--The tale
Of horrid apparition, tall and ghastly,
That walks at dead of night, or takes his stand
O'er some new-open'd grave; and, strange to tell,
Evanishes at crowing of the cock--_Blair._

Who can ever forget the night-watches proclaimed by the cock in that
scene in Comus, where the two brothers, in search of their sister, are
benighted in a forest?--

--Might we but hear
The folded flocks, penned in their wattled cotes,
Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops,
Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock
Count the night-watches to his feathery dames,
'Twould be some solace yet, some little cheering,
In this close dungeon of innumerous boughs.

Dr. Forster observes--"There is this remarkable circumstance about the
crowing of cocks--they seem to keep night-watches, or to have general
crowing-matches, at certain periods--as, soon after twelve, at two,
and again at day-break. These are the Alectrephones mentioned by St.
John. To us, these cock-crowings do not appear quite so regular in
their times of occurrence, though they actually observe certain
periods, when not interrupted by the changes of the weather, which
generally produce a great deal of crowing. Indeed, the song of all
birds is much influenced by the state of the air." Dr. F. also
mentions, "that cocks began to crow during the darkness of the eclipse
of the sun, Sept. 4, 1820; and it seems that _crepusculum_ (or
twilight) is the sort of light in which they crow most."

_Goes of Liquor._

Why did tavern-keepers originally call portions of liquor "goes?"

Because of the following incident, which, though unimportant in
itself, convinces us how much custom is influenced by the most
trifling occurrences:--The tavern called the Queen's Head, in
Duke's-court, Bow-street, was once kept by a facetious individual of
the name of Jupp. Two celebrated characters, Annesley Spay and Bob
Todrington, a sporting man, meeting one evening at the above place,
went to the bar, and each asked for half a quartern of spirits, with a
little cold water. In the course of time, they drank four-and-twenty,
when Spay said to the other, "Now we'll go."--"O no," replied he,
"we'll have another, and then go."--This did not satisfy the gay
fellows, and they continued drinking on till three in the morning,
when both agreed to GO; so that under the idea of going, they made a
long stay. Such was the origin o