Wordplay/ What's fun about the HPs? -- "hogshead"

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 152710

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "She Who Must Be Obeyed" 
<ClareWashbrook at ...> wrote:
>
> Geoff:
> > It refers, I suspect, to a "hogshead" which is a large cask of wine 
> > or beer and also used to describe a measure of wine or beer of just 
> > over 50 Imperial gallons.

Clare
> It was actually only officially a measurement for wine and the original 
> liquid measure was 63 old wine gallons (by a statute of 1423); later 
> anywhere from 100 to 140 gallons.
> 
> I wonder if translations of the books into other Germanic based 
> languages change the name of the town to Oxhead because that's what it 
> was called in other countries.  Hogshead came first though - late 
> fourteenth century if I remember correctly.

Geoff:
For comparison, my source was the following:

'Hogshead > noun 1 a large cask. 2 a measure of liquid volume equal to 
52.5 imperial gallons (63 US gallons, 238.7 litres) for wine or 54 imperial 
gallons (64 US gallons, 245.5 litres) for beer.'

(Reader's Digest Word Power dictionary)