Noctes Ambrosia'næ

While Lockhart was writing Valerius, he was in the habit of taking walks with Professor Wilson every morning, and of supping with Blackwood at Ambrose's, a small tavern in Edinburgh. One night Lockhart said, “What a pity there has not been a short-hand writer here to take down all the good things that have been said!” and next day he produced a paper from memory, and called it Noctes

Ambrosiana;.

That was the first of the series. The part ascribed to Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, is purely supposititious.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894

Noctuas Athenas Ferre

Noblesse Oblige