When pressed by LORD BRAYBROOKE ("NOTES AND QUERIES," Vol. ii., p. 286.), who proved, by an extract from _Pepys's Diary_, that wormwood wine, so far from bearing out MR. SINGER'S description, was, in fact, a fashionable luxury, probably not more nauseous than the _pale ale_ so much in repute at the present day, MR. SINGER very adroitly produced a "corroborative note" from "old Langham" ("NOTES AND QUERIES," Vol. ii., p. 315.), which, curiously enough, is castrated of all that Langham wrote pertaining to the question in issue. Treating of the many virtues of the prevailing tonic as an appetiser, and restorer "of a good color" to them that be "leane and evil colored," Langham says: ["Make wormwood wine thus: take _aqua vitae_ and malmsey, of each like much, put it in a glasse or bottell with _a few leaves of dried wormwood_, and let it stand certain days,] and strein out a little spoonfull, and drink it with a draught of ale or wine: [it may be long preserved.]"[5] Thus it will be seen that the reason for "streining out a little spoonfull" as a restorative for a weak stomach was less on account of the infusion being so "atrociously unpalatable," than of the alcohol used in its preparation. Dr. Venner also recommends as an excellent stomachic, "To drink mornings fasting, and sometimes also before dinner, _a draught of wormwood-wine_ or beer:" and we may gather the "atrocious bitterness" of the restorative, by the substitute he proposes: "or, for want of them," he continues: "white wine or stale beer, wherein a few branches of wormwood have, for certain hours, been infused."[6] Dr. Parr, quoting Bergius, describes _Absinthium_ as "a grateful stomachic;" and _Absinthites_ as "a pleasant form of the wormwood."[7] Is this therefore the article that Hamlet proposed to _drink_ UP with his crocodile? So far from thinking so, I have ventured to coincide with Archdeacon Nares in favour of Steevens; for whether it be Malone's vinegar, or MR. SINGER'S more comfortable stomachic, the challenge to drink either "_in such a rant_, is so inconsistent, and even ridiculous, that we must decide for the river, whether its name be exactly found or not."[8]