R.T.  Hampson.

Humble Pie.—­the proverbial expression of “eating humble pie,” explained by A.G., will be found also explained in the same manner in the Appendix to Forby’s Vocabulary, where it is suggested that the correct orthography would be “umble pie,” without the aspirate.  Bailey, in his valuable old Dictionary, traces the word properly to umbilicus, the region of the intestines, and acknowledges in his time the perquisite of the game-keeper.

J.I.

Oxford.

By Hook or by Crook.—­You have noted the origin of Humble Pie.  May I add a note of a saying, in my opinion also derived from forest customs, viz.  “By hook or by crook?” Persons entitled to fuel wood in the king’s forest, were only authorised to take it of the dead wood or branches of trees in the forest, “with a cart, a hook, and a crook.”

The answer to the query respecting the meaning of “per serjantiam Marescautiae,” is the Serjeantry of Farriery, i.e. shoeing of the king’s horses.  In Maddox, vol. i. p. 43. you will find a very full account of the office of Marescallus.

J.R.F.

THE ORIGIN OF GROG.

“Written on board the Berwick, a few days before Admiral Parker’s engagement with the Dutch fleet, on the 5th of August, 1781.  By DR. TROTTER.

“‘Tis sung on proud Olympus’ hill
    The Muses bear record,
  Ere half the gods had drank their fill
    The sacred nectar sour’d.

  “At Neptune’s toast the bumper stood,
    Britannia crown’d the cup;
  A thousand Nereids from the flood
    Attend to serve it up.

  “‘This nauseous juice,’ the monarch cries,
    ’Thou darling child of fame,
  Tho’ it each earthly clime denies,
    Shall never bathe thy name.

  “’Ye azure tribes that rule the sea,
    And rise at my command,
  Bid Vernon mix a draught for me
    To toast his native land.’

  “Swift o’er the waves the Nereids flew,
    Where Vernon’s flag appear’d;
  Around the shores they sung ‘True Blue,’
    And Britain’s hero cheer’d.

  “A mighty bowl on deck he drew,
    And filled it to the brink;
  Such drank the Burford’s[2] gallant crew,
    And such the gods shall drink.

  “The sacred robe which Vernon wore
    Was drenched within the same;
  And hence his virtues guard our shore,
    And Grog derives its name.”

W.H.S.

[The gallant correspondent to whom we are indebted for the foregoing satisfactory, because early and documentary, evidence of the etymology of the now familiar term GROG, informs us that there is a still earlier ballad on the subject.  We trust that he will be enabled to recover that also, and put it on record in our columns.]

Barnacles.—­In a Chorographical Description of West, or Il-Jar Connaught, by Rhoderic O’Flaherty, Esq., 1684, published by the Irish Archaeological Society in 1846, the bernacle goose is thus mentioned:—­