H. C. K.
"Celsior exsurgens pluviis," &c.—
"Celsior exsurgens pluviis, nimbosque cadentes,
Sub pedibus cernens, et cæca tonitrua calcans."
Can you oblige me by stating where the above lines are to be found? They appear to me to form an appropriate motto for a balloon.
J. P. A.
The Bargain Cup.—Can the old English custom of drinking together upon the completion of a bargain, be traced back farther than the Norman era? Did a similar custom exist in the earlier ages? Danl. Dyke, in his Mysteries (London, 1634), says:
"The Jews being forbidden to make couenants with the Gentiles, they also abstained from drinking with them; because that was a ceremonie vsed in striking of couenants."
This is the only notice I can find among old writers touching this custom, which is certainly one of considerable antiquity: though I should like confirmation of Dyke's words, before I can recognise an ancestry so remote.
R. C. Warde.