during which time the oblations made to this Rood were employed towards building the church.

Royal Exchange was erected by Sir Thomas Gresham, in 1567, on the site of 80 houses, and was so named by queen Elizabeth in person, by sound of a trumpet, &c. in 1570. Being destroyed by the fire in 1666, it was rebuilt soon after at 66000l. expence, king Charles II. laying the first stone.

The Savoy was first built by Peter, Earl of Savoy and Richmond, uncle to Henry III. in 1245. Afterwards having been purchased by Queen Eleanor, for her son, Edmund Earl of Lancaster, it was burnt by the rebels of Kent and Essex in enmity to John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, in 1381. It was rebuilt and made an hospital of St. John Baptist by Henry VII. about 1509, but was suppressed by Edward VI. It was new founded by Queen Mary in

1557.*

Scotland Yard was so called from the buildings there being erected for the reception of the Kings of Scotland, when they came to the English parliament.

Shore Ditch derives its name, not as has been supposed. from Jane Shore's dying there, but from Sir John Shore cr Shoreditch, its Lord of the manor in the reign of Edward III.

Sion College was founded at 3000l. expence, and endowed with 160l. a year, by Dr. Thomas White, one of the residentiaries of St. Paul's. The library was built by Mr. John Simpson, rector of St. Olave, Hart Street.

Smithfield (i. e. a smeth or smooth ground) was used as a market in Fitz Stephen's time, 550 years ago. It was paved by the city at 1600l. expence, in 1614.

Somerset House was built by the Duke of Somerset, lord protector, and uncle to Edward VI. in 1549, and on his attainder it was forfeited to the crown. The back front was built on a design of Inigo Jones by his son-in-law Mr. Webb.t

Spittal-fields were so called from the priory of St. Mary (dissolved by Henry VIII.) where sermons were annually preached in the Easter holidays, as they are now at St. Bride's and thence are called Spittal Sermons.

Staple Inn was once a hall for the merchants of the Staple of wool, but has been an inn of court ever since 1415. The Temple was founded by the knights Templars in

[* A great part of it was burned down in 1776. E.}

+ The old building was pulled down 1776, when the present was begun. E.J

1185, but they being suppressed in 1310, it was given by Edward III. to the knights of St. John of Jerusalem, and they soon after leased it to the students of the law, in whose possession it has continued ever since.

Temple Bar was built in 1670.

Thavy's Inn was formerly the house of Mr. John Thavy, in the reign of Edward III, who let it as an inn to students of the law.

St. Thomas's Hospital was founded by Edward VI. in 1552. Tower (White) was built by William the Conqueror in 1078, and in 1190 it was compassed with a wall and ditch. It was almost new built in 1637-8. Wild beasts were first kept there in 1235, three leopards being then sent by the emperor to Henry III. Gold was first coined there in 1344, and criminals were first executed on Tower Hill in 1466.

Walbrook was so called from a running water which entered the wall between Bishops Gate and Moor Gate, and thence took its name. It ran through the city, with several windings, from north to south into the Thames, and had many bridges over it. It was afterwards vaulted over, paved, and built upon, so that it is now hid under ground.

Westminster Abbey was built by Henry III. and finished after 50 years labour, in 1220. Henry VII. built his chapel on the east side in 1502, at 140001. expence. It was made a collegiate church by queen Elizabeth, in 1559, who at the same time founded the school.

Westminster Bridge was built in 11 years and nine months, at 218,8001. expence*.

Westminster Hall was built by William Rufus about 1097. The king's palace, of which this was a part, was burnt in 1512. The courts of law were first fixed there in 1224.

White Hall was so named by Henry VIII. on its being forfeited to him by Cardinal Wolsey's attainder. It was before called York Place, and was the palace of the archbishops of York. It was the residence of the King till 1697, when it was burned down.

Whitehall chapel was formerly the King's banquetting house, and is all that remains of the palace there, to which it was added by James I. according to a design of Inigo Jones.

Wood Street Compter has been always used as a prison. 1767, Nov.

(* It was finished in 1750, and is said to have cost upwards of 400,0001.]

LXIV. On Apostle Spoons and Peg-Tankards.
MR. URBAN,

WE have certain terms or expressions which in a very little time will become obscure; they are already obsolete, and in a few years may grow perfectly unintelligible. I would do to these, what Mr. Richard Warner proposes to do in respect of Shakespear, that is, prevent if possible, the total obscuration of those evanescent terms. The apostle spoons are a sort of spoons in silver with round bits, very common in the beginning of the last century, but are seldom to be seen now. The set consists of a dozen, and each had the figure of an apostle, with his proper ensign at the top. I have seen in my time, two or three sets, but at present they are scarce, being generally exchanged for spoons of a more modern form, and consequently melted down.

Our ancestors were formerly famous for compotation; their liquor was ale, and one method of amusing themselves this way was with the peg-tankard. There are four or five of these tankards now remaining in this country, and I have lately had one of them in my hand. It had on the inside a row of eight pins one above another, from top to bottom. It held two quarts, (and was a noble piece of plate) so that there was a gill of ale, half a pint Winchester measure, between each peg. The law was, that every person that drank was to empty the space between pin and pin, so that the pins were so many measures to make the company all drink alike, and to swallow the same quantity of liquor. This was a contrivance for merriment, and at the same time a pretty sure method of making all the company drunk, especially if it be considered that the rule was, that whoever drank short of his pin, or beyond it, was obliged to drink again, and even as deep as to the next pin. And it was for this reason, that in Archbishop Anselm's canons, made in the council of London A.D. 1102, priests were enjoined not to go to drinking bouts, nor to drink to pegs. The words are, ut Presbyteri non eant ad potationes, nec ad pinnas bibant' Wilkins Concil. I. p. 382*. This shews the antiquity of the invention, as well as the evil tendency of it; and as it must have been some time before the abuse and inconvenience of the practice was noted, so as to be made a matter of prohibitory injunction, we must suppose

* Our Saxon ancestors, says Rapin, were so addicted to drunkenness, that they were wont to drink out of large cups and take great draughts, till Edgar, in order to reform this abuse, ordered certain marks to be made in their cups at a certain height, above which they were forbidden to fill under a severe penalty. Edit.

that these tankards were at least as old as the Norman Conquest; perhaps might be introduced by those jolly fellows the Danes. The word tankard it is thought comes from the Dutch Tankaerd, and probably it may, but quære, whether the Dutch word may not, by a transposition of letters, be the Latin cantharus. Such metathesises are frequent, and particularly in our language. Thus though I meet with the word galeo and galo, as Latin for a gallon in our monkish writers, yet I conceive the original of the English word gallon to be lagena, and that the monkish terms were formed upon the English word. To give a third instance, Mr. Johnson and Mr. R. Warner deduce Argosie from the ship Argo; the authors of the Monthly Review incline rather to think it comes from the old Italian, in which any thing watchful or vigilant was termed an Argo, from Juno's spy, Argus. But now, there is a third etymology, which may seem as plausible as either of the above, for in Sir P. Rycaut's Survey of the Ottoman Empire, it is suggested, that this sea vessel might be denominated from the little republic of Ragusa, Argosie being only a transposition of Ragusie.

Derbyshire, Aug. 15.

1768, Sept.

Yours, &c,

Further thoughts on the Peg-Tankard.

T. Row

UNWILLING as I was to extend the former memoir to an indecent and inconvenient length, I chose to drop it where I did with a design of resuming it.

It has been shewn that the Peg-Tankard, or in this case the Pin-Tankard, was very early, and also very generally known amongst us, and therefore it is most natural to think, that allusions to it would not be uncommon in our ordinary discourse. It is a saying with us, that a person is in a merry pin; this, I conceive, was borrowed from the tankard, being as much as to say he has drank to such a pin as to make himself cheerful and merry. Another expression is, to take a person a peg lower, by which we mean to humble or abase him, in like manner as the liquor is made to diminish by a peg at a time, in the tankard. Mons. Du Fresne in his Gloss. v. Pinna, cites archbishop Anselm's canon of A, D. 1102. Nec ad pinnas bibant, and conjecturés, forte legendum pilas,' because pila he finds signifies sometimes taberna a tavern, or drinking house. But this is a most unhappy conjecture, as the sense is so plain and intelligible without it, and that all the MSS agree in writing Pinnas; and so Mr. Johnson, in

his Collection of Ecclesiastical Laws, &c. translates the canon without scruple, "that priests go not to drinking bouts, nor drink to pegs." However, Sir, as this Frenchman, and I may add the Benedictines, who have suffered his conjecture to pass without animadversion, knew little of ale, nor ever saw one of these tankards in their lives, they are entirely excusable, to do them justice, upon this head. I am, Sir, Yours, &c.

1768, Oct,

T. Row.

LXV. On the General Use and Introduction of Tobacco.

I OFTEN think it very wonderful, Mr. Urban, that a thing so unnatural as the use of tobacco in smoaking, should prevail so generally over the face of the whole earth. I call it unnatural, because nothing seems to lead to it, that to many it is most disagreeable, and that others find it so difficult to learn it, whilst some, after many repeated trials, can never master it at all. And yet you find the practice of smoaking tobacco in the north, and in the south, in the east, and in the west. In those immense regions of Siberia and Tartary, China, Japan, Indostan, Persia, Africa, America, and almost universally in the continent and islands of Europe.In most places, the usage is common to all ranks, and to both sexes.

The Chinese pretend they have known the use of tobacco many ages; and for what length of time the Americans have had it amongst them, cannot, I suppose, be discovered, but most anciently without doubt; possibly they might bring it with them from the east, from Tartary, when first they migrated from thence to the continent of America. To be a little more particular, as to its introduction amongst us; Stow says, tobacco was brought into England about the 20 Eliz. or 1578, and that "Sir Walter Raleigh was the first that brought tobacco in use, when all men wondered what it meant." But afterwards, in the same page he tells us, "tobacco was first brought, and made known in England by Sir John Hawkins, about the year 1565+, but not used by Englishmen in many years after, though at this day com-' monly used by most men, and many women." This was about the year 1631, in the reign of James I. when, however, the use of the herb was under disgrace, Stow, in the index,

*Bells Travels, II. p. 68.

Dr. Brookes says it is called tobacco from the island of Tobago, from whence it was brought in the year 1560. But quære, as to the date.