8> Sir Guy, and Topaz
With his fleet neigher shall keep no-pace.
But now to close all I must switch-hard,
[Your] servant ever;
LOVELACE RICHARD.
<35.1> This expression has reference to the old practice
of drinking beer and wine out of very high glasses, with
divisions marked on them. A yard of ale is even now a well
understood term: nor is the custom itself out of date, since
in some parts of the country one is asked to take, not a glass,
but A YARD. The ell was of course, strictly speaking, a larger
measure than a yard; but it was often employed as a mere synonyme
or equivalent. Thus, in MAROCCUS EXTATICUS, 1595, Bankes says:--
"Measure, Marocco, nay, nay, they that take up commodities make no
difference for measure between a Flemish elle and an English yard."
<35.2> In the new edition of Nares (1859), this very passage is
quoted to illustrate the meaning of the word, which is defined
rather vaguely to be A CASK. Obviously the word signifies
something of the kind, but the explanation does not at all satisfy
me. I suspect that a flute OF CANARY was so called from the cask
having several vent-holes, in the same way that the French call a
lamprey FLEUTE D'ALEMAN from the fish having little holes in the
upper part of its body.
<35.3> Forsyth, in his ANTIQUARY'S PORTFOLIO, 1825, mentions
certain "glutton-feasts," which used formerly to be celebrated
periodically in honour of the Virgin; perhaps the pasties used on
these occasions were thence christened PASTIES-MARY.
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