English wine cask units the mediæval French and Italian "botte") or pipe was half a tun, or 1008 pints. Tradition has it that George, Duke of Clarence, the brother of Edward IV of England, was drowned in a butt of malmsey on 18 February 1478. (However, Josephine Tey in "The Daughter of Time" suggests that "drowned in a butt of malmsey" means rather that George, Duke of Clarence, drank himself to death rather than literally drowning in a container of wine.) In Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Cask of Amontillado", the narrator claims he has received "a pipe of what passes for Amontillado".
Ronald Butt Ronald Butt Ronald Herbert Butt, CBE (17 February 1920 – 13 December 2002) was a British journalist who wrote a political column for The Times from 1968 to 1991 and was the author of two books on Parliament. Butt was born and grew up in south London, the son of Herbert Butt and Elizabeth Clare Butt (née Morley). He was educated at St Dunstan's College, London. Before the outbreak of the Second World War he held pacifist views and had to wrestle with his conscience before deciding to join the Army. He served in the Intelligence Corps and took part