no
difference for measure between a Flemish elle and an English yard."

<35.2> In the new edition of Nares (1859), this very passage is
quoted to illustrate the meaning of the word, which is defined
rather vaguely to be A CASK. Obviously the word signifies
something of the kind, but the explanation does not at all satisfy
me. I suspect that a flute OF CANARY was so called from the cask
having several vent-holes, in the same way that the French call a
lamprey FLEUTE D'ALEMAN from the fish having little holes in the
upper part of its body.

<35.3> Forsyth, in his ANTIQUARY'S PORTFOLIO, 1825, mentions
certain "glutton-feasts," which used formerly to be celebrated
periodically in honour of the Virgin; perhaps the pasties used on
these occasions were thence christened PASTIES-MARY.

<35.4> Venison pies or pasties were the most favourite dish in
this country in former times; innumerable illustrations might be
furnished of the high esteem in which this description of viand
was held by our ancestors, who regarded it as a thoroughly English
luxury. The anonymous author of HORAE SUBSECIVAE, 1620, p. 38
(this volume is supposed to have been written by Giles Brydges,
Lord Chandos), describes an affected Englishman who has been
travelling on the Continent, as "sweating at the sight of a pasty
of venison," and as "swearing that the only delicacies be
mushrooms, or CAVIARE, or snayles."

"The full-cram'd dishes made the table crack,
Gammons of bacon, brawn, and what was chief,
King in all feasts, a tall Sir Loyne of BEEF,
Fat venison pasties smoaking, 'tis no fable,
Swans in their broath came swimming to the table."--
Poems of Ben Johnson Junior, by W. S. 1672, p. 3.

<35.5> An allusion to the scantiness of forks. "And when your
justice of peace is knuckle-deep in goose, you may without
disparagement to your blood, though you have a lady to your mother,
fall very manfully to your woodcocks."-- Decker's GULS HORN BOOK,
1609, ed. Nott, p. 121.

"Hodge. Forks! what be they?
Mar. The laudable use of forks,
Brought into custom here, as they are in Italy,
To the sparing of napkins--"
Jonson's THE DEVIL IS AN ASS, act. v. scene 4.

"Lovell. Your hand, good sir.
Greedy. This is a lord, and some think this a favour;
But I had rather have my hand in my dumpling."
Massinger's NEW WAY TO PAY OLD DEBTS, 1633.

<35.6> The sirloi