"I cannot eat but little meat,
My stomach is not good;
But I do think that I can drink
With him that wears a hood!"
must have been composed in Ireland. If the old black-letter book had
said that the Irish _got their dinner_ at night, it would have been
nearer the truth, for the larders of the Milesian chiefs in the
neighbourhood of the English pale were often supplied by the nocturnal
marauds of their cattle-lifters. However, I see that Stanihurst writes
that the Irish dined in winter _before_ day, and in summer about the
seventh hour.
Can any of your readers say in whose possession this book is now? I was
informed that it was purchased by a dignitary of Cambridge University.