Steevens notices _King Richard II._, Act II Scene 2.: "The task he undertakes, Is numb'ring sands, and _drinking oceans dry_." But enough. The majority of readers, like the majority of critics, will surely be for the river, in the proportion of at least six to two. _Verbum non amplius addam._ J. S. W. Stockwell. _Eisell--Wormwood--Scurvy Ale._--Such of your readers who have not yet made up their minds whether "eisell" and "wormwood" are identical, will not object to be reminded that Taylor, the Water Poet, in his _Pennyless Pilgrimage_, describing his hospitable reception at Manchester, when speaking of the liquid cheer supplied to him, says:-- "... Eight several sorts of ale we had All able to make one stark drunk, or mad. ... We had at one time set upon the table Good ale of hyssop ('twas no Æsop fable); Then had we ale of sage, and ale of malt And ale of _wormwood_ that could make one halt With ale of rosemary, and of bettony, And two ales more, or else I needs must lie. But to conclude this drinking aley tale We had a sort of ale called scurvy ale." It would seem that in most of these drinks, the chief object was to impart an exciting but not disagreeable bitterness to the beverage, groping as it were, by instinct, after that enduring and gratifying bitter now universally derived from the hop. Wormwood, hyssop, rosemary, sage, bettony, each furnished its peculiar temptation to the Manchester drinkers, who some two centuries ago wanted an "excuse for the glass." Can any of your correspondents state what were the components of the _scurvy ale_ spoken of by Taylor? This was, perhaps, a really medicated drink. It may not be generally known, that even at this day, In some of the gin shops and taverns of London, gin, in which the herb rue is infused, is a constant article of sale; and many, who assume a most respectable blueness of physiognomy at the bare mention of "old Tom" in his undisguised state, scruple not to indulge in copious libations of the same popular spirit, provided it be poured from a bottle in which a few sprigs of rue are floating. But what was _scurvy ale_? HENRY CAMPKIN. ROYAL LIBRARY. (Vol. iii., p. 427.) In the following passage (extracted from the _Quarterly Review_, No. CLXXV., Dec. 1850, p. 143.) it is declared that the nation _did_ "pay" for this "munificent present." The writer is understood to be Mr. R. Ford; and if his statement is not refuted, the business will henceforth take its place as a sale which the nation was duped into regarding as a gift:--