Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/199

 9* s. VL S«PT. i, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 161 LONDON, SATVBDAr. SEPTEMBER 1. 1SOO. CONTENTS.-No. 140. NOTES :—" Max ": Slang for Gin, 161-Pootprlnta of Gods, Ac., 163—' Dictionary of National Biography,' 165—Library of John Freind—Empress of China—Orientation in Inter- ments—" To churl," 167. QUERIES:-"Night Charges" in Olden Times —"Hall Moon " Tavern—Authors of Books—List of Book Sales, 168 —Alpress—Jonathan Badcock—'' Manecanterie "—NeTlll —Ormsby—Angler—John Milton—English Translation of M. Jules Bois—Tavern Signs: "The Bay Horse "—Mrs. Megby—Trajan's Column, 169—' The Stream of Time'— Iron and Great Inventions —Grave of George Heriot— Early Irish in Iceland—Tomb in Westminster Abbey- Heraldic, 170. KBPLIES :—Moated Mounds, 170 — Quotations in Text- Books, 172—Town Gates outside London—Cutting Babies' Nails—Origin of Maryland, 173 —French Cathedrals — Wem —The Campbells — Sahara — Pedigree Research — Brothers with same Christian Name, 174—" Hurtling "— Bibury—" They my. What say they ? Let them say "— Bxtent of St. Martin's Parish, 175-H. S. Ashbee-Figures issuing from Shells—• Fulham, Old and New '—Dedication of Author to Himself—Horns of Moses, 179—Enigma on H —Installation of a Midwife—Lines on Swift, 177—Tea as a Decoction—A. W. C. Hallen—The Mouse, 178. NOTES ON BOOKS: —Bearne's 'Pictures of the Old French Court' — Maiden's 'History of Surrey'—Philli- more's ' Pedigree Work' — ' Yorkshire Archaeological Journal'—' Edinburgh Eeview.' Notices to Correspondents. "MAX": SLANG FOR GIN. (Vide supra, p. 96, art. ' Pressgang Songs.') THIS heading, with the addition of a refer- ence to the ' Encyclopaedic Dictionary," will serve to answer ME, CUBWEN'S query. Max was the usual word for gin in a family with which I was formerly connected ; and if multiplicity of nicknames were a gauge of excellence, " Madam Gin." as our ancestors in 1736 whimsically styled this spirit, might pose as the queen of beverages. I propose to notice some of these nicknames, but first I would advert to an etymological conjecture which treats max as an abbreviation of maxime, a name supposed to have been given to " the best gin. This is a worthless fiction. It seems to me more likely that max comes from a distiller's name, Mack or Mac-something, in which case the spelling should be Mack s or Mac's. So Perkin is slang for beer, Kinahan is often used for whisky, Bass for pale ale, and Guinness for stout. My attention was directed to this subject a few weeks ago. when, in turning the leaves of Chambaud's ' French-English Dictionary,' I came upon the following item, s.v. 'Qenievre': " De 1'esprit de genievre, Gin, Geneva, royal bob, Hollands." The phrase " royal bob " is not noticed in the ' H.E.D.,'* and has no obvious relation to the "bob royal" of campano- logy. A clue to its origin is perhaps discover- able in the fact that the earliest legislation against gin-drinking took place during Sir Robert Walpole's administration. On 23 April. 1729, an Act was passed for laying a duty of 5s. a gallon on geneva and compound waters and for licensing the retailers thereof. This Act, which was evaded by the sale of a new spirit called Parliament brandy, was repealed in 1733, to be succeeded in 1736 by a law, meant to be prohibitive, which imposed a duty_ of 20s. on every gallon of gin sold by retail, in addition to a yearly charge of 5<M. for the retailer's licence—a royal tax indeed. In this connexion I note that Bailey's ' Dictionary' contains the following item : "Geneva called by several names, as Tityre, Royal Poverty, White Tape, &c." The lexicographer offers explanations of these terms in their alphabetical places : " Tityre, a Nick-name for the Liquor called Geneva, probably so called, because it makes Persons merry, laugh, and titter." But "Tityre" (the first word of Virgil's 'Eclogues') is outside the language of the populace, and in the history of gin is open to a more feasible, because academic, explanation. Tityrus is the latinization of TITD/JOS, Doric for SaTvpos (see Hesychius), and the Satyrs were fabled to be the companions of Bacchus : hence I find in the French translation ot Jacobi's ' Mythological Dictionary,' " Tityres. Genies qui figuraient dans la troupe bachique." We know, too, that "Tityre tu " was one of the slang names for the street bully of the seven- teenth century, celebrated by Taylor, the Water Poet, with the unscholarly spelling "tittery tu" or "tue," in his ' Armado,'and much later by Shad well in the 'Scowrers':— "I knew the Hectors, and before them, the Minis, and the Tityre tus; they were brave fellows indeed ! In those days a man could not go from the Rose Garden to the Piazza once but he must ven- ture his life twice, my dear Sir Willie." As to "Royal Poverty," Bailey's fanciful explanation is : " When beggars are drunk they are as great as kings." I see, however, in this name an allusion to the royal im- poverishment by deficiencies in the Civil List arising from Jekyll's Act, and provided for, at Walpole's instance, by a compensatory vote of 70,OOOZ.t per annum—a provision fiercely anon. t " We bought it [the Act] of the Government at the Rate of 70,000 Sprugs and upwards."—Gentle- man's Magazine, 1738, p. 515. Why does aprugt mean pounds ?
 * Of " bob "=gin, ignored by the 'H.E.D.,' more