Mention is made of the mazer in Thompson's "Inventories of the Treasure of James III.," thus, " Item four Masaris called King Robert the Brocis with a cover." When in Scotland I was told that the brass dish or saucer suspended at the doors of barbers' shops, and which are to be seen in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, &c., are designated mazers, a symbol which I believe in North Britain has continued in use since the practice of blood-letting, shaving, and peruke-making was united in the profession of " barber-chirurgeon." Dr. Samuel Johnson, in "A Journey to the Western Islands," &c., describes Rory O'More's Cup : "In the house is kept an ox's horn, hollowed so as to hold, perhaps, two quarts, which the heir of Macleod was expected to swallow at a draught, as a test of his manhood, before he was permitted to bear arms, or could have a seat among men." The Kavanagh or Macmurragh Horn, deposited in the Museum of the University of Dublin, is, I presume, of a similar character with that of Rory O'More, above described. Both horns I consider to be of much more modern invention than the mether. In commenting on the Kavanagh Horn, as a fine work of decorative art, Mr. Wilde observes "That cups or goblets were placed beside most of the public road wells of Ireland, even in Pagan times; and it is related that in the reign of Conn of the Hundred Battles, and of his grandson, Cormac Mac Art, who flourished between the years 123 and 266 of the Christian era, so great was the wealth of this kingdom, and such the virtue of its people, as well as the administration of the Brehon Laws, that silver cups were placed at each road-side well for travellers to drink with. Brian Boroimhe, about the year 1000, revived this ancient custom, and put in force the law which sustained it; and it is to this golden age that Moore's lines of 'Rich and rare were the gems she wore,' refer." The difference between the mether and the quagh or bicker, so well known in Scotland, is, that the latter is much smaller, and a cooper-made article with hoops and staves. There was also a drinking-vessel used in Scotland, called a Cogue or Coggie, composed of the same materials as the mether or bicker, but different from them as being destitute of a handle. The Duke of Gordon, in his auld song, "Cauld kail in Aberdeen," has immortalized the coggie. His Grace sings: "There's cauld kail in Aberdeen, And costocks in Strathbogie; In comfortable Highland families small drinking vessels, or dramcups made of silver or horn, were used, called tassies. protracted alliance between the natives of Scotia Minor and the French, it appears in the highest degree probable that this dramcup might have been introduced into Scotland by the French, and that tassie is a mere corruption of the word tasse, which has been slightly altered by a change of pronunciation. "I pledge wi glee my bonnie lassie, In this last nappie, siller tassie. In the opening stanza of Burns' "Bonnie Mary," mention is also made of this small cup or can: "Go fetch to me a pint of wine, The Irish noggin, before alluded to, is not unlike the Scotch coggie, but of larger dimensions. The coggie differs from the bicker as being without a handle. It would seem as if the good people of Cork were familiar with the cogue about a century ago, for Jackson, the celebrated composer and performer on the Irish pipes, names one of his lively strinkins, or jigs, "Jackson's Cogue." The caup of Scotland and the caupin of Ireland are the same. stoup is a kind of jug with a handle. A Methers, seventy years ago, were, in many instances, manufactured of massive silver, a few of which, I have been assured by a gentleman conversant with the habits and history of this country, are still extant; and that, about the year 1828, several were in the possession of the Earl O'Neil at Shane's Castle. By-the-by, I think the Four Masters mention, that in the olden times we had an Irish artificer who was employed in the construction of metallic methers. The author of Waverley describes a drinking-vessel called "a tappit hen," which was formerly in common use, and contained three quarts of claret: "Weel she lo'ed a Hawick gill, And leugh to see a tappit hen." "I have seen," said he, "one of those formidable stoups at Provost Haswell's, at Jedburgh, in days of yore. It was a pewter measure [a metallic mether], the claret being, in ancient days, served from the tap, and had the figure of a hen on the lid. In later times the name was given to a glass bottle of the same dimensions. among the degenerate topers of modern days. These are rare apparitions "The use of the four handles in the mether appears evidently for the greater convenience of passing the cup round from one to another, and in drinking out of it you must apply one of the four corners to your mouth." An instructive writer in "The Dublin Penny Journal," before quoted, states that the Marquis of Townsend, when he retired from the Viceroyalty of Ireland, regularly introduced methers at his dinner parties in London, when his guests usually applied the side of the vessel to the mouth, and seldom escaped with a dry neckcloth, vest, or doublet. His Lordship, however, after enjoying the mistake, called on his fidus achates, Colonel O'Reilly, "to teach drill, and handle the mether in true Irish style." The following humorous anecdote I have heard narrated in the convivial circles of Dublin, a city some years past celebrated for its hospitality, sociality, and good fellowship: Some sixty years since, a jolly and hospitable alderman of the old "ascendancy" school, who had realized a splendid fortune from small beginnings and plodding industry, invited several of the English aristocracy (then staying in Dublin), the theatrical artistes, and musical dilettanti, to dine at his mansion in M-square. During the repast the subject of conversation turned on the manners and customs of the metropolitan Irish, when a military parvenu, after indulging in several inopportune national reflections, lisped out, with true Cockney aspirations, "The Hirish society I ham accustomed to move in, practise precisely the same manners and usages as the English haristocracy in London, to which I belong." After dinner, according to custom, magnums of the richest and rarest wines were served, and Burgundy drank out of cups which few persons present had seen before. They were methers, some of which were carved from solid blocks of alder or yew-trees; others laid with argent mounting of chased silver. The English guests, in endeavouring to drink from these, instead of imbibing from the corners of the cup, applied their mouths to the sides, when two streams flowing from the aperture at each corner copiously drenched their dresses, amidst roars of laughter from the initiated topers: on which Jack Johnstone, the famous and favourite Irish actor, exclaimed, with a joyous banter and brogue peculiarly national, at the same time lustily striking with his open hand the ensanguined back of the enraged aid-decamp, "Be the powers, captain, there appears to be a trifle of difference in the manner of drinking wine in London and Dublin!" REMARKS ON ANCIENT IRISH EFFIGIES SCULPTURED ON THE WALLS OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH ON WHITE ISLAND, LOUGH ERNE, PARISH OF MAGHERACULMONEY, COUNTY OF FERMANAGH. BY GEORGE V. DU NOYER, ESQ., M. R. I. A. Ir is a singular fact, and one worthy of remark, that the sculptor's art, as applied to the representation of the human figure alone, appears to have been but very rarely practised in Ireland,. prior to the arrival in that country of the Anglo-Normans in the twelfth century. The taste for decorative art which the pre-Norman Irish ecclesiastics, or people of note, evinced, as displayed in their churches and stone crosses, lay almost entirely in ornamentation of an arabesque character, combined frequently with grotesque animals, serpents, and fishes; and if human figures were introduced into the carving, they were either subsidiary to the scroll-work ornament, of which they were extravagantly made to form a part, or they were employed as a rude bas-relief illustration of some passage in the Old or New Testament, or of some local event, probably contemporaneous with the period of the work itself. In attempting to determine the age of the small effigies which form the subject of this paper, I shall be guided in the inquiry by three considerations, viz., the age of the building in which they appear; the mode of their occurrence in the masonry; and lastly, the style of dress which they exhibit. It would appear from the admirable work of the learned Dr. Petrie on the "Ancient Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland," that in the seventh and eighth centuries the Irish progressed in architectural skill, and evinced a desire for decoration in their ecclesiastical edifices. To gratify this growing taste, they altered the form of the doorways from the flat-topped to the semicircular arch, which was sometimes even slightly stilted-a change most probably induced by their growing intercourse with the Eastern Churches, and their consequent increased acquaintance with Byzantine art. The doorways of this period, and somewhat later, were headed with a double arch, once recessed, the outer one being level with the surface of the wall. A drip moulding was introduced, and this was ornamented usually either with the small billet or the large bead. In the succeeding century the drip moulding, which was frequently very massive and quite plain, was terminated by the head of some monster. At the sides of the doorways, of the various periods to 1 Vide Dr. Petrie's "Ancient Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland," p. 242. En graving of the doorway of the old church of Raheen, Queen's County. |