A note to the above states, in reference to the word "hep," that it was a term of derision, applied to those who drank a weak infusion of the "hep" (hip) berry, or sloe. "Hence," says the writer, "the exclamation of 'Hip, hip, hurrah,' corrupted from 'Hip, hip, away.'" The couplet quoted above was written up in the Apollo Room at the Devil Tavern, Temple Bar, where Ben Jonson's club, the "Apollo Club," used to meet. Many a drinker of modern Port has equally good reason to exclaim with his brethren of old, "Hip, hip, away!"
J. Brent.
Footnote 4:[(return)]
A skinker is one who serves drink.
Emblemata (Vol. vii., p. 614.).—I have a small edition of the Emblemata Horatiana, with the following title-page:
"Othonis VænI Emblemata Horatiana Imaginibus in æs incisis atque Latino, Germanico, Gallico et Belgico carmine Illustrata: Amstelædami, apud Henricum Wetstenium, M. DC. LXXXIV."
The engravings, of which there are 103, measure about four inches by three; the book contains 207 pages, exclusive of the index. "Amicitiæ Trutina," mentioned by Mr. Weld Taylor, is the sixty-sixth plate on page 133.
There is another volume of Emblems by Otho Venius, of which I have a copy:
"Amorum Emblemata Figuris Æneis Incisa, studio Othonis VænI: Batavo Lugdunensis Antverpiæe Venalia apud Auctorem prostant apud Hieronymum Verdussen, MDCIIX."
The engravings, of which (besides an allegorical frontispiece representing the power of Venus) there are 124, are oval, measuring five inches in length by three and a half inches in height. The designs appear to me to be very good. On the