Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/217

 12 s. vir. AUG. 28, i92o.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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.adder! about 1885, by the present owner (1905). An open gothic parapet which once adorned the court entrance to the Derby Nunnery (erected by W. Pugiii in 1846) on the Nottingham Road, now stretches along the weir wall between the two- fishponds, with pretty effect. The kennels just below -are reminiscences of the late Edward Deggo Wilmot Sitwell, who kept a few braces of good greyhounds here for his favourite pastime of coursing.

LEONARD C. PRICE. Essex L3dge, Ewell.

THE AQUA VITA MAN (12 S. vii. 150). This query is answered by the following extract from ' Old English Social Lifo as told by the Parish Register,' by T. F. Thistleton Dyer (London, Elliot Stock, 1898).

Speaking of the " aqua vity -man or seller of drams, 1 ' the author says :

" In days past the term aqua vitae was in use as a general phrase for ardent spirits, and as such occurs in ' Twelfth Night' (Act II. So. V.), where "Maria asks, ' Does it work upon him ?' to which .'Sir Toby replies,' Like aqua vitae with a midwife.' "

According to Fosbroko, aqua vitse was made and sold by barbers and barber sur- ^geoiis. Ben Jonson speaks of selling "the dole beer to aqua-vitae men," and in Beau- mont and Fletcher's ' Beggar's Bush' the cry -of the aqua-vitae man is "Buy any brand wine, buy any brand wine," Tt is such a person who is indicated in the following entry from the register of St. Giles's, Oripplegate, where on June 8, 1617, the burial is recorded of " the daughter of Richard Mitchell, aquavity man." According to Malcolm, several aqua - -vitse dealers lived in this parish, and he adds that the nature of this beverage may be -imagined from the following " Reasons for 'the grauntos unto. Mr. Drake, for the making of aquavitze, aqua composita, berevinger, beereeger, and alliger."

That whereas dyversse of greedye and covetou 8 myndes, for their owne lucre and gaine. w'houb the due regarde of the health and wellfayre of our subjects, or the p'fit and benefit w h may grow to us and our Commonwealth, by the trew and right making of the. same of trew and wholesome lyquor have, do use make the foresayde drynkes and sauces of most corrupt, noysom, and lothsom stuff; viz. ; the washing tonnes, colebacks, laggedragge, tylts, and droppings of tappes, and such other noysom stuff usod in tymes past to feed swyne."

See also Halli well's Dictionary where he says under Aqua-Vitaa : " Several old receipts for making aqua-vitae p-re given in Donee's 'Illustrations ' i. 68-70, where the exact nature of it may be seen. Irish aqua-vitae was usque-

baugh but brandy was a later introduction, nor has the latter term been found earlier than 1671. According to Nares, it was Formerly in use as a general term for ardent spirits, and Ben Jonson terms a seller of Irama an ' aqua-vitae man. ' See ' The Alchemist,' i. 1, Cunningham's 'Revels Ac- counts,' p. 146, 'Witts, Fittes, and Fancies, 1595,' p. 128." According to the ' N.E.D.' the term "brandy" is found somewhat earlier than Halliwell states.

WM. SELF -WEEKS.

This was a person who sold spirituous iqnor according to Fennell's 'Stanford Dictionary of Anglicised Words and Phrases,' 1892, and" the 'N.E.D.' Both quote several examples of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

R. Sikes was probably a distiller. Aqua vitae preceded "spirits of wine," the eigh- teenth century equivalent for "alcohol" in chemical literature. Similarly when Bishop Berkeley introduced tar-water as a medicament he suggested it should be called "the water of health " (' Siris,' 1744, p. 32).

J. P. DE 0.

CALVERLEY'S PARODIES (12 S. vi. 335; vii. 58. 152). MR. FLETCHER might have added that the last six lines of ' Wanderers ' are an admirable parody of Tennyson's familiar blank verse. To the Browning and Tapper which he mentions may be added: (1) Longfellow's 'Skeleton in Armour.'

I was a Viking old !

My deeds, though manifold,

No Skald in song has told,

No Saga taught thee !

lines less familiar than the famous ' Ode to Tobacco ' ; (2) Byron's ' Don Juari ' see ' Beer ' ; (3) Macaulay's ' Lays of Ancient Rome ' see Charade vi, beginning Sikes, housebreaker, of Houndsditch,

Habitually swore.

(4) Jean Ingelow's 'Divided.' with sug- gestions from other poems see * Lovers, and a Reflection,' : (5) the same writer's 'The Apple-Woman's Song,' with the line

see 'Ballad,' beginning 'The auld wife sat at her ivied door': (6) Moore see.
 * Feathers and moss, and a wisp of hay '

facts from ' A Century of Parody and Imitation ' (Humphrey Milford).
 * Disaster. ' I have taken some of these

G. a L.