Notes and Queries, Number 04, November 24, 1849 | Page 4

also a great annotator of his books;
the Bibliothèque National at Paris possesses a Euripides and

Aristophanes from his library, the margins of which are covered with
notes in Greek, Latin, and French.
The books which formerly belonged to La Monnoie are now
recognizable by the anagram of his name. _A Delio nomen_, and also
by some very curious notes on the fly-leaves and margins written in
microscopic characters.
G.J.K.
[Footnote 1: Conversion de la Reina de Suecia in Roma (1656).]
* * * * *
ORIGIN OF WORD "GROG."
Mr. Vaux writes as follows:--Admiral Vernon was the first to require
his men to drink their spirits mixed with water. In bad weather he was
in the habit of walking the deck in a rough grogram cloak, and thence
had obtained the nickname of Old Grog in the Service. This is, I
believe, the origin of the name _grog_, applied originally to rum and
water. I find the same story repeated in a quaint little book, called
Pulleyn's Etymological Compendium.
[A.S. has communicated a similar explanation; and we are obliged to
"An old LADY who reads for Pastime" for kindly furnishing us with a
reference to a newly published American work, _Lifts for the Lazy_,
where the origin of "Grog" is explained in the same manner.
The foregoing was already in type when we received the following
agreeable version of the same story.]
* * * * *
ORIGIN OF WORD "GROG"--ANCIENT ALMS-BASINS.
Mr. Editor,--As a sailor's son I beg to answer your correspondent
LEGOUR'S query concerning the origin of the word "grog," so famous
in the lips of our gallant tars. Jack loves to give a pet nickname to his
favourite officers. The gallant Edward Vernon (a Westminster man by
birth) was not exempted from the general rule. His gallantry and ardent
devotion to his profession endeared him to the service, and some merry
wags of the crew, in an idle humour, dubbed him "Old Grogham."
Whilst in command of the West Indian station, and at the height of his
popularity on account of his reduction of Porto Bello with six
men-of-war only, he introduced the use of rum and water by the ship's
company. When served out, the new beverage proved most palatable,
and speedily grew into such favour, that it became as popular as the

brave admiral himself, and in honour of him was surnamed by
acclamation "Grog."
MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A.
P.S.--There are two other alms-basins in St. Margaret's worthy of note,
besides those I mentioned in your last number. One has the inscription,
"Live well, die never; die well and live ever. A.D. 1644 W.G." The
other has the appropriate legend, "Hee that gives too the poore lends
unto thee LORD." A third bears the Tudor rose in the centre. In an
Inventory made about the early part of the 17th century, are mentioned
"one Bason given by Mr. Bridges, of brasse." (The donor was a butcher
in the parish.) "Item, one bason, given by Mr. Brugg, of brasse." On the
second basin are the arms and crest of the Brewers' Company. Perhaps
Mr. Brugg was a member of it. One Richard Bridges was a
churchwarden, A.D. 1630-32.
M.W.
7. College Street. Nov. 17.
* * * * * {53}
DYCE VERSUS WARBURTON AND COLLIER--AND
SHAKSPEARE'S MSS.
In Mr. Dyce's _Remarks on Mr. J.P. Collier's and Mr. C. Knight's
Editions of Shakspeare_, pp. 115, 116, the following note occurs:--
"_King Henry IV., Part Second_, act iv. sc. iv.
"As humorous as winter, and as sudden As flaws congealed in the
spring of day."
"Alluding," says Warburton, "to the opinion of some philosophers, that
the vapours being congealed in air by cold, (which is most intense
towards the morning,) and being afterwards rarified and let loose by the
warmth of the sun, occasion those sudden and impetuous guests of
wind which are called flaws."--COLLIER.
"An interpretation altogether wrong, as the epithet here applied to
'flaws' might alone determine; 'congealed gusts of wind' being nowhere
mentioned among the phenomena of nature except in Baron
Munchausen's Travels. Edwards rightly explained 'flaws,' in the present
passage, 'small blades of ice.' I have myself heard the word used to
signify both thin cakes of ice and the bursting of those cakes."--DYCE.
Mr. Dyce may perhaps have heard the world floe (plural _floes_)
applied to _floating sheet-ice_, as it is to be found so applied

extensively in Captain Parry's _Journal of his Second Voyage_; but it
remains to be shown whether such a term existed in Shakspeare's time.
I think it did not, as after diligent search I have not met with it; and, if it
did, and then had the same meaning, _floating sheet-ice_, how would it
apply to the illustration of this passage?
That the uniform meaning of flaws in the poet's time