"It may please you to understand that I have had a certain allowance for wine in my household without imposte. The charges that I do now sustain, and have done this yere, by reason of keeping the Queen of Scots, is so great, that I am compelled to be a suter unto you, that ye will have a friendly consideration. Truly, two tonnes a monthe have not hitherto sustained my ordinary." This will show there was some pretty heavy drinking of the wine, because the greater part of the household would have ale. I should think there must be many daily "wine wise;" that was the pretty saying they made use of when any one had had too much.

The drinking of healths I believe to be a Danish custom. If the company consisted of twenty or thirty, it was expected that each should drink healths in rotation; and if an absent or favourite lady or patron, their healths were to be drank on the knees. In those exciting times toasts could not but be often offensive to some, which led to angry discussions and duels.

Drunkenness was the prevailing vice all over the country. Breton, a writer of this time, quaintly observes: "A drunken man is a noun adjective, for he cannot stand alone by himself." The nation must, then, be in a pretty rolling condition; for it appears all the verbs were sots, and could lend them but a staggering support.

But ale was the principal beverage; and the Dutch have raised the following quaint query upon the subject of drinking too much:

As dat beer is in de man,
Is de wyshel in de can?

or,

When the beer is in the man,
Is the wisdom in the can?

The solving of this question I shall leave to some ingenious casuist-one who has a mind of that cast that can

A hair 'twixt north and north-west side." HUDIBRAS.

The intemperate should recollect the following French maxim:

"Two things a drunkard doth disclose

A crimson phiz and pimpled nose.'

In the town of Nottingham there was a publican of the name of Littlejohn, who put up over his door the sign of Robin Hood and the following four witty lines:

"All ye that relish ale that's good,

Come in and drink with Robin Hood;

If Robin Hood is not at home,

Come in and drink with Littlejohn."

But Mr. Littlejohn, in the due course of time, like all other men, paid the debt of nature. His successor thought it a pity to lose so good a sign and such good tap-room poetry; so, with a little ingenious poetic alteration, he substituted his own name, as follows:

"All ye that relish ale that's good,

Come in and drink with Robin Hood;
If Robin Hood is not at home,

Come in and drink with Samuel Johnson."

Goldsmith had such a house as this upon his mind when he

wrote

"Where village statesmen talk'd with looks profound,

And news much older than the ale went round,"

amid murky clouds of best Virginia.

In some districts, as is now the case, cider was a common beverage. Drayton thus mentions it:

"Spiced syllabubs, and cider of the best,

And to the same down solemnly they sat."

The renowned city of Oxford is famous for a drink called an Oxford night-cap, which one of that learned body of men in the olden time has thus given his reasons for drinking:

"Three cups of this a prudent man may take-
The first of them for constitution sake;
The second to the lady he loves best;

The third, and lest, to lull him to his rest."

I hope, therefore, it will not be imprudent in me to give the recipe for making it. The above orthodox authority must be undeniable.

Make several incisions in the rind of a lemon, stick cloves in them, and roast by a slow fire; put equal quantities of cinnamon, mace, and alspice, with a race of ginger, into a saucepan, with half a pint of water; simmer till reduced half the quantity. Boil one bottle of port wine, burn a portion of the spirit out by applying a lighted piece of paper to the saucepan; put the roasted lemon and spice into the wine, stir it up, and let it stand near the fire ten minutes; rub a few nobs of white sugar on the rind of a lemon, put the sugar into a jug with the juice of a raw lemon, pour the wine upon it, grate some nutmeg into it, and sweeten to your taste: serve it up with the lemon floating at top. Some use Burgundy wine mulled, and call it bishop or a comforter.

If with old Rhenish port, it is called cardinal; but if with Tokay, it is called pope.

Hippocras was a wedding beverage, made of red wine, spices, and sugar, stirred with sprigs of rosemary.

Another favourite drink was called "rumfustian :" it was made the same as the night-cap, except there were added the yolks of twelve eggs, a quart of home-brewed beer, a bottle of white wine, half a pint of gin, some grated nutmeg, the juice from orange peelings, and then cinnamon and sugar quantum sufficit for the palate. This was drank in such weather as Lord Byron did not like-"mists, thaws, slops, or rain."

Another drink was called Brown Betty. Dissolve one pound of brown sugar in a pint of water, slice a lemon in it, and let it stand half an hour; add pounded cloves and cinnamon, half a pint of brandy, and one quart of strong ale; stir all together, put a couple of slices of toast in it, toasted quite brown, with some grated nutmeg and ginger on each slice. In the summer this should be iced; in the winter, warmed. The drinking of may be said "to be putting the piquant damsel into a warmed bed."

it

They had also a favourite drink called a cool tankard. A gallon of old ale, into which put the following herbs, agreeable to your taste: balm, hyssop, old man or southern wood, with nutmeg and sugar; let it stand some time, covered

up.

Sometimes it is made with port, sherry, or Madeira wine, instead of the ale. Before drinking, it was always stirred up with a sprig of rosemary: this herb was symbolic of remembrance. Each person always drank out of the same tankard, a noble vessel of either gold or silver, with a chased lid, and always held a full quart; and sometimes there would be pegs sticking out in the inside, to regulate the draught.

Even in the ordinary country farm-houses toast and ale was sure to be introduced at Christmas. This is made with full rounds of a loaf toasted quite brown, (but not burnt,) each slice powdered over with spice and brown sugar, put into a large bowl, and that filled with some good home-brewed ale.

The following is the celebrated Dr. Aldrich's five reasons for drinking, paraphrased from "aut vini bonitus qui alteri causa :" "If on my theme I rightly think,

There are five reasons why men drink;

Good wine, a friend, because I'm dry,
Or lest I should be by and by,

Or any other reason why."

This learned gentleman was dean of Christ church, Oxford,

in 1587.

To make a quart of curoçoa.-To a pint of the clearest and strongest rectified spirits add two and a half drachms of the sweet oil of orange peel, and shake it up; dissolve a pound of good

lump sugar in a pint of cold water, and make this into a clarified syrup, which add to the spirits; shake it up and let it stand until the following day then line a funnel with thin muslin, and line that with filtering paper, and filter it two or three times, or until it is quite bright.

This liquor is a very desirable cordial; and a tea-spoonful in a tumbler of water is a very refreshing summer drink, and a great improvement to punch.

Capillaire. To a pint of clarified syrup add a wine-glassful of curocoa; or dissolve one drachm of oil of neroli in two ounces of rectified syrup, and add a few drops of it to clarified syrup. Lemonade in a minute.-Pound a quarter of an ounce of citric acid with a few drops of quintessence of lemon peel, and mix it by degrees with a pint of clarified syrup or capillaire.

About the end of the century sherbet was much used, which is a most delightful cooling summer drink; and as it is a very proper summer one for this Union, I feel pleasure in giving some good recipes to make it.

Nine Seville oranges and three lemons, grate off the yellow from the rinds, and put these raspings into a gallon of water, with five pounds of double refined sugar, and boil to a candy height; then take it off the fire and add pulps of oranges and lemons; keep stirring it till cool; then strain it off and put into a vessel for use. This may be iced, and flavoured with thyme, mint, sage, or rosemary.

Another method of making sherbet consists of water, lemon or orange juice, in which are dissolved perfumed cakes made of the best Damascus fruits, and containing also an infusion of rose water. Another is made of violets, honey, juice of raisins, These are all delightful summer drinks. Lord Byron, in a letter to Tom Moore, says:

&c.

"Give me a sun, I care not how hot,

And sherbet to driuk, I care not how cool,

and my heaven is as easily made as your Persian," which Moore had thus described:

"A Persian's heaven is easily made;

'Tis but black eyes and lemonade."

Drinking glasses and decanters were introduced in 1577; and soon enough was manufactured for the home consumption, beautifully enamelled, cut, and inlaid with heraldric, hunting, and other subjects.

But in the servants' halls of gentlemen's mansions the ale for the servants is drawn in leathern-jacks, like engine fire-buckets, and they drink it out of horns, which hold a pint each. This saves a considerable sum yearly in crockery and glass.

137

CONTRAST OF THE TWO LEADING PARTIES.

"Party is the madness of many for the gain of a few."

IT is worthy of our particular remark, and may, I hope, serve as a useful lesson to future reformers, who may be very praiseworthily and zealously inclined to effect judicious reforms in society. To show, however, how much a spirit of mere contradiction will do, witness the Puritan party, who were always a minority, speaking of them numerically; but in moral effect they were a host; and, had their system been offered in many cases in a more captivating form, they would have effected much more than they did. Their conduct puts one forcibly in mind of a witty satirist's description of that useful animal, the swine:

"Try but to drive a pig against his will,
Behold, the sturdy gentleman stands still;
Or else, his independent soul to show,
Gallops the very road he should not go."

The Puritan, from what he considered his religious principles, was, and must be, a stiff and rigid personage; and must hold in contempt all the kind-hearted temperings which were reckoned among the mellowing influences of human life.

In 1644 the Puritan parliament established the directory, and not only abolished the book of common prayer, but voted the creed, the Lord's prayer, and the ten commandments useless. They affected a slow and drawling speech and tone, which degenerated into a spuffle or "sweet nasal twang;" while their talk was liberally checkered over with the most ordinary texts of Scripture. In their dealings they would say, "It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer; and when he is gone away, then he boasteth.” When they rebuked a talkative person, they would say, "In all labour there is profit, but the talk of the lips tendeth to penury." If you meddled with any of their articles of trade, they would say, "Touch not, taste not, handle not," without you mean to buy.

They were very fond of Scriptural mottoes. One which be◄ came so perfectly perverted as to be now scarcely recognised, was, "God encompasseth us."

They also gave, as a first name to their children, biblical names expressive of some Christian quality which they religiously approved, and which they very property and as piously wished their children to follow out; and being, as it were, thus ingrafted upon them, would undoubtedly tend to produce such. an effect upon their daily conduct.