HUFFCAPS.
A very large number of these old trees have local names, very delightful local names, though it has not always been easy to disentangle them. One of the better varieties is "Upright Styre." A common, almost generic name, with various epithets attached, is Huffcap, which like many others contains an allusion to the powerful effect of perry on the brains of the'drinker. " Mumblehead," "Mumble- skull," carry a like suggestion in their delightfully Saxon, onomatopoeic syllables. Monosyllables, as in most English christenings, are much favoured. "Sack," "Gin," "Water Lugg " and the most convincing " Tump " are characteristic examples. The superiority of perry over cider, in the attribute of potency, seems to have been very emphatically printed on the imagination of the rural dweller in the West Country. Doubtless the native brewer a century or more ago could not regulate the alcoholic percentages with the precision of the manufacturer to-day, who has as great a skill and as precise an art as the maker of champagne.
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