Freak glasses proper include yards and half-yards, boots, cocked hats, frog glasses, and trick glasses designed to send their contents anywhere but in the direction which the would-be consumer intended. The yards and half-yards are great curiosities; they resemble nothing so much as a coaching horn in shape and size. There are two kinds, the one the genuine old Cambridge ale-yards, and the other trick glasses which had the knack when partially emptied of suddenly expelling the remainder of their contents with a splash into the drinker’s face, to his great discomfiture and the huge delight of the onlookers, who had probably arranged the whole thing for the benefit of some innocent person. Unfortunately, in the sudden start with which the drinker received the unexpected disposition of the contents of his glass, the vessel itself was so frequently damaged that specimens of ale-yards are very difficult to obtain. It will be noticed that in our illustration (Fig. 37) the specimen is cracked near its mouth. It need hardly be said that any collector who is fortunate enough to obtain an example in reasonably good condition may esteem himself fortunate. As to the reason of the sudden emptying I cannot do better than quote from Mr Hartshorne, an old friend and the greatest authority on Old English glass. [Illustration: Masonic, Toasting, and Freak Glasses.] [Illustration: An Early Cambridge Yard Ale Glass.] FIG. 37. “The trick yard glass arose from the knob at the end of the footless one. It was found that on expanding into a bulb the ‘knob’ or ‘knot,’ the difficulty of emptying the vessel was greatly increased, because when this feat was nearly accomplished the air passed down the tube into the bulb and caused the remainder of the contents to fly into the face of the drinker.” This was by no means an uncommon occurrence in wayside inns of the seventeenth century, the spectators often betting upon the result. At the annual “Vinis” of the Mock Corporation of Hanley, Staffs, the initiation of a member included the drinking of a yard of port, while the freeman of Stoke-on-Trent had as a preliminary to admission to dispose of a yard of ale. To “floor the long glass” at Eton is also an accomplishment which many never achieve. I have seen many fine specimens, notably one belonging to my old friend, Mr John George Mortlock of Cambridge; but it is rare to find them undamaged, the involuntary jerk of the victim who finds the liquid splashing into his face being usually fatal to the unwieldy glass.