country towards the close of the last century; for the papers of that time inform us, that on June 23, 1775, a regatta, a novel entertainment, and the first of the kind, was exhibited in the river Thames, in imitation of some of those splendid shows exhibited at Venice on their grand festivals. The whole river, from London Bridge to the Ship Tavern, Millbank, was covered with boats. About 1200 flags were flying before four o'clock in the afternoon, and vessels were moored in the river for the sale of liquors and other refreshments. Before six o'clock it was a perfect fair on both sides the water, and bad liquor, with short measure, was plentifully retailed. Plans of the regatta were sold from a shilling to a penny each, and songs on the occasion sung, in which "regatta" was the rhyme for "Ranelagh," and "royal family" echoed to "liberty.">[
Coket and Cler-mantyn.—Piers Plowman says that when new corn began to be sold—
"Waulde no beggar eat bread that in it beanes were,
But of coket and cler-mantyn, or else of cleane wheate."
What are coket and cler-mantyn? Also, what are coronation flowers, and sops in wine?
Ceridwen.
[Both coket and cler-mantyn mean a kind of fine bread. Coronation is the name given by some of our old writers to a species of flower, the modern appellation of which is not clear. Sops-in-wine were a species of flowers among the smaller kind of single gilliflowers or pinks. Both these flowers are noticed by Spenser, in his Shepherd's Calendar for April, as follows:
"Bring coronations and sops-in-wine
Worn of paramours.">[