidad did grow. The locus classicus, however, with refer- ence to Glasgow punch is in Hamilton's 'Cyril Thornton,' in chap. viii. of which will be found the amusing account of the dinner at Provost Shortridge's, with full particulars of the mysteries connected with the brewing of rum punch. Hamilton here refers to "the solemnity and entire absorption of mind" with which this part of the Bacchanalian rites is uniformly celebrated in Glasgow. This excellent drink lost its vogue owing (1) to the visitation of cholera in 1832, and (?,) to the abolition of slavery in the West Indies, which practically ruined the Glasgow West Indian trade. As it bids fair soon to