1889. It would hold 200,000 bottles of Champagne, and came from Epernay.

It had to be drawn by a large team, by road, and the French press was full of its imaginary adventures on its journey to Paris.] To the north of Coblentz the wines are of little comparative value, though a Rhenish wine has been produced at Bodendorf, near Bonn. On the Rhine or its tributary rivers between Coblentz and Mayence, all the most celebrated wines of Germany are grown. The grapes preferred for general cultivation are the Riessling, a small, white, harsh species. The true _Hochheimer_, daily consumed in Germany, is grown to the eastward of Mentz, between there and Frankfort. The wines mellow best in large vessels, an experience which has produced the celebrated Heidelberg Tun, holding some six hundred hogsheads. The distinguishing characteristics of German wine have been said to be generosity, dryness, fine flavour, and endurance of age. The dyspeptic will learn with delight that the strong wines of the Rhine are extremely salutary, and contain less acid than any other. It is also averred that they are never saturated with brandy. _Liebfrauenmilch_[27] is grown at Worms. It is full bodied, as is that of _Scharlachberg_. Wines of _Nierstein_,[28] _Laubenheim_, and _Oppenheim_ are good, but _Deidesheimer_ is considered superior to them. _Hock_[29] is derived from Hochheim; but nearly every town on the banks of the Rhine gives its name to some lauded vintage. The flavour of Hock is supposed to be improved by thin green glasses. Perhaps, says the judicious Redding, this is mere fancy. The Palatinate wines are cheaper Hocks. Moselles have a more delicate perfume. The whole eastern bank of the Rhine to Lorich, called the Rheingau, about fourteen miles in extent, has been famous for its wines for ages. Naturally, therefore, it was once the property of the Church. Here is _Schloss-Johannisberger_, once nearly destroyed by General Hoche, where a leading Rhine wine is made. _Steinberger_ takes the next rank to _Johannisberger_. _Gräfenberg_, also once ecclesiastical property, produces wine equal to _Rüdesheimer_, which is a wine of the first Rhine growths. _Marcobrunner_, _Roth_, _Königsbach_ are excellent drinks. _Bacharach_ has lost its former celebrity. The conclusion to which a celebrated connoisseur has arrived after an exhaustive examination of German wines is this: “On the whole, the wines of _Bischeim_, _Asmannshäuser_, and _Laubenheim_ are very pleasant wines; those of rather more strength are _Marcobrunner_, _Rüdesheimer_ and _Niersteiner_, while those of _Johannisberg_, _Geissenheim_, and _Hochheim_ give the most perfect delicacy and aroma.” The Germans themselves say _Rhein-wein, fein-wein; Necker-wein, lecker-wein; Franken-wein, tranken-wein; Mosel-wein, unnosel-wein_.[30] [Illustration] The red wines of the Rhine are considered inferior to the white. Red _Asmannshäuser_ is perhaps the best. Near Lintz _Blischert_ is made. Königsbach and Altenahr yield ordinary wines. The most celebrated of Moselle wines is the _Brauneberger_, of which the varieties are numerous. A variety called _Gruenhäuser_ was formerly styled the Nectar of the Moselle. The wines of Ahr, of which some are red, resemble Moselles, but will keep longer. Of the wines of the Neckar the most celebrated is _Besigheimer_. Baden, Wiesbaden, Wangen, and Würtzberg, all grow good wines. Of the last is _Stein-wein_, produced on a mountain so called, and named by the Hospital to which it belongs, _Wine of the Holy Ghost_. _Leisten_ wines are grown on Mt. Saint Nicolas. _Straw_ wines are made in Franconia. _Calmus_, a liqueur wine, like the sweet wines of Hungary, is made in the territory of Frankfurt. The best vineyards are those of Bischofsheim. Wines of Saxony are of little worth. Meissen and Guben produce the best. Naumburg makes some small wines, like inferior Burgundy. The excellence of the Rhine wines has seldom perhaps been proved more clearly than by one who loved them well. Goethe, in his _Aus einer Reise am Rhein, Main und Neckar_, says: “_Niemand schämt sich der Weinlust, sie rühmen sich einigermaassen des Trinkens. Hübsche Frauen gestehen dass ihre Kinder mit der Mutterbrust zugleich Wein geniessen. Wir fragten ob denn wahr sey, dass es geistlichen Herren, ja Kurfürsten geglückt, acht Rheinische Maass, das heisst sechzehn unserer Bouteillen, in vierundzwanzig Stunden zu sich zunehmen? Ein scheinbar ernsthafter Gast bemerkte, man dürfe sich zu Beantwortung dieser Frage nur der Fastenpredigt ihres Weihbischofs erinnern, welcher, nachdem er das schreckliche Laster der Trunkenheit seiner Gemeinde mit den stärksten Farben dargestellt, also geschlossen habe—_” But for those who understand not the German tongue we will give some of the sermon of this Church dignitary on the Rochusberg in English. “Those, my pious brethren, commit the greatest sin who misuse God’s glorious gifts. But the misuse excludes not the use. Wine, it is written, rejoices man’s heart. Therefore we are clearly intended to enjoy it. Now perhaps, beloved brethren, there is not one of you who cannot drink two measures of wine without feeling any ill effects therefrom; he, however, who with his third or fourth measure has so far forgotten himself as to abuse, beat and kick his wife and children, and to treat his dearest friend as his worst enemy, let such a one discontinue to drink three or four measures, which thus render him unpleasing to God and despicable to man. But he who with the fourth measure, nay, with his fifth or his sixth, still maintains his sense in such a manner that he can behave properly to his fellow-Christian, attend to his domestic duties, and obey his spiritual superiors as he ought, let him be thankful in modesty for the gift accorded to him. But let him not advance beyond the sixth measure, for here commonly is the term set to human power and endurance. Rare indeed is the occasion in which the benevolent God has lent a man such especial grace that he may drink eight measures—a grace which He has, however, accorded to me His servant. Let, therefore, every one take only his allotted measure _und auf dass ein solches geschehe, alles Ubermaass dagegen verbannt sey, handelt sämmtlich nach der Vorschrift des heiligen Apostels welcher spricht; Prüfet alles und das Beste behaltet!_” [Illustration: “TASTING THE VINTAGE.”—_After_ Hasenclever.] GREECE. The vinification of Greece is commonly imperfect. Most of its wines become vinegar in summer. Avoid, says a well-known guide-book, the wine of this country, which is generally acid and always impure.[31] The best Greek wines are those of the islands Ithaca, Zante, Tenos, Samos, Thera (Santorin),[32] and Cyprus. The white wine of Zante, called _Verdea_, resembles Madeira in flavour. The wine of Naxos is of considerable strength, and is greatly improved by age. A quantity of it, known as _Vino Santo_, is exported. Andros was sacred to Dionysus, and a tradition (Plin. ii. 103; xxxi. 13; Paus. vi. 26) says that for seven days during a festival of this god the waters of a certain fountain were changed to wine. The wine did no credit to the god, if it resembled that which this island at present produces. The “Nectar” of _Morta_ is bitter and astringent. Dr. Charnock has recommended the _Monthymet_ as a good mild wine, and the _œconomos_. A white wine, called “_the wine of night_,” is supplied under the distinctive names of _St. Elie_ and _Calliste_; the latter is the better. HUNGARY. The wines of Hungary, we are told, “possess considerable body with a moderate astringency.” The varieties of wine known as _Ausbruch_ and _Maszlacs_, including the _Tokays_, _Rust_, _Menes_, and many more, are of the most important character. Without the addition of dry berries the so-called natural wine or _Szamorodni_ is obtained. The Tokay essence, a very sweet wine, should be also very old. When fifty years in bottle it costs some £3[33] for a small flask. Ausbruch, also sweet, should be also old. _Maszlacz_ is of four different kinds. The _Mezes_, _Male_ or _Imperial_, does not get into trade. _Meograd_, _Krasso_, and _Villany_ from the West of Hungary are good strong wines of the second class. Wines of the third class are very numerous. There is no space to mention more than the red wines: _Baranya_, _Presburger_, _Somogy_, _Vagh-Ujhelyer_, _Paulitsch_, and _Erdöd_, and the white _Miszla_, _Balaton_, _Füred_, _Hont_, _Pesth_, and _Weissenburger_. _Samlauer_ is one of the best white wines made at a place called Samlau, as _Erlauer_ another good wine at Erlau. The most commonly known Hungarian wines of the present are _Oedenburger_, _Samlauer_, _Neszmely_, and _Carlowitz_. ITALY. That Italy produces good wines is, says Cyrus Redding, undeniable. She also produces wines that are very bad. The best Italian wines are believed to be of Tuscany. As Hafiz is the authority for _Shiraz_, so Redi’s _Bacco in Toscana_ should be consulted for the wines of Italy. _Monte Pulciano_ is of a purple hue, sweet and slightly astringent. It is to this wine that Redi gives the palm, calling it _la manna di Monte Pulciano_. The wine of _Chianti_, near Sienna, is well known. _Artiminio_, _Poncino_, _Antella_, and _Carmignano_, though of less reputation, are not greatly inferior. The best _Verdea_[34] comes from Arcetri near Florence. _Trebbiano_, a gold-coloured syrup, is produced, according to Drs. Thudichum and Dupré, from grapes, “passulated on the vine by torsion of the stalk.” _Montelcino_, _Rimaneze_, and _Santo Stefano_ are Siennese wines. Of Sardinia the chief wines are the so-called _Malvasias_, _Giro_, _Aleatico_, like the _Tinto_ of Alicante, and _Bosa_, _Ogliastra_, and _Sassari_. Of Piedmont the principal wines are _Barolo_, _Barbera_, _Nebbiolo_, _Braccheto_. _Asti_, _Chaumont_, _Alba_, and _Montferrat_ have had reputation thrust upon them. _Grignolinos_ are made from a vine closely related to the _Kadarka_ of Hungary, and the _Carmenet_ of the Gironde. The wines of Genoa are of small repute. Central Italy furnishes _Montefiascone_,[35] with a delicious aroma, _Albano_, resembling _Lacryma Christi_, and _Orvieto_. The principal wine of Naples, from the base of Vesuvius, is _Lacryma Christi_, a rich, red, exquisite drink, affirmed by some adventurous fancies to be the _Falernian_ of Horace. “O Christ!” said a Dutchman who drank, “why didst Thou not weep in my country?” Gallipoli, Tarento, Baia, Pausilippo, yield good wines. The islands in the Bay of Naples all produce wine; that of _Caprea_ is of good ordinary quality, both white and red. Calabria furnishes many good wines. _Muscadenes_ and dry wines are made at Reggio. _Asprino_, a white foamy wine, with a pleasant sharpness, is a favourite of the Campagna. _Carigliano_ is a Muscadine, with a flavour of fennel. Dr. Charnock speaks highly of the wine of Capri, and of Orvieto, a delicate white wine of Rome. The disagreement of travellers about the merits of wines arises principally, of course, from a diversity of tastes, but also in the matter of Italian wines, from the fact that different wines bear the same names in different countries. There is, for instance, a _vino santo_ and a _vino greco_ in Naples. A Veronese wine, _vino debolissimo e di niuna stima_, is also called _vino santo_, and an excellently good wine at Brescia. It is the same with half a dozen of the most noted wines of Italy. _Modico_, a fine white wine from the place of that name near Salerno, was apparently a favourite of the noted School of Salernum. The best known wines out of Italy are the _Barola_, _Barbera_, and the rest which may be found on the wine-list of every _padrone_ of an Italian restaurant; the _Inferno_ of the Valtellina; the _Lambrusco_ of Modena; the _Chianti_ of Tuscan—a wine grown on the estate of Baron Ricasoli, not thought so much of in Italy as in England; and the _Lacryma Christi_ of Naples. Most Italian wines are bottled in flasks, in the old Roman style, with oil[36] on the top, and wool over the oil. MADEIRA. Wine is first mentioned as a product of Funchal, the capital of Madeira, in the fifteenth century. In 1662, when Charles II. married the Infanta Catherine of Bragança, English merchants began to settle in Madeira. The principal varieties of Madeira are _Malvasia_, _Bual_, _Sercial_, _Tinta_, and _Verdelho_ (the _Verdea_ of Tuscany). In England, Madeira is now within the reach of all. At the beginning of this century, it was known only to connoisseurs. The “fine rich old _Boal_” is fairly familiar, and if we may trust the wine merchants, the “Very Superior Old,” variously described as full, soft, golden, delicate, and mellow, is gradually winning its way into public favour, since that same “soft fulness,” added to a delicious and yet pungent flavour, produces a drink “altogether superior” to the best Sherry. PERSIA. The ancient, most famous wines of this country were those of Chorassan, Turan, and Mazanderan. These places still produce wines; but their characteristics and reputation have, it is affirmed, become blended in the wine of Shiraz, in the province of Ferdistan, on the Persian Gulf. Chardin, the Frenchman, describes this wine as of excellent quality, but of course not so fine as the French wines. The German, Kämpfer, puts Shiraz on the same level with the best Burgundy and Champagne. He who wishes to learn the nature of the wine of Shiraz should consult the _Diwan_ of Hafiz. How far this poet speaks of wine literally understood, and how far of spiritual delights, is a matter for commentatorial investigation. Persian wine is frequently mixed with _raki_ and saffron, and the extract of hemp. _Sherbet_, made of fruit juices and water, is English rather than Oriental. [Illustration] PORTUGAL. PORTUGAL: Peso da Regoa—Four Methods of Cultivation of Vine—White and Black Ports—The _Quintas_—Tarragona—Charneco. RUSSIA: Kahetia—Gumbrinskoé. SICILY: Marsala. SPAIN: Malaga—Sherry—Amontillado. SWITZERLAND: Chiavenna—St. Gall—The Canton of Vaud. CIDER: Derivation—Ainsworth—Gerard—Bacon—Evelyn—Turberville—Macaulay—Phillips. PERRY. One hundred and fifty years ago, in the small town of Peso da Regoa, then called Regua only, near the confluence of the Corgo with the Douro, lived a single fisherman, in a hut which he had himself constructed. When the Oporto Wine Company was established, their warehouses were erected here, and an annual fair for the sale of wine was established. Peso da Regoa—the Peso comes from an adjoining village—is now a thriving town, and may be considered the capital of the Alto Douro district (_Paiz Vinhateiro do Alto Douro_), whence are sent to England and elsewhere those wines which are here known as Port. The wine district is bounded by Villa Real on the north, Lamego on the south, S. João da Pesqueira on the east, and Mezãofrio on the west. It is unwholesome, and but thinly populated. Those who list may draw from this fact a divine prohibition of the bibbing of Port. The vine is cultivated in Portugal in four ways. (1) By being trained round oaks or poplars _de enforcado_, as the Romans _ulmisque adjungere vites_. (2) By the terrace system, the best as (1) is the most picturesque. (3) By bushes in rows, with the intermediate ground ploughed. (4) By the trellis or _de ramada_. The first liquor drawn from the _lagar_, or press, the result of the weight of the grapes alone, is called _Lacryma Christi_. After that a gang of men jump into the _lagar_, and dance to the sound of the fife or bagpipe. The weather is warm, the work is hard; the result is better conceived than expressed. Of white Ports the best are _Muscatel de Jesus_ (the testimony to religious influence in this and the _Lacryma Christi_ is extremely touching), considered the prince of all, the _Dedo de Dama_, the _Ferral Branco_, _Malvazia_ (our Malmsey),[37] _Abelhal_, _Agudelho_, _Alvaraça_, _Donzellinho_, _Folgozão_, _Gonveio_, White _Mourisco_, _Rabo da Ovelha_, and _Promissão_. Of the black Ports the finest is _Touriga_, and the sweetest _Bastardo_. Other dark Ports are _Souzão_, the darkest of all, _Aragonez_, _Pegudo_, besides _Tintas_, whose names are legion. Other wines grown here, or in the immediate vicinity, are _Alvarilhão_, a kind of Claret, _Alicante_, _Muscatel_, _Roxo_, and _Malvazia Vermelha_. Great quantities of wine are produced in the _quintas_ outside the line of demarcation, and some of these wines are equal to those made in the wine district of the _Alto Douro_ itself. Red wines transformed into French Clarets at Bordeaux, are exported in large quantities. A wine from Tarragona, known as “Spanish Red,” or superb Catalan, is sent yearly to England, and sold as very full, rich, fruity, and tawny Port. Port will not keep good in the cask for more than two years without the addition of alcohol. The Oporto merchants use a pure spirit distilled from the wine itself. The old Port which we prize so highly and pay for so dearly is seldom unaffected by brandy or other spirit. [Illustration: INTRODUCTION OF THE GOUT.] [Illustration: THE GOUT.] Some of the best wines are produced by Estremadura, such as _Bucellas_, _Collares_, _Lavradio_, _Chamusca_, _Carcavellos_, _Barra a Barra_, and many others of which not even the names are known in England. The vines round Torres Vedras might, it has been said, produce the finest wines in the world, if properly cultivated. _Arinto_ and _Estremadura_ are comparatively new wines. The white wines of Tojal and the vintages of Palmella and Inglezinhos have only to be known to become popular. The province of Traz-os-Montes, in spite of its climate of _nove mezes de inverno, e tres de inferno_, produces excellent wines in the Piaz Vinhateiro. Those in the vicinity of the river Tua and the Sabor are considered by connoisseurs to resemble the celebrated _Clos Vougeot_. There is a remarkable red wine called _Cornifesto_, and the white wines of _Arêas_, _Bragança_, _Moraes_, _Moncorvo_, and _Nosedo_ are excellent. The cup of _Charneco_ (2 Hen. VI. ii. 3), a wine mentioned by Beaumont and Fletcher and Decker, is said to have been made at _Charneco_, a village near Lisbon (_European Magazine_, March, 1794). Port-wine is accredited with producing gout, and the two accompanying illustrations give the “Introduction to the Gout,” and the real fiend itself. RUSSIA. _Kahetia_ is a wine produced in a district of that name, east of Tiflis. It is of two descriptions, red and white, and is much esteemed throughout Transcaucasia. As it is kept in skins made tight with naphtha, it has generally a slight taste of leather and petroleum. _Gumbrinskoé_ is a sweet wine grown in the Gumbri district of the Caucasus. _Donskoé Champanskoé_, the champagne of the Don, is said by Dr. Charnock to be a very good wine, and better than many sorts drunk in Britain. Russian wines generally, as those of many other countries, are largely diluted, and, like the majority of Greek wines, do not improve by keeping. SICILY. A thousand years before Christ, says Mr. Simmonds, districts of Sicily were famous for wine. The coins of Naxos (500 B.C.) bear the head of Bacchus on the obverse, on the reverse Pan, or a bunch of grapes. Of Sicilian wines, the light amber or brown wine of _Marsala_ is best known. There is Ingham’s L.P., and Woodhouse’s; there is also the Old Brown. The Faro is perhaps the strongest wine of Sicily. The wine of Terre Forte is made near Etna, in some vineyards of Benedictine monks. Marsala, as we know it, is generally adulterated, or fortified, to use a more technical term. Even the “Virgin” has not escaped this common lot of wines. Much Marsala is indeed sold as Marsala, but much more is sold as Sherry. The wine of _Taormina_ has the classic taste of pitch. Augusta produces a wine with a strong flavour of violets. This to some palates is the most agreeable wine drank in Sicily or elsewhere. The _Del Bosco_ of Catania, and the _Borgetto_ have been both recommended by the subtle taste of Dr. Charnock. A dry wine called _Vin de Succo_ is made about ten miles from Palermo. The wine of Syracuse somewhat resembles _Chablis_. SPAIN. As Spain succeeds France geographically, so it follows it in the excellence of its vinous productions. Throughout all ages this country has been distinguished for its wines. But the Spaniard’s chief glory under heaven is in the preparation of white dry fortified wines such as Sherries, and sweet wines such as _Malagas_. In the province of Andalusia is situated Xeres de la Frontera, and the convent of _Paxarete_, which produces a rich sweet sparkling drink. Here, too, are the vines of the _vino secco_ and the _abocado_, and _Rota_,[38] which produces Andalusia’s best red wines. Here are _Ranico_, _Moguro_, or _Moguer_, a cheap light wine, _Negio_, and the capital _Seville_. Catalonia yields a large quantity of red wine shipped to England mostly as a drink for the general. The _Malaga_ of Granada is well known. Sherry[39] wines are, or ought to be, the products of Cadiz, including Xeres de la Frontera, San Lucar de Barrameda,—where _Tintilla_, an excellent Muscadine red wine, is manufactured,—Trebujena, and Puerto de Santa Maria. The celebrated wine known as Manzanilla[40] is made in San Lucar de Barrameda. _Val de Peñas_[41] wines are commonly red. After the perfection of age, this celebrated product of La Manche[42] is, in the opinion of Redding, equal to any red wine in the world. Much wine of Catalonia is now imported into England as Catalan Port. Borja produces a luscious white wine. The country about Tarragona on the road to Barcelona is almost wholly occupied with wine making. _Beni-Carlos_, _La Torre_, _Segorbe_, and _Murviedro_, are all fair wines of Valencia. Alicant produces an excellent red wine, _vino tinto_, strong and sweet; when old, this wine is called _Fondellol_. Vinaroz, Santo Domingo, and Perales, offer red wines of moderate excellence. The best wines of Aragon are _Cariñena_ and the _Hospital_, from the vine which the French call _Grenache_. In Biscay, at Chacoli, a _vino brozno_, or austere wine, is produced in large quantity. The best is made at Vittoria, and called _Pedro Ximenes_.[43] Fuençaral, near Madrid, offers a good wine seldom exported. The most famous wine-growing district of Granada is that of Malaga, termed Axarquia. This produces _Malagas_, _Muscatels_, _Malvasies_, and _Tintos_. The red wines called _Tinto de Rota_ and _Sacra_ are unfermented with only enough spirit for preservation, and are commonly advertised in our wine circulars as “suitable for sacramental purposes.” _Guindre_ is flavoured with cherries from which it derives its name. Into this wine, as into some others, the Spaniards are wont to put roasted pears, under the conceit that thereby it is much improved in taste and rendered more wholesome. Hence arose the proverb _El vino de las peras dalo a quien bien quiéras_. _Malaga Xeres_ is often known in England as the pale, gold, dry Sherry,[44] as the wines of Alicant, Benicarlos, and Valencia are sold as a rich and fruity Port. The so-called _Amontillado_ Sherry is very often the outcome of accident. Out of a hundred butts of Sherry from the same vineyard, some, says a great authority, will be _Amontillado_, without the manufacturers being able to account for it. At Cordova, a dry wine called _Montilla_ is commonly drunk. SWITZERLAND. Swiss wines are commonly consumed only in Switzerland. The best is produced in the Grisons, called _Chiavenna_, aromatic and white from the red grape. A white _Malvasia_ of good quality is made in the Valais. It is luscious, as is _Chiavenna_. The Valais also furnishes red wines, made at La Marque and Coquempin in the district of Martigny. Schaffhausen gives plenty of red wine. The _wine of blood_[45] is manufactured at Basle. These wines are also known as those of the _Hospital_ and _St. Jaques_. The red wines of Erlach, in Berne, are of a good quality. The red wine of Neufchâtel is equal to a third-class Burgundy. St. Gall produces tolerable wines. In the Valteline, the red wines are both good and durable, much resembling the aromatic wine of Southern France. These wines are remarkably luscious, and will, it is said, keep for a century. The largest amount of wine is produced by the Canton of Vaud. The wines of _Cully_ and _Désalés_, near Lausanne, much resemble the dry wines of the Rhine. [Illustration] [Illustration: APPLES FOR CIDER.] CIDER. The original meaning of the word _cider_[46] appears to have been strong drink. It was used to designate a liquor made of the juice of any fruit pressed, and an example of the word in this use is to be found in Wycliffe’s Bible, in the speech of the angel to Zacharias (Luke i. 15), in allusion to his promised progeny: _He schal not drynke wyn and syder_. The next meaning is that of a liquor made from the juice of apples expressed and fermented. “A flask of _cider_ from his father’s vats, Prime, which I knew.” TENNYSON: _Audley Court_. We have little information about cider either from the Greeks or the Latins. It would seem that it was not known to them, if we may trust Ainsworth, who translates cider by _succus e pomis expressus_, and Byzantius, who gives μηλίτης (οἶνος) εἶδ. ποτοῦ as the equivalent for _cidre_.[47] Gerard, in his _Historie of Plants_, published in 1597, says that he saw in the pastures and hedgerows about the grounds of a “worshipful gentleman,” dwelling two miles from Hereford, called M. Roger Bodnome, so many trees of all sorts that the servants drunk for the most part no other drink but that which is made from apples. The quantity, says Gerard, was such that by the report of the gentleman himself, the parson “hath for tithe many hogsheads of Syder.” This reference to the servants and the parson drinking it, but not to the “gentleman,” seems to show that the liquor was not then held in much esteem. Bacon placed cider after wine, and we have followed in our arrangement of the present volume his august example. This great philosopher speaks of cider and perry as “notable beverages on sea-voyages.” The cider of his day did not, he says, sour by crossing the line, and was good against sea-sickness. He also speaks of cider, a “wonderful pleasing and refreshing drink,” in his _New Atlantis_. John Evelyn’s _French Gardener_ gives much information on this subject, and his _Pomona_ is, says Stopes, the first monograph on the manufacture of cider in England. Cider is made in many parts of Barbary, and in Canada. In all the States, apples are abundant, particularly in New York and New England, and cider is a common drink of the inhabitants. And it is as excellent as it is common. That of New Jersey is generally considered the best. It is curious that the least juicy apples afford the best liquor. Cider of a superior quality is abundant in Cork, Waterford, and other counties of Ireland, where it was introduced, we are told, in the reign of Elizabeth. It was first made at Affane, in the county of Waterford.[48] Worledge’s _Vinetum Britannicum_, 1676, and his _Most Easy Method for Making the Best Cider_, 1687, have been considered at full length by Mr. Stopes. Worledge’s press is an improvement upon one shown in Evelyn’s _Pomona_. Cider appears in Russia under the name of _Kvas_. There is _Yàblochni kvas_, made of apples; _Grùshevoi kvas_, of pears, a perry; and _Malinovoi kvas_, of raspberries. George Turberville, secretary to the English Embassy to Moscow in the year 1568, mentions _kvas_ in a description of the Russians of his time as:— “Folk fit to be of Bacchus’ train, so quaffing is their kind; Drink is their whole desire, the pot is all their pride. The soberest head doth once a day stand needful of a guide. If he to banquet bid his friends, he will not shrink On them at dinner to bestow a dozen kinds of drink, Such liquor as they have, and as the country gives; But chiefly two, one called _kwas_, whereby the Moujike lives, Small ware and waterlike, but somewhat tart in taste; The rest is mead, of honey made, wherewith their lips they baste.” Stopes is of opinion that the finest cider is made, not in the west, as has been commonly asserted, but in the east of England. This authority seems particularly to favour the Ribston pippins of Norfolk. “Worcester,” says Macaulay, in his _History of England_, ch. iii., “is the queen of the cider land;” but Devon and Somerset, Gloucester and Norfolk, might dispute the title. To make good cider the apples should be quite ripe, as the amount of sugar in ripe apples is 11·0; in unripe apples, 4·9; in over-ripe apples, 7·95. The fermentation should proceed slowly. Brande says that the strongest cider contains, in 100 volumes, 9·87 of alcohol of 92 per cent; the weakest, 5·21. By distillation, cider produces a good spirit; but it is seldom converted to that purpose in consequence of its acidity, which, however, is greatly remedied by rectification. Much cider is distilled in Normandy, and sent to this country under the name of _arrack_, or some other foreign spirit, according to its flavour. To the Normans the invention of this liquor has been attributed. They are also said to have received it from the Moors. Whitaker (_Hist. Manchester_, i. 321) says this drink was introduced into this country by the Romans; and Simmonds (p. 25) that it was first used in England about 1284. [Illustration: AN OLD CIDER MILL.] Cider has been immortalised by Phillips in a classical poem, in imitation of Virgil’s Georgics, which, according to Johnson, “need not shun the presence of the original.” Milton’s nephew thought that cider— “far surmounts Gallic or Latin grapes.” PERRY. Perry is prepared from pears, as cider from apples. It is capable of being used in the adulteration of champagne.[49] The harsher, redder, and more tawny pears produce the best drink. Perry is less popular than cider, but some consider it superior.[50] [Illustration] BRANDY. The Invention of Brandy—Early Alchemists—Aqua Vitæ—Distillation—The Still-room—Ladies Drinking—Nantes and Charente—Johnson’s Idea of Brandy—The Charente District—Manufacture of Brandy—The Cognac Firms. Who invented Brandy? is a question that cannot be authoritatively answered offhand; but the good people of some parts of Germany hold that it was the Devil. And their legend is, at all events, circumstantial. Every one who is at all acquainted with old legends is fully aware that the Father of Evil is extremely simple, and has allowed himself, many times, to be outwitted by man. Once, especially, he was so guileless as to put trust in a Steinbach man, who cajoled him into entering an old beech tree, and there he was imprisoned until the tree was cut down. His first step, on regaining his freedom, was to revisit his own particular dominion, which, to his horror, he found empty! This, naturally, would not do, and he set about re-peopling hell without delay. He thought the quickest plan would be to start a distillery; so he hurried off at once to Nordhausen, where his manufacture of Brandy (his own invention) became so famous that people from all parts came to him to learn the new art, and to become distillers. From that time his Satanic Majesty has never had to complain of paucity of subjects. It seems fairly established that the famous chemist Geber, who lived in the 7th or 8th century, was acquainted with distillation, and we know that it was practised by the Arabian and Saracenic alchemists, but have no knowledge whether they made any practical use of the _alcohol_ they produced. They, at all events, gave us the word by which we now know the _spirit_, or ethereal part, of wine. Alcohol, distilled from wine, is first reliably mentioned by a celebrated French alchemist and physician, Arnaud de Villeneuve, who died in 1313, who gave it the name of _aqua vitæ_, or water of life,[51] and regarded it as a valuable adjunct in physic, and as a boon to humanity. Raymond Lully, the famous alchemist, who is said to have been his pupil, declared it to be “an emanation from the Deity,” and on its introduction it was supposed to be the elixir of life, capable of rejuvenating those who partook of it, and, as such, was only purchasable at an extremely high price. We may see, by a book[52] written 200 years after the death of Arnaud de Villeneuve, the esteem in which Aqua Vitæ was held even after so great a lapse of time. Aqua Vite is comonly called the mastresse of al medycynes, for it easeth the dysseases comynge of colde. It gyveth also yonge corage in a person, and cawseth hym to have a good memorye and remembraunce. It puryfyeth the fyve wittes of melancolye and of unclenes whan it is dronke by reason and measure. That is to understande fyve or syx droppes in the mornynge lastyng with a sponefull of wyne, usynge the same in the maner aforsayde the evyl humours can not hurte the body, for it withdryveth them oute of the vaynes. ¶ It conforteth the harte, and causeth a body to be mery. ¶ It heleth all olde and newe sores on the hede comynge of colde, whan the hede is enoynted therwyth and a lytell of the same water holden in the mouthe, and dronke of the same. ¶ It causeth a good colour in a parson whan it is dronke and the hede enoynted therwyth the space of xx dayes; it heleth Alopicia, or whan it is dronke lastyng with a lytell tryacle. It causeth the here well to growe, and kylleth the lyce and flees. ¶ It cureth the Reuma of the hede, whan the temples and the fore hede therwith be rubbed. ¶ It cureth Litargiam,[53] and all yll humours of the hede. ¶ It heleth the coloure in the face, and all maner of pymples. It heleth the fystule when it is put therein with the Juce of Celendyne. ¶ Cotton wet in the same and a lytell wronge out agayn and so put in the eares at nyght goynge to bedde, and a lytell dronke thereof, is good against all defnes. ¶ It easeth the payn in the teethe, when it is a longe tyme holden in the mouthe, it causeth a swete brethe, and theleth the rottyng tethe. ¶ It heleth the canker in the mouthe, in the teethe, in the lyppes, and in the tongue, whan it is longe time holden in the mouthe. ¶ It cawseth the hevy togue to become light and wel spekyng. ¶ It heleth the shorte brethe whan it is droke with water wheras the figes be soden in, and vanisheth al flemmes. ¶ It causeth good dygestynge and appetyte for to eat, and taketh away all bolkynge.[54] ¶ It dryveth the wyndes out of the body, and is good agaynst the evyll stomake. ¶ It easeth the fayntenes of the harte, the payn of the mylte, the yelowe Jandis, the dropsy, the yll lymmes, the goute, in the handes and in the fete, the payne in the brestes whan they be swollen, and heleth al diseases in the bladder, and breaketh the stone. ¶ It withdryveth venym that hath been taken in meat or in drynke, whā a lytell tryacle is put therto. ¶ It heleth the flanckes[55] and all dyseases coming of colde. ¶ It heleth the brennyng of the body, and of al membres whan it is rubbed therewith by the fyre viii dayes contynnynge. ¶ It is good to be dronke agaynst the sodeyn dede. ¶ It heleth all scabbes of the body, and all colde swellynges, enoynted or washed therwith, and also a lytell thereof dronke. ¶ It heleth all shronke sinewes, and causeth them to become softe and right. ¶ It heleth the febres tertiana and quartana, when it is dronke an houre before, or the febres becometh on a body. ¶ It heleth the venymous bytes, and also of a madde dogge, whan they be wasshed therwith. ¶ It heleth all stynkyng woundes whan they be wasshed therwith.” From use in medicine, Aqua Vitæ soon came into domestic use, and here is given one of Iherom Bruynswyke’s “Styllatoryes,” which he says was the “comon fornays” which was “well beknowen amonge the potters, made of erthe leded or glased, and it may be removed from the one place to the other.” [Illustration] It was in a still of this sort that the old housewives of the sixteenth and succeeding centuries used to concoct their strong and cordial waters—a practice which has given, and left to, our own times, the name of “Still-room,” as the housekeeper’s own particular domain. They experimented on almost every herb that grew, and some of their concoctions must have been exceedingly nasty. Yet some of their recipes read as if they were comforting, and they were not deficient in variety. Heywood, in his _Philocothonista_, or _The Drunkard, Opened, Dissected, and Anatomized_, 1635, p. 48, mentions some of them. “To add to these chiefe and multiplicitie of wines before named, yet there be Stills and Limbecks going, swetting out _Aqua Vitæ_ and strong waters deriving their names from _Cynamon_, _Lemmons_, _Balme_, _Angelica_, _Aniseed_, _Stomach Water_, _Hunni_, etc. And to fill up the number, we have plenty of _Vsque-ba’ha_.” The old housewives’ books of the latter end of the sixteenth century, until much later, are still in existence, and from them we may learn many drinks of our forefathers, how to make _Ipocras_ (_very good_, especially when taken in a “Loving Cup”), to clarify _Whey_, to make _Buttered Beer_, _Sirrop of Roses or Violets_, _Rosa Solis_, _a Caudle for an old Man_, or to distil _Spirits of Spices_, _Spirits of Wine tasting of what Vegetable you please_, _Balme Water_, _Rosemary Water_, _Sinamon Water_, _Aqua Rubea_, Spirits of Hony, Rose Water, _Vinegar_, very many scents, and a distillation called _Aqua Composita_, which entered into many receipts. There are many formulæ for this, but Bruynswyke gives the following:— “AQUA VITE COMPOSITA. “The same water is made some time of wyne with spyces onely, sometyme with wyne and rotes of the herbes, sometyme with the herbes, some tyme with the rotes and herbes togyder, for at all tymes thereto must be stronge wyne. “Take a gallon of strong Gascoigne wine, and Sage, Mints, Red Roses, Time, Pellitorie, Rosemarie, Wild Thime, Camomil, Lavender, of eche an handfull. These herbes shal be stamped all togyder in a Morter, and then putte it in a clene vessell and do herto a pynte of Rose Water, and a quart of romney,[56] and then stoppe it close and let it stand so iii or iiii dayes. Whan ye have so done, put all this togyder in a styllatory and dystyll water of the same; than take your dystylled water, and pore it upon the herbes agayne into the styllatory, and strewe upon it these powders followynge. ¶ Fyrst cloves and cynamon, of eche an halfe ounce, Oryous[57] an ounce, and a few Maces, nutmeggs halfe an ounce, a lytell saffran, muscus, spica nardi, ambre, and some put campher in it, bycawse the materyals be so hote. Stere[58] all the same well togyder and dystylle it clene of, tyll it come fat lyke oyle, than set awaye your water, and let it be wel kepte. After that make a stronge fyre, and dystyll oyle of it, and receyve it in a fyole,[59] this oyle smelleth above all oyles, and he that letteth one droppe fall on his hande, it will perce through. It is wonderfull good, excellynge many other soveraygne oyles to dyvers dysseases.” Although the Still-room was serviceable for medicinal purposes, yet, as we have seen, there were many comforting drinks made, including _Vsquebath, or Irish aqua vitæ_ (a recipe for which we will give in its proper place), and doubtless this contributed much towards the tippling habit of some ladies in the 17th and 18th centuries. We hear somewhat of this in the reign of good Queen Anne (who, by the bye, was irreverently termed “Brandy-faced Nan”), when they used to make, and drink, _Ratifia of Apricocks_, _Fenouillette of Rhé_, _Millefleurs_, _Orangiat_, _Burgamot_, _Pesicot_, and _Citron Water_, etc., etc., numerous allusions to which are made in the pages of “The Spectator,” and other literature of the times. Edward Ward, who had no objection to call a spade, a spade, thus plainly speaks out.[60] “It would make a Man smile to behold her Figure in a front Box, where her twinkling Eyes, by her Afternoon’s Drams of Ratifee and cold Tea, sparkle more than her Pendants.... Her closet is always as well stor’d with Juleps, Restoratives, and Strong Waters, as an Apothecary’s Shop, or a Distiller’s Laboratory; and is, herself, so notable a Housewife in the Art of preparing them, that she has a larger Collection of Chemical Receipts than a Dutch Mountebank.... As soon as she rises, she must have a Salutary Dram to keep her Stomach from the Cholick; a Whet before she eats, to procure Appetite; after eating, a plentiful Dose for Concoction; and to be sure a Bottle of Brandy under her Bed side for fear of fainting in the Night.” There is no necessity to multiply instances of the feminine liking for brandy, for everyone finds numerous examples in his reading, from Juliet’s nurse,[61] who, after Tybalt’s death, says, “Give me some _aqua vitæ_,” to old Lady Clermont, of whom Grantley Berkeley tells the following story[62]:— “Prominent among my earliest Brighton reminiscences are those of old Lady Clermont, who was a frequent guest at the Pavilion. Her physician had recommended a moderate use of stimulants, to supply that energy which was deficient in her system, and brandy had been suggested in a prescribed quantity, to be mixed with her tea. I remember well having my curiosity excited by this, to me, novel form of taking medicine, and holding on by the back of a chair to watch the _modus operandi_. Very much to my astonishment, the patient held a liqueur bottle over a cup of tea, and began to pour out its contents, with a peculiar purblind look, upon the _back_ of a teaspoon. Presently, she seemed suddenly to become aware of what she was about, turned up the spoon the right way, and carefully measured, and added the quantity to which she had been restricted. The Tea, so strongly ‘laced,’ she now drank with great apparent gusto.” We derive our name of Brandy from the Dutch _brand-wijn_, or the German brannt-wein, that is, _burnt_ or distilled _wine_; and in the 17th and 18th centuries it was generally spelt, and spoken of as brandy wine. But, also, in those centuries was it known by the name of “Nantz,” from the town (Nantes, the capital of the Loire Inferieure) whence it came. But this name was changed early last century, when the trade left Nantes, and got into the Charente district, of which Cognac was the centre; so what used to be “right good Nantz” of the old smuggling days, turned into the delicate, many-starred “Cognac” of our times. It was an eminently respectable spirit. Whiskey was practically unknown out of Scotland and Ireland. Gin was the drink of the common people, and rum was considered only fit for sailors. Even Dr. Johnson, though so fond of his tea, was also fond of brandy, as Boswell chronicles of him, when in his 70th year: “On Wednesday, April 7, I dined with him at Sir Joshua Reynolds’s. Johnson harangued upon the qualities of different liquors; and spoke with great contempt of claret, as so weak, that ‘a man would be drowned by it, before it made him drunk.’ He was persuaded to drink one glass of it, that he might judge, not from recollection, which might be dim, but from immediate sensation. He shook his head, and said, ‘Poor stuff! No, sir, claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero’ (smiling) ‘must drink brandy. In the first place the flavour of brandy is the most grateful to the palate, and then brandy will do soonest for a man what drinking _can_ do for him. There are, indeed, few who are able to drink brandy. That is a power rather to be wished for than attained.’” And two years later on he gives another illustration of the doctor’s liking for strong potations. “Mr. Eliot mentioned a curious liquor peculiar to his country, which the Cornish fishermen drink. They call it _Mahogany_; and it is made of two parts gin and one part treacle, well beaten together. I begged to have some of it made, which was done with proper skill by Mr. Eliot. I thought it very good liquor, and said it was a counterpart of what is called _Athol porridge_[63] in the Highlands of Scotland, which is a mixture of whiskey and honey. Johnson said ‘That must be a better liquor than the Cornish, for both its component parts are better.’ He also observed, ‘_Mahogany_ must be a modern name; for it is not long since the wood called mahogany was known in this country. I mentioned his scale of liquors: Claret for boys—port for men—brandy for heroes. ‘Then,’ said Mr. Burke, ‘let me have claret; I love to be a boy; to have the careless gaiety of boyish days,’ Johnson: ‘I should drink claret too, if it would give me that; but it does not; it neither makes boys men, nor men boys. You’ll be drowned in it before it has any effect upon you.’” But it was the spirit always drunk by gentlemen until well on in this century, as we see by Mr. Pickwick, whose constant resource in all cases of difficulty, was a glass of brandy. Pale brandy was not so much drank as brown, which is now only taken, when very old, as a liqueur, although a brown brandy of very dubious quality is to be met with in some country public houses. Brandy, like every other spirit, developes its ethers with age, gets mellower, and of exquisite flavour; and its popularity would undoubtedly be revived if the drinker were only sure he could get such brandy as the many starred brands of Hennessy and Martell, instead of that awful substitute so often given—British brandy, made of raw potato spirit. The soil of the Charente slope is particularly adapted to the growth of the vine, although, as in all vine-growing countries some districts, and even small patches of land, produce finer wine than others. The grapes are white, not much larger than good-sized currants, and the vines seldom bear fruit until four or five years from their planting, and are most vigorous at the age of from ten to thirty. Many bear well up to fifty and seventy, and some are fruitful at one hundred years or more. As a rule, the large firms do not distil the brandy they sell, but leave that operation to the small farmers round about, and then blend their products; as, to produce the quantity they sell, enormous distilling space would be necessary, wine only producing one-eighth or one-tenth of alcohol to its bulk. The farmer’s distillery is very primitive; merely a simple boiler with a head or receiver, and a worm surrounded with cold water. There are generally two of these stills at work, and when once the farmer commences making his brandy, he keeps on day and night, bivouacking near the stills, until he has converted all his wine into crude spirit, as colourless as water, which he carts off, just as it is, to the brandy factory for sale. There it is tasted, measured, and put into new casks of oak, hooped round with chestnut wood. These casks are branded with the date, together with the quality and place of growth of the wine from which the brandy was distilled, and they remain some time in stock before their contents are blended in the proportions which the firm deem suitable. This new spirit is housed on a floor over large vats, which are filled from selected casks, the spirit being filtered through flannel discs on its way. This mixes the various growths pretty well, but the spirit is run into other vats, being forced through filters of a peculiar kind of paper, almost like paste-board. When it gets to the second series of vats, it is kept well stirred, to prevent the heavier spirit sinking to the bottom. It is then drawn off into casks, which are bunged up, and stored for several years that the brandy may mature, and that the fusel oil may develope into the ethyls, which give such flavour and fragrance to the brandy. Perhaps the oldest house in the Cognac district is Hennessy’s, but it would be invidious to say that their brandy was superior either to Martell’s, Otard and Dupuy’s, the Société Vignicole, Courvoisier, or many other firms. That must be left to individual taste. But from these firms we can rely on having pure unadulterated brandies, the pure product of the vine, without any admixture of grain or beet spirit. At one time, adulteration was rife among the farmers, but in 1857 and 1858 several of them were prosecuted, and they are now credited with having abjured their evil ways. J. A. [Illustration] [Illustration] GIN. Massinger’s _Duke of Milan_—Pope’s _Epilogue to Satires_—The _Dunciad_—William III.—Lord Hervey—Sir R. Walpole—The Fall of Madame Geneva—Hogarth’s Gin Lane—Schiedam Adulteration—Gin Sling—Captain Dudley Bradstreet—Tom and Jerry Hawthorn. Gin is an alcoholic drink distilled from malt or from unmalted barley or other grain, and afterwards rectified and flavoured. The word is French, _genièvre_, juniper, corrupted into _Geneva_, and subsequently into its present form. It is to the berries of the juniper that the best Hollands owes its flavour. Perhaps one of the earliest allusions to gin is in Massinger’s _Duke of Milan_ (1623), Act I., scene i., when Graccho, a creature of Mariana, says to the courtier Julio, of a chance drunkard, “Bid him sleep; ’Tis a sign he has ta’en his liquor, and if you meet An officer preaching of sobriety, Unless he read it in Geneva print, Lay him by the heels.” In this extract the word is played upon, Geneva suggesting both the habit of spirit-drinking and Calvinistic doctrine. When Pope wrote, the corrupted word “Gin” had become common. In the _Epilogue to the Satires_, I. 130. “Vice thus abused, demands a nation’s care; This calls the Church to deprecate our sin, And hurls the thunder of our laws on gin.” Pope has added a note to this passage, to the effect that gin had almost destroyed the lowest rank of the people before it was restrained by Parliament in 1736. Another early allusion to Geneva is to be found in _Carmina Quadragesimalia_, Oxford, 1723, vol. i., p. 7, in a copy of verses contributed by Salusbury Cade, elected from Westminster to Ch. Ch. in 1714. The thesis of which Salusbury Cade maintained the affirmative, is whether life consists in heat, or in the original _An vita consistat in calore?_ “Dum tremula hyberno Dipsas superimminet igni Et dextra cyathum sustinet, ore tubum, Alternis vicibus fumos hauritque, bibitque, Quam dat arundo sitim grata Geneva levat. Languenti hic ingens stomacho est fultura, nec alvus Nunc Hypochondriacis flatibus ægra tumet. Liberior fluit in tepido nunc corpore sanguis, Hinc nova vis membris et novus inde calor. Si quando audieris vetulam hanc periisse: Genevæ Dicas ampullam non renovasse suam.” Which being Englished, is “Dipsas, who shivers by her wintry fire, While her pipe’s smoke ascends in spire on spire, Alternate puffs and drinks—Geneva lays That thirst the weed is wont in her to raise. With this her belly propped, its pain expels; Intestine wind no more her stomach swells; A freer blood runs leaping through her frame, New heat, new strength recalls the ancient game. And should you hear she’s dead, the cause you’ll know Was that Geneva in her jug ran low.” In the _Dunciad_, which Pope wrote in 1726 (book iii., l. 143), we read,— “A second see, by meeker manners known, And modest as the maid that sips alone; From the strong fate of drams if thou get free, Another D’Urfey, Ward! shall sing in thee! Thee shall each ale-house, thee each gill-house[64] mourn, And answering gin-shops sourer sighs return.” An early allusion to Geneva is in a poem by Alexander Blunt, Distiller, 8vo, 1729, price 6_d._, called “Geneva,” addressed to the Right Honourable Sir R⸺ W⸺. It commences, “Thy virtues, O Geneva! yet unsung By ancient or by modern bard, the muse In verse sublime shall celebrate. And thou O W⸺ statesman most profound! vouchsafe To lend a gracious ear: for fame reports That thou with zeal assiduous dost attempt Superior to _Canary_ or _Champaigne_ Geneva salutiferous to enhance; To rescue it from hand of porter vile, And basket woman, and to the bouffet Of lady delicate and courtier grand Exalt it; well from thee may it assume The glorious modern name of _royal_ BOB!” Though “Brandy cognac, Jamaica Rum, and costly Arrack” are alluded to, there is no mention of Hollands in the poem, which is a defence of _Geneva_ against _ale_. In this poem a statement is contained that Geneva was introduced by William III., and that he himself drank it. “Great Nassau, Immortal name! Britain’s deliverer From slavery, from wooden shoes and chains, Dungeons and fire; attendants on the sway Of tyrants bigotted and zeal accurst, Of holy butchers, prelates insolent, Despotic and bloodthirsty! He who did Expiring liberty revive (who wrought Salvation wondrous!) God-like hero! He It was, who to compleat our happiness With liberty, restored Geneva introduced. O Britons. O my countrymen can you To glorious William now commence ingrates And spurn his ashes? Can you vilify The sovereign cordial he has pointed out, Which by your own misconduct only can Prove detrimental? Martial William drank Geneva, yet no age could ever boast A braver prince than he. Within his breast Glowed every royal virtue! Little sign, O Genius of _malt liquor_! that Geneva Debilitates the limbs and health impairs And mind enervates. Men for learning famed And skill in medicine prescribed it then Frequent in recipe, nor did it want Success to recommend its virtues vast To late posterity.” In 1736 Lord Hervey, describing the state of England, says: The drunkenness of the common people was so universal by the retailing a liquor called Gin, with which they could get drunk for a groat, that the whole town of London and many towns in the country swarmed with drunken people from morning till night, and were more like a scene of a Bacchanal than the residence of a civil society. Retailers exhibited placards in their windows, intimating that people might get drunk for the sum of 1_d._ and that clean straw would be provided for customers in the most comfortable of cellars. On Feb. 20, 1736, in the ninth year of George II., a petition of the Justices of the Peace for Middlesex against the excessive use of spirituous liquors was presented to the House of Commons, setting forth: That the drinking of Geneva and other distilled spirituous liquors had greatly increased, especially among the people of inferior rank, that the constant and excessive use thereof had destroyed thousands of his Majesty’s subjects, debauching their morals, etc., that the “pernicious liquor” was then sold not only by the distillers and Geneva shops, but many other persons of inferior trades, “by which means journeymen, apprentices and servants were drawn in to taste, and by degrees to like, approve, and immoderately to drink thereof,” and that the petitioners therefore prayed that the House would take the premises into their serious consideration, etc. The House having resolved itself into a committee on Feb. 23, Sir Joseph Jekyll moved the following resolutions: (1) That the low price of spirituous liquors is the principal inducement to the excessive and pernicious use thereof. (2) That a discouragement should be given to their use by a duty. (3) That the vending, etc., of such liquors be restrained to persons keeping public brandy-shops, victualling houses, coffee houses, ale houses and inn-holders, and to such apothecaries and surgeons as should make use of the same by way of medicine only; and, (4) That no person keeping a public brandy-shop, etc., should be permitted to vend, etc., such liquors, but by licence with duty payable thereon. These Resolutions were agreed on without debate. On March 8, Mr. William Pulteney affixed a duty of 20_s._ per gallon on gin, on the grounds of ancient use and sanction, and of its reducing many thousands of families at once to a state of despair. Sir Robert Walpole had no immediate concern in the laying of this tax on spirituous liquors, but suffered therefrom much unmerited obloquy. The bill was presented by Jekyll from a spirit of philanthropy, which led him to contemplate with horror the progress of vice that marked the popular attachment to this inflammatory poison. The populace showed their disapprobation of this Act in their usual fashion of riot and violence. We are told in Coxe’s Walpole that numerous desperados continued the clandestine sale of gin in defiance of every restriction. The duty of 20_s._ per gallon was repealed 16 Geo. II., c. 8. On the 28th of September, 1736, it was deemed necessary to send a detachment of sixty soldiers from Kensington to protect the house of Sir Joseph Jekyll, the Master of the Rolls, in Chancery Lane, from the violence threatened by the populace against this eminent lawyer. Two soldiers with their bayonets fixed were planted as sentinels at the little door next Chancery Lane, and the great doors were shut up, the rest of the soldiers kept garrison in the stables in the yard. This agitation gave rise to many a ballad and broadside, such as the “Fall of Bob,” or the “Oracle of Gin,” a tragedy; and “Desolation, or the Fall of Gin,” a poem. THE LAMENTABLE FALL OF MADAME GENEVA.—_29 Sept., 1736._[65] The Woman holds a song to yᵉ tune to yᵉ Children in yᵉ Wood. “Good lack, good lack, and Well-a-day, That Madame Gin should fall: Superior Powers she must obey. This Act will starve us all.” The Man has the second part to yᵉ same tune. “Th’ Afflicted she has caus’d to sing, The Cripple leap and dance; All those who die for love of Gin Go to Heaven in a Trance.” [Illustration] Underneath are the following verses— “The Scene appears, and Madame’s Crew In deep Despair, Exposed to view. See Tinkers, Cobblers, and cold Watchmen, With B⸺s and W⸺s as drunk as Dutchmen. All mingling with the Common Throng, Resort to hear her Passing Song. “Whilst Mirth suppress’d by Parliament, In Sober Sadness all lament, Pursued by Jekyl’s indignation, She’s brought to utter desolation. With Oaths they storm their Monarch’s name, And curse their Hands that form’d the Scheme. “All Billingsgate their Case Bemoan, And Rag-fair Change in Mourning’s hung; Queen Gin, for whom they’d sacrifice Their Shirts and Smocks, nay, both their Eyes. Rather than She want Contribution, They’d trudge the Streets without their shoes on.” The following verses on the Gin Act, in 1736, are supposed by John Nichols to be the production of Dr. Johnson. “Pensilibus fusis cyatho comitata supremo, Terribili fremitu stridula mæret anus. O longum formosa vale mihi vita decusque, Fida comes mensæ fida comesque tori! Eheu quam longo tecum consumerer ævo, Heu quam tristitiæ dulce lenimen eras. Æternum direpta mihi, sed quid moror istis, Stat, fixum est, nequeunt jam revocare preces; I, quoniam sic fata vocant, liceat mihi tantum, Vivere te viva te moriente mori.” A clever cento from the Latin poets, which may be thus represented in English:— “... Left with her last glass alone, Thus loud laments her lot, the squeaking crone: Farewell, my life and beauty, thou art sped, Faithful companion of my board and bed! My earthly term fain with thee would I live, Who to my sorrowing heart can’st solace give. Bereft of gin, alas! am I for aye! The Act is passed. ’Tis all in vain to pray. Go where the Fates may call, and know that I Living, with thee would live, and dying, die!” Hogarth’s Gin Lane was advertised in 1751, with a note that, as its subject was calculated to reform some reigning vices peculiar to the lower class of people, in hopes to render them of more extensive use, the author had published them in the cheapest manner possible. “The cheapest manner possible” was one shilling which in those days was a fairly good price for a print. The following lame and defamatory verse was composed for the occasion by the Rev. James Townley:— “GIN LANE. Gin, cursed fiend, with fury fraught, Makes human race a prey; It enters by a deadly draught, And steals our life away. Virtue and Truth, driven to despair, Its rage compels to fly; But cherishes, with hellish care, Theft, murder, perjury. Damned cup, that on the vitals preys, That liquid fire contains; Which madness to the heart conveys, And rolls it through the veins.” Hogarth tells us that in Gin Lane every circumstance of the horrid effects of gin drinking is brought to view _in terrorem_. Idleness, poverty, misery, and distress, which drives even to madness and death, are the only objects that are to be seen; and not a house in tolerable condition but the pawnbrokers and gin shop. The same moral is taught by Cruikshank, but not before his conversion to teetotalism. Schiedam is the metropolis of gin, and its numerous distilleries are omnivorous, taking with equal relish cargoes of rye and buckwheat from Russia, and damaged rice or any cereal from other countries, and sometimes also potato spirit from Hamburg. The distillery of De Kuypers is probably that of the greatest note, and that firm’s black square bottles, packed in cases filled with hemp husks, are known all over the world. In Africa “square face” is king, but he frequently holds some counterfeit liquor, even sometimes the vilest of Cape Smoke. Schiedam is the Mecca of the Dutchman, the birthplace of his beloved Schnapps. This drink is always acceptable, and fifty good reasons exist for drinking it. The chief varieties of the aromatised popular spirit called gin are now known as Geneva, Hollands, and Schiedam. It is current in some parts of Africa as a species of coin. Since, however, every distiller varies his materials and their proportions, the species of this beverage are practically unlimited. Generally, however, the distinction is clear between Hollands or Dutch and English gin. The former is commonly purer than the highly flavoured and too frequently adulterated British product. The matters employed in the adulteration are very many. Corianders, crushed almond cake, angelica root powdered, liquorice, cardamoms, cassia, cinnamon, grains of paradise, and cayenne pepper, and many more substances take the place of the berries of the juniper tree. As these substances frequently produce a cloudy appearance, the liquid is subsequently refined by other adulterants, such as alum, sulphate of zinc, and acetate of lead. The variety of gin dear to ancient beldams, which is known as Cordial, is more highly sweetened and aromatized than the ordinary quality. The alcoholic strength of gin as commonly sold ranges from 22 to 48 degrees. The amount of sugar varies between 2 and 9 per cent. Gin is a beneficial diuretic, but the compounds sold under that name are too often detrimental in their effects. A popular drink called gin-sling takes its name from John Collins, formerly a celebrated waiter in Limmer’s old house. The old lines on this drink ran as follows:— “My name is John Collins, head waiter at Limmer’s, Corner of Conduit Street, Hanover Square. My chief occupation is filling of brimmers For all the young gentlemen frequenters there.” The poetry is very far from bad, and so was the liquor. It was a composition of gin, soda water, lemon, and sugar. John was abbreviated to gin and Collins to sling. Gin has had many popular names, but why gin should be called Old Tom by the publicans and lower orders of London has sometimes puzzled those who are inquisitive enough to consider the subject etymologically. The answer may, perhaps, be found in a curious book, called “The Life and Uncommon Adventures of Captain Dudley Bradstreet, Dublin, 1755.” Captain Dudley, a government spy of the Count Fathom species, after declaring that the selling of Geneva in a less quantity than two gallons had been prohibited, says: “Most of the gaols were full, on account of this Act, and it occurred to me to venture upon the trade. I got an acquaintance to rent a house in Blue Anchor Alley, in St. Luke’s parish, who privately conveyed his bargain to me: I then got it well secured, and laid out in a bed and other furniture five pounds, in provision and drink that would keep, about two pounds, and purchased in Moorfields the sign of a cat and had it nailed to a street window. I then caused a leaden pipe, the small end out about an inch, to be placed under the paw of the cat, the end that was within had a funnel to it. “When my house was ready for business I inquired what distiller in London was most famous for good gin, and was assured by several that it was Mr. L⸺dale, in Holborn.[66] To him I went, and laid out thirteen pounds.... The cargo was sent to my house, at the back of which there was a way to go in or out. When the liquor was properly disposed, I got a person to inform a few of the mob that gin would be sold by the cat at my window next day, provided they put the money in his mouth, from whence there was a hole which conveyed it to me.” This, by the way, is a rare anticipation of our automatic sweetstuff, scent, and other machines. To continue: “At night I took possession of my den, and got up early next morning to be ready for custom. It was over three hours before anybody called, which made me almost despair of the project; at last I heard the chink of money and a comfortable voice say, ‘Puss, give me two pennyworth of gin!’ I instantly put my mouth to the tube and bid them receive it from the pipe under her paw”—the cat seems to have changed its sex in this short interval of time—“and then measured and poured it into the funnel, from whence they soon received it. Before night I took six shillings, the next day about thirty shillings, and afterwards three or four pounds a day. From all parts of London people used to resort to me in such numbers that my neighbours could scarcely get in and out of their houses. After this manner I went on for a month, in which time I cleared upwards of two-and-twenty pounds.” So far Captain Bradstreet, “but,” says the Editor of _Notes & Queries_, “the ghost of ‘old Tom Hodges’ will probably enter a protest against Captain Bradstreet’s cat.” Another popular name for gin was used when Corinthian Tom and Jerry Hawthorn visited Bob Logic in the Fleet. Bob says, “Let us spend the day comfortably, and in the evening I will introduce you both to my friend the haberdasher. He is a good whistler,[67] and his shop always abounds with some prime articles that you will like to look at....” A glass or two of wine made them as gay as larks, and a hint from Jerry to Logic about the whistler brought them into the shop of the latter in a twinkling. Hawthorne, with great surprise, said, “Where are we? This is no haberdasher’s. It’s a ⸺” “No nosing, Jerry,” replied Logic, with a grin; “you’re wrong, the man is a dealer in tape.” [Illustration] [Illustration] WHISKEY. _Uisge-beatha_—“My Stint”—Its Manufacture—Good and Bad—Early Mentions of Whiskey—Materials used in its Manufacture—St. Thorwald—Duncan Forbes and Ferrintosh—Duty on Whiskey—Silent Spirit—Artificial Maturing. No matter in what country, wherever it was known, alcohol has been hailed as the Water of Life, even in the Gaelic. _Uisge-beatha_, or, as we term it, whiskey, bears literally that interpretation. This is “the wine of the country,” both in Ireland and Scotland, and the quantities drank, without any apparently hurtful effect, is astonishing to a southern Englishman. Northwards, on the border land, it is a question whether more whiskey is not drunk, _pro rata_, than in Scotland. Still, even there, every one is not gifted, as was the Irishman spoken of by John Wilson Croker. He tells the story of a lawsuit, in which a life insurance company disputed a claim, on the ground that the death was caused by excessive drinking. One witness for the plaintiff was called, who deposed that, for the last eighteen years of his life, he had been in the nightly habit of imbibing _twenty-four tumblers of whiskey punch_. The cross-examining counsel wished to know whether he would swear to that, or whether he ever overstepped that limit. The witness replied that he was upon his oath, and would swear no farther; “for I never kept count beyond the two dozen, though there is no saying how many beyond I might drink to make myself comfortable; but _that’s my stint_.” Good whiskey should be made solely from the finest barley malt, and is so made by the largest and best distillers; but the smaller ones, and those who are in a hurry to get rich by any means, use all kinds of refuse grain, and produce a spirit which, if drank new, is neither more nor less than rank poison. The fusel oil, which is present in all distillations from grain, requires time to resolve itself into those delicate ethers, which, while enhancing the flavour and bouquet of the spirit, are harmless. Good whiskey, properly matured, mixed with a sufficient quantity of water, and used in moderation, is a good and a wholesome drink, acting also in lieu of food. When this life-giving liquor was discovered is uncertain. Edward Campion, in his _History of Ireland_, 1633, speaking of a famine which happened in 1316, says that it was caused by the soldiers eating flesh and drinking _aqua vitæ_ in Lent; and, in another place, he states that a knight, called Savage, who lived in 1350, having prepared an army against the Irish, allowed to every soldier, before he buckled with the enemy, a mighty draught of _aqua vitæ_, wine, or old ale. Walter Harris, in his _Hibernica_, 1757, says that in the reign of Henry VIII. it was decreed that there be but one maker of _aqua vitæ_ in every borough town, upon pain of 6_s._ 8_d._; and that no _wheaten malt_ go to any Irishman’s country, upon pain of forfeiture of the same in value, except only bread, ale, or _aqua vitæ_. In a little book, _Delightes for Ladies_, etc., 1602, is the following recipe for _Usquebath, or Irish Aqua Vitæ_:— “To every gallon of good Aqua Composita, put two ounces of chosen liquerice, bruised and cut into small peeces, but first clensed from all his filth, and two ounces of Annis seeds that are cleane and bruised. Let them macerate five or six daies in a wodden Vessel, stopping the same close, and then draw off as much as will runne cleere, dissolving in that cleare Aqua Vitæ five or six spoonfuls of the best Malassoes you can get; Spanish cute, if you can get it, is thought better than Malassoes; then put this into another vessell; and after three or foure daies (the more the better), when the liquor hath fined itself, you may use the same; some add Dates and Raisons of the Sun to this receipt: those groundes which remaine, you may redistill, and make more Aqua Composita of them, and of that Aqua Composita you may make more Usquebath.” The distillation of whiskey in Ireland, on a large scale, is of comparatively modern date, the _poteen_ having been manufactured in illicit stills, in inaccessible and unhandy places. Now, Roe’s distillery turns out over two million gallons a year, and Jameson’s more than a million and a half. The whiskey made by these firms, that of Sir John Power & Sons, and some others, is distilled from pure malt; but there are many distilleries that send out a spirit made from molasses, beet-root, potatoes, and other things, which cannot possibly be called whiskey, which has brought Irish whiskey somewhat into disrepute, to the great advantage of the Scotch distillers. Again, unmalted grain is used, which gives a practically tasteless spirit, which is almost entirely deficient in the grateful ethers, and is only so much raw alcohol and water, a very different article to that which occasioned the following verses:— “Oh, Whiskey Punch, I love you much, for you’re the very thing, To level all distinctions ’twixt a beggar and a king. You lift me up so aisy, and so softly let me down, That the devil a hair I care what I wear, a caubeen or a crown. “While you’re a-coorsin’ through my veins I feel mighty pleasant, That I cannot just exactly tell whether I’m a prince or peasant; Maybe I’m one, maybe the other, but that gives me small trouble, By the Powers! I believe I’m both on ’em, for I think I’m seein’ double.” Scotch whiskey is the same as Irish, and should be similarly made from pure malted barley. No one knows when it was first made; but, until the time of the Pretender, it was hardly known in the Lowlands, being a drink strictly of the Highlanders. There is a tradition of a certain St. Thorwald, whose name may be sought for in vain in the pages of Alban Butler, who had a cell in the side of a hill looking upon the Esk. He is said to have possessed a wonderful elixir, famous for curing all diseases, and, consequently, he was resorted to by pilgrims both far and near. Could it be that he had a whiskey still? We know not; but to this day a spring on the site of his hermitage helps to supply the Langholm distillery. Perhaps the earliest historical account of Scotch whiskey is the grant, in 1690, to Duncan Forbes of Culloden, in consideration of his services to William III., of the privilege of distilling whiskey, duty free, in the barony of Ferrintosh. Naturally, a number of distilleries were erected there, and Ferrintosh became the generic term for whiskey. In 1785 this grant was annulled on payment of £20,000 to the representatives of Duncan Forbes, a proceeding which Robert Burns thus wrote about, in his “Scotch Drink”:— “Thee, Ferrintosh! O sadly lost! Scotland laments from coast to coast! Now colic-grips an’ barkin’ hoast May kill us a’; For loyal Forbes’ _chartered boast_ Is ta’en awa’.” The Highland risings made the Lowlanders more familiar with this spirit; but it was a long time before the drink became general, and a far longer before it was generally introduced into England. “Bonnie Prince Charlie” got too fond of it, and his affection for strong drinks was life-long. George IV., on his visit to Scotland, thought the best way to popularise himself on his arrival was to call for, and drink, a glass of whiskey; and even our good Queen has tasted “Athol-brose.” The manufacture of whiskey was encouraged for several reasons: first, that it gave employment; secondly, that it used up large quantities of grain, to the benefit of the farmer; and thirdly, it was hoped that it would, in many cases, supersede the French brandy, which was most extensively smuggled. But Government imposed so high a duty, that illicit stills sprang up everywhere, and contraband whiskey was universally drank, the smugglers openly bringing their wares down south, and in such force as to defy the Excise, and frequently the military. A wise step was then taken, and in 1823 the excise duty was lowered from 6_s._ 2_d._ to 2_s._ 4¾_d._ per imperial gallon, a proceeding which, in a year, doubled the output of exciseable spirits; but, by degrees, fiscal exigencies have raised it to 10_s._ per proof gallon. Now, the quantity of home-made spirits on which duty was paid for the year ending 31st March, 1890, is as follows:— England. Scotland. Ireland. _Galls._ _Galls._ _Galls._ 12,636,060 9,463,012 7,521,998 or in all, 29,621,070 gallons, yielding a revenue of £14,810,522. It would be invidious to particularize any of the large Scotch distilleries, which mostly owe their fame to the excellence of their malt and the extreme purity of their water, together with the fact that peat is extensively used as fuel, even to the drying of the malt; but “Glenlivet” has a name as world-wide as “Ferrintosh.” Do we not read in the _Bon Gaultier Ballads_ that— “Fhairhson had a son Who married Noah’s daughter, And nearly spoiled ta flood, By trinking up ta water; Which he would have done, I at least pelieve it, Had ta mixture peen Only half Glenlivet”? It was such a famous place that, according to the _Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland_, there were as many as 200 illicit stills there, in brisk work, at the beginning of the present century. “Small still” whiskey is undoubtedly the best, for only good materials can be used, as the distillation carries over the flavour of the malt. Hear what Dr. Thudicum says[68]:— “The product of the patent still derives its name from the fact that it is mere alcohol and water, having no distinctive qualities, telling no tales to nose or palate of the source from which it was obtained, and hence, in the almost poetic spirit of the trade, it is commonly called ‘silent spirit.’ The owner of a patent still, instead of being confined, like a whiskey distiller, to the use of the best materials, is able to make his spirit from any, even spoiled and waste, materials, and with little reference to any other quality than cheapness. The worst of the spirit thus produced is fit only for methylation, preparatory for being used for trade purposes, exclusive of consumption as a beverage. When intended for a beverage, it must be rectified and flavoured. It thus serves as a basis for the implanting of artificial flavours, which may be those of sham whiskey, sham brandy, or sham rum.... “The presence of grain ethers is the condition of the genuineness of whiskey. Silent spirit, on the other hand, undergoes no change by keeping, and must be flavoured to become drinkable. For that purpose it is either made smoky, to become like Scotch, or it is mixed with Irish pot whiskey, to become like Irish whiskey.” There is yet another and a newer way of altering whiskey, which was shown in the Brewers’ Exhibition at Islington, October, 1890, and described in an advertisement in a morning paper as “A Transformation Scene; no Pantomime.” This new process of maturing spirits is by subjecting them to the action of compressed air confined in a close chamber. Nothing but atmospheric air is used, which is filtered through pure water before being compressed. The air chamber shown was a cylindrical vessel, which, in practice, would be some twelve feet high or more. It is supplied with a finely perforated floor, at a convenient distance below the top, and it has, besides, one or two lower floors of metallic gauze. The cylinder is charged with the liquor to be treated, and the compressed air is then let into it. The taps having been closed on the completion of this operation, a rotary pump keeps the liquor in continuous circulation as it passes through the floors in the form of a fine shower. As soon as it reaches the gauze floor it breaks up into spray, and, in this minute state of sub-division, it is acted on by the condensed air. This air, rising through a pipe, collects at the top of the cylinder, and in that way it is prevented from interfering with the steady flow of the shower. A slight circulation of the air is at the same time promoted. On the process being completed, the liquor is run into casks, and the air which remains in the vessel is allowed to escape, the quantity of alcohol in combination with it not being worth saving. The object of this process is to bring about the oxidation of the essential oils contained in the whiskey or other spirit, and to promote their conversion into ethers. It is claimed that this transformation does take place, and that the spirit is changed from a new spirit, and has all the character, mellowness, and flavour of that matured by time. This change is said to be effected in twenty-four hours, and that the spirit has, in that period, put on a maturity of ten years. J. A. [Illustration: WOODEN CUAGH OR QUAIGH. (_Brit. Mus._)] [Illustration] RUM. Derivation of Name—Whence Procured—Its Manufacture—Its Price—Trade Rum. The etymon of the name of this spirit is somewhat dubious. Some have it that it was formerly spelt (as it now is in French) _Rhum_, and that it is derived from _rheum_, or ῥεῦμα, a flowing, on account of its manufacture from the juice of the sugar cane. Others say that, as rum has the strongest odour of any distilled spirit, it is a corruption of the word _aroma_. Rum is made from the refuse of sugar, and can, of course, be produced wherever sugar is grown. This is notably the case in the West Indies, and the best rum comes thence. The finest, and that commanding the highest price in the market, is from Jamaica; Martinique and Guadaloupe perhaps come next; and Santa Cruz has a very good name. British Guiana, the Brazils, Natal, Queensland, and New South Wales all produce it. It is made from molasses and the skimmings of the boiling sugar. Molasses is the syrup remaining after the separation of all the saccharine matter which will crystallize, and is a dense, viscous liquid, varying from light yellow to nearly black, according to the source from which it is obtained; but its distillation will not produce rum. Sugar or molasses, if distilled, will produce alcohol, but it will have no character of rum. This peculiar odour is imparted to it by the addition, in distillation, of “skimmings,” which are the matters separated from the sugar in clarifying and evaporation; that is to say, the scum of the precipitators, clarifiers and evaporators is mixed with the rinsing of the boiling pans, and is thus called. They contain all the necessaries of fermentation, and when mixed with molasses and “dunder,” which is the fermented wash left from distillation, are distilled into rum. The odour of rum is very volatile; so much so, that it should be casked immediately after distillation. The raw spirit is extremely injurious; but it improves so much by age that, at a sale in Carlisle in 1865, rum, known to be 140 years old, sold at three guineas a bottle. Like all alcohol, rum, when distilled, is white, the colour being given to it, as it used to be in brown brandy, by caramel (burnt sugar). Much of the rum sold in England is made from “silent” spirit, flavoured with butyric ether; and it is this stuff which is sold as “trade rum” for export to Africa. Some years since an action was brought by an African merchant against the vendor of “trade rum” for damages caused by it to his trade. All went merrily till the negroes drank the rum, when it suddenly ceased, owing to its colouring their excreta red, probably owing to the colouring matter. In the old days of punch drinking, rum was the great ingredient in that beverage, but its use has gradually died out, except among sailors, it still being served out in the navy, on account of its supposed warming qualities. Rum and milk, taken before breakfast, is also a beverage used very extensively. J. A. [Illustration] [Illustration] LIQUEURS. I. Derivation of Term—Eichhoff—Gregory of Tours—Liqueur Wines—Herb Wines—Scot’s _Ivanhoe_—Hydromel—Murrey—Delille—Montaigne—Monastical Liqueurs—Arnold de Villeneuve—Catherine de Medicis—Elixir Ratafia. The word _liqueur_ has been traced by Eichhoff to a Sanskrit root, viz., _laks_ or _lauc_, to see, appear. It is now commonly understood of a drink obtained by distillation, a beverage of which alcohol is the base. To the ancients liqueurs appear to have been unknown. The art of distillation on which they depend was not apparently discovered till the middle ages. Fermented wines, of which some description will be found in another part of this book, occupied their place at dinner and dessert. Old Falernian when mixed with honey probably bore some near resemblance to what is now understood by liqueur. But this drink was found to have such disastrous effects by way of intoxication that it was forbidden to women to drink of it. Our ancestors, perhaps in imitation of the ancients, composed a sort of liqueur with the must of wine, in which they had infused berries of the _lentiscus_, or a portion of its tender wood. The artificial wines made either with this _lentiscus_, or with other aromatic herbs, called by Gregory of Tours _vina odoramentis immixta_, were the only approaches to the modern liqueurs, even some time after the discovery of the process of distillation. Among these liqueur wines must be mentioned that species of cooked wine which was the result of a portion of must reduced to half or a third of its original bulk by boiling. The capitularies of Charlemagne speak of this drink as _vinum coctum_, and the southern provinces called it _Sabe_, from the Latin _sapa_, which with the Romans had the same signification. Both Galen and Hippocrates refer to a Greek composition called _Siræum_ or _Hepsema_, which, says Pliny, we call _sapa_. The fashion in which this wine was cooked is shown in the _Pitture antiche d’Ercolano_, t. I., tab. 35. Those artificial wines which consisted solely of infusions of aromatic or medicinal plants, such as absinthe, aloes, anise, rosemary, hyssop, and so on, were called _herb wines_, and were frequently employed as remedies and preventives. With a herb wine, the wine of a honied absinthe, it was that Fredegonda poisoned him who reproached her with the murder of the Pretextate. The most famous of these wines were those into which entered, besides honey, the spices and aromatic confections of Asia, to which were given the name of pigments. The highly spiced and “most odoriferous” wine sweetened with honey is one of those drinks which Cedric bids Oswald, in _Ivanhoe_,[69] to place upon the board for the refreshment of the Knight Templar. It is mentioned in company with the oldest wine, the best mead, the mightiest ale, the richest _morat_,[70] and the most sparkling cider. The poets of the thirteenth century speak of this decoction with transport. They regarded it in the light of an exquisite delicacy. As no gentleman’s library is complete without the presence of some particular work of which a bookseller is anxious to dispose, so no feast at which pigment was not present was held to be complete by the medieval _gourmet_. Indeed this drink seems to have been all too sweet, and was, in consequence of its inebriating property, like the honied Falernian, partially prohibited. The Council of Aix-la-Chapelle in 817 decreed that on festival days only might this voluptuous cup be introduced into conventual repasts. Hydromel and hippocras were allied to this category of fermented and almost alcoholic drinks, but they were not liqueurs. Finally certain liqueurs were composed entirely of juices of fruits and held the rank and title of wines. Such were cherry, gooseberry, strawberry wine, and others. Another liqueur wine often cited by the thirteenth-century poets is _Murrey_, a thin drink coloured or otherwise affected by mulberries. The word liqueur appears to have had a considerable latitude of signification. We talk now of coffee and liqueur, but according to the French poet Delille, who lived at a time very near our own, coffee itself was included under the latter category— “Cest toi, divin café, dont l’aimable liqueur Sans altérer la tête épanouit le cœur”: which presents us with a view of coffee akin to that held by Cowper of tea, when he talks in his _Task_ (Book IV.) of “the cups That cheer but not inebriate.” Liqueurs, indeed, properly so called were not known till long after the distillation of wine had been recognised, probably about the fourteenth century. Many years elapsed before these preparations escaped from the domination of the alchemists. Those religious who employed distillation for the confection of balsams and panaceas seem to have been the first to discover them to the world. Montaigne, in the strange account he has written of his travel in Italy, speaks of the Jesuits of Vicenza—the _Jesuates_ as he calls them—who had a liquor shop in their fair monastery, in which were sold phials of scent for a crown. The good fathers appear to have busied themselves in the intervals of their religious exercises with distilling waters of different herbs and flowers for the public use, as well for medicine as for sensual delight. Speaking of Verona, Montaigne says he saw also a religious of monks who call themselves _Jesuates_ of St. Jérosme. They are dressed in white under a smoked robe with little white caps. They are not priests, neither do they say mass, nor preach,[71] and they are for the most part ignorant. But they make a boast to be excellent distillers of _eau de naffé_[72] and other waters, both in Verona and elsewhere. Monastical liqueurs are worthy of a paragraph to themselves. So long as monks have existed, they seem to have manifested a taste for the concoction of these drinks. We can scarcely pass the shop window of a liqueur-seller without having our attention attracted by what the French call a _Kyrielle_ or litany of flasks of diverse forms, decorated with tickets bearing such titles as the following:—_Liqueur des Chartreux_, _Liqueur des Benedictins_, _Liqueur des Carmes_, _Liqueur des Trappistes_, _Liqueur des Pères de Garaison_, _Liqueur du P. Kermann_, and so on. A large volume might well be composed on these liqueurs alone. About their supposed virtues,—aperient, digestive, antiapoplectic, antispasmodic, anticholeric, tonic, etc., that book might be well supposed likely to stretch out as far as the list of Banquo’s issue to the diseased imagination of Macbeth. The search for the philosopher’s stone and the powder of projection was by no means wholly fruitless. It strengthened the hands of chemistry. It was also the cradle of liqueurs. In the early part of the middle ages the learned inhabitants of the convents devoted their leisure time, of which they appear to have had no lack, to the so-called _magnum opus_. The _magnum opus_, the quintessence, the elixir of long life, were three different denominations of one and the same thing. Monkish intellectual toil was chiefly connected at that time with the study of essences, spirits, alcohols, and distillations. The plants which they sought with the greatest eagerness were rosemary, arnica, elder, camomile, sweet trefoil, rose, borage, balm mint, snake weed, iris, etc. In the thirteenth century, Arnold de Villeneuve, a celebrated physician, possessed with this devil of a _magnum opus_, formulated the question of the quintessence or elixir of long life in these terms, which became afterwards a dogma for all his monastic successors. “This is the secret, viz., to find substances so homogeneous to our nature that they can increase it without inflaming it, continue it without diminishing it ... as our life continually loses somewhat, until at last all is lost.” The outcome of the long and patient labours of the monkish alchemists was certain elixirs and liqueurs, of which the secret composition was transmitted from generation to generation in convents and monasteries. Such liqueurs were in their origin simply a pharmaceutic product. It is only within the last few years comparatively that they have been converted into delicacies after dinner. Our age bears the hall mark of positivism. The monks labour no longer for the sole glory of God and comfort of the sick. Their object at the present day is to effect, it is affirmed, a ready and productive sale. It may be so; happily it is not our business to determine. It is certain that a vast development has taken place in the manufacture of the majority of the monkish liqueurs. The _Chartreux_ of _L’Isère_ now realize annual benefices of considerable value, of which a portion is said to be contributed to the continually diminishing Papal exchequer, under the title of Peter’s pence. Of this medicinal liqueur the active and benevolent element is gathered from herbs scattered on the Alpine mountains cold, or on the slopes of the Pyrenees, or in the sombre forests of the north (see the Prospectus), or in the shops of the apothecaries. But they all assuredly depend upon cognac for their element of life. _Benedictine_, with its four cabalistic letters, A M D G,[73] is made by the monks of Fécamp, at the famous Carthusian monastery of _La Grande Chartreuse_, near Grenoble. The elixir of long life, _de Sept-Fonds_, is made in a convent of the Trappists of l’Allier, and _Trappistine_ is the work of the good fathers of the abbey of _La Grâce-Dieu_ (Doubs). It is, however, affirmed that only Chartreuse, coloured yellow or green at will, and Trappistine, are the works of religious hands, while all other liqueurs are made by the laics. The methods of fabrication employed in the convents are now well known.[74] Benedictine is the only liqueur which has escaped analysis. _Absinthe_ is not strictly a liqueur. It substitutes bitter for sweet. This strong spirituous liquor, so prejudicial to French health and morality, is, however, commonly called a liqueur. Its base is an alcoholate, composed of anise, coriander, and fennel. It is flavoured with wormwood, a species of _artemisia_, and other plants containing _absinthin_. It is said to be commonly coloured with indigo and sulphate of copper. It is prepared chiefly in Switzerland, but much of it is made at Bordeaux. Arnold de Villeneuve, in his medical treatise, written in Latin, _On the preservation of youth and the retardation of age_, has a sermon upon Golden water. “I have not,” he says, “read the properties of this water in books of distinguished authority, but it is to be presumed that, if it exists, it is so sublime a work that they have concealed the method of its preparation, and have even refused to mention its name. Of gold, however, they have spoken, and set it among cordial medicines. They have praised it for the comforting of the heart and for the palliation of leprosy. It is possible that since we every day find things diversified by alteration of substance, acquiring the operations of those other things into which they have been transformed, so out of wine may be made a water of life very different from wine both in colour and in substance, in effect and in operation. And the doubt here is, not about the fact, but how it is brought about. That the bodies of all metals may be reduced into water by the ingenuity of mankind, experience allows us not to question; but the operation and nature of those things by which this end is obtained it is no easy matter to discover.” This golden water was originally nothing else than _eau de vie_ in which had been macerated certain herbs and aromatic spices to give it taste and colour; afterwards minute portions of metallic gold were added. The ingredients mentioned by Arnold de Villeneuve are rosemary flowers, from which, he says, the water obtains its golden colour, cinnamon, grains of paradise, cloves, cubebs, liquorice, and the like. In the mind of the middle ages, gold was held to be a remedy for every ill. Many people applied themselves to the task of dissolving this metal and rendering it potable. It was put into drinks, baths, victuals, pills, and the pharmacopeia of the time abounds in elixirs of gold, tinctures of gold, drops of gold, and so on. To please the public eye, those pieces of the precious metal were cast into the composition which we now know as _Eau de vie de Dantzig_. Catherine de Medicis brought into France all the voluptuous discoveries and superfluities of Italy, and helped to augment considerably the number of new liqueurs and to popularize their usage. Henry II. was especially fond of the _anisette_ of Marie Brizard of Bordeaux. Sully, in 1604, examining the objects of luxury in France, found _Populo_ and _Rossolio_ to have the chief share in the public estimation and expenditure. Of them _Populo_ is mentioned in the Letters of Gui-Patin.[75] It was composed of spirits of wine, water, sugar, musk, amber, essence of anise, and essence of cinnamon. _Rossolis_, our _Rossolio_, or _Rossoli_, said to be derived, in consequence of its extreme excellence, from the dew of the sun, _ros solis_, was made of burnt brandy, sugar, and the juice of sweet fruits, such as cherries or mulberries. Louis XIV. was much attached to this particular liqueur. That prepared for him was said to differ a little from the ordinary compound. A receipt is given of the king’s drink. Equal quantities of _eau de vie_ and Spanish wine, in which were infused anise, coriander, fennel, citron, angelica, and sugar-candy dissolved in camomile water, and boiled to a thick syrup, were a distinctive feature in this royal liqueur. Owing to oblivion or ignorance of the _anisette_ of Henri II. this monarchical recognition of _rossolio_ has led to the supposition that liqueurs were invented to invigorate the senile decrepitude of Louis XIV., but it has been shown that they existed long before his time. George IV. is said to have been attached to liqueurs in much the same way as Louis XIV., who may have supposed that they in some measure improved his health or arrested his decay. The liqueur industry is chiefly continental, and the liqueurs are very numerous. Holland is famous for its _Curaçoa_ and Russia for its _Kümmel_, and almost every large district of France has its own speciality of liqueur. Bordeaux[76] is remarkable for its _Anisette_, Dijon for its _Cassis_, Marseilles for its _Absinthe_, Grenoble for its _Ratafias_, and Paris and Lyons are each noted for many different kinds. The English have attained as yet no high rank as liqueur manufacturers. The prosaic nature of the Trade Returns includes all liqueurs of foreign origin under the heading of “_Sweetened or mixed Spirits_.” It makes no distinction between Eaux and Crèmes or between Ratafias and Elixirs. We have been told that elixirs are yellow and aromatized, and eaux or crèmes white, while ratafias are substantially infusions of fruit. Originally this may have been so. It is not the case at present. Both _Elixir_ and _Ratafia_ are interesting from an etymological standpoint. The latter word has excited considerable discussion. Menage, writing it as it was commonly written in his time, _ratafiat_, says it is a term derived from the East Indies. Leibnitz, on the contrary, holds it to be a corruption of _rectifié_ applied to alcohol. Another etymology is _rata fiat_. Parties were supposed to enter into a contract, and after drinking the liqueur to say, “Let it be ratified.” _Elixir_[77] is an Arabic word derived from the Greek, by which the alchemists denoted their powder of projection or philosopher’s stone. [Illustration] LIQUEURS. II. Liqueur Maker’s Guide. GERMAN LIQUEURS: Eau d’Amour—Eau Divine. DANTZIG LIQUEURS: Eau Miraculeuse—Eau Aerienne. FRENCH LIQUEURS: Vespetro—Scubac—Absinthe—Maraschino, etc. Du Verger—Vermuth, etc. To a humble and unpretending volume, little known by the world, to the _Cordial and Liqueur Makers’ Guide, and Publicans’ Instructor_, we are indebted for a large part of the information in the present chapter. This excellent and possibly unique volume of modern date contains some two hundred receipts for the manufacture of the most favourite drinks in their greatest perfection; in addition to a variety of miscellaneous matter of much practical utility to the publicans’ profession, though of no immediate interest probably to the readers of the present book. For instance, we are taught therein the mysteries of _Spirit Beading_, or, in exoteric language, the putting a head on weak spirits, and the _fining_ of sherry, port, gin, ale, and porter. Most of the receipts, we are assured, have never before appeared in print. They are the result of an experience of some thirty years. A warning is given in the preface about the common and extensive adulteration of liqueurs with essential oils, turpentine, and spirits of wine. In the first chapter of the _Cordial and Liqueur Makers’ Guide_, we find receipts for those familiar beverages which are most common in our respectable public firms—public house is what Bentham would call an emotional term—such as _Peppermint_, _Cloves_, _Rum Shrub_, _Aniseed_, _Caraway_, _Noyeau_, _Raspberry_, _Gingerette_, _Orange Bitters_, _Wormwood Bitters_, _Lemonade_, _Capillaire_, _Cherry Brandy_, _Cinnamon_, _Lovage_, and _Usquebaugh_—of these the receipt for _Lovage_ may be taken as a sole representative. This aromatic drink, which is comparatively rare, is perhaps not generally known to be prepared from a plant indigenous to Liguria, a country of Cisalpine Gaul—from which country its name is through sundry philological decadences derived.[78] After reading this, the student of human nature and mercantile morality will be fully prepared to learn that the plant indigenous to Liguria enters in no way into its composition. Mix, says the receipt, five drams of oil of nutmegs, five drams of oil of cassia, and three drams of oil of caraway in a quart of strong spirits of wine. Shake it well, and put it into a ten gallon cask with two gallons more of spirits of wine. Dissolve twenty pounds of lump sugar in hot water, add this to the spirit with a quarter of a pint of colouring, and fill up the cask with water. Fine it down with two ounces of alum dissolved in boiling water, and put into the goods[79] hot; afterwards add one ounce of salts of tartar, and stir the whole well together. The receipts which follow of German, Dantzig, and French liqueurs postulate a preliminary grinding of all dry substances, such as cloves or cinnamon; the cutting into the smallest pieces of leaves, flowers, peels; and the reducing to a paste, by means of a marble mortar, of almonds and fruit kernels with a small quantity of spirits to prevent them _oiling_.[79] These ingredients should be allowed to soak in the spirit for a month with diurnal shakings in a warm place. Then the spirit must be poured off and the water added after the quantity in the receipt. After standing a few days, pour off, press out all the liquid, mix with the spirit, add sugar and colouring matter, and filter through a flannel bag. In the matter of gold and silver leaf, an attempt to break it when dry would reduce one half to dust, and so spoil the appearance of the liqueur. It must be spread on a plate which has a little thin syrup on it. The leaf must also be covered with the syrup, and then torn by means of two forks into small pieces about the size of a canary seed. The leaf should not be added until the liqueur is in the bottle. The reader will observe the common use of capillaire.[80] GERMAN LIQUEURS. _Eau de Sultane Zoraide._ Lemon peel, 8 ounces; orange peel, 8 ounces; figs, 8 ounces; dates, 4 ounces; jessamine flowers, 4 ounces; cinnamon, 3 ounces; spirits of wine, 60 o.p., 19 quarts; orange-flower water, 2 quarts; pure water, 12 quarts; capillaire, 8 quarts. _Colour,[81] rose._ _Eau Nuptiale._ Parsley seed, 6 ounces; carrot seed, 5 ounces; aniseed, orris root, 2 ounces each; mace, 1½ ounces; spirit, 60 o.p., 19 quarts; rose water, 7 pints; water, 11 quarts; capillaire, 9 quarts. _Colour, yellow._ _Eau d’ Amour._ Bitter almonds, lemon peel, 12 ounces each; cinnamon, 6 ounces; mace, 1 ounce; cloves, 1½ ounces; lavender flowers, 8 ounces; spirits of wine, 60 o.p., 19 quarts; Muscat wine, 8 quarts; oil of amber, 36 drops; water 7 quarts; capillaire, 7 quarts. _Colour, rose._ _Eau de Yalpa._ Marjoram, cinnamon, 3 ounces each; fennel seed, thyme, sweet basil, bitter almonds, figs, balm, 2 ounces each; carrot seed, sage, 1 ounce each; cardamom, cloves, ½ ounce each; spirits of wine, 60 o.p., 19 quarts; essence of vanilla, 50 drops; essence of amber, 50 drams; water, 14 quarts; capillaire 8 quarts. _Colour, scarlet._ _Eau Divine._ Lemon peel, 1½ pounds; coriander, 4 ounces; mace, cardamom, 1 ounce each; spirits of wine, 60 o.p., 19 quarts; oil of bergamot, 1½ drams; oil of Neroly,[82] 2 drams; water, 14 quarts; capillaire, 8 quarts. _Eau de Pucelle._ Juniper berries, 1½ pounds; fennel seed, 4 ounces; angelica seed, cinnamon, 3 ounces each; cloves, 1 ounce; spirits of wine, 60 o.p., 19 quarts; water, 13 quarts; capillaire, 10 quarts. _Colour, yellow._ Other German liqueurs, according to our authority, are _Eau de Zelia_, _de Rebecca_, _de Fantaisie_, _the ruby Eau des Epicuriens_, _the Elixir Monfron_, _the Eau Divine_, _the Eau d’Orient de Napoleon_, _de Didon_, _du Dauphin_, _de Santé_, _Royale_, _Américaine_, _de Paix_, _de J. Saint-Aure_, _de Mille-Fleurs_, _d’Argent_, _de Montpellier_, _d’Ardelle_, _de Turin_, _de Tubinge_, _du Sorcier-Comte_, _de Vertu_, _de Chypre_, _de Jacques_, _Romantique_, _Crème Voizot_, _Aqua Bianca_, and many others. DANTZIG LIQUEURS. _Eau Miraculeuse._ Orange peel, lemon peel, 1 pound each; cinnamon, ginger, 6 ounces each; rosemary leaves, 2 ounces; galanga,[83] mace, cloves, 1 ounce each; orris root, 1½ ounces; spirits of wine, 60 o.p., 19 quarts; capillaire, 8 quarts; water, 14 quarts. _Colour, red._ _Eau Aerienne._[84] Figs, 12 ounces; cumin, 5 ounces; leaves of rosemary, fennel seed, 4 ounces each; cinnamon, 5 ounces; sage, sassafras, 2 ounces each; lavender flowers, camomile flowers, orris root, 4 ounces each; spirits of wine, 60 o.p., 19 quarts; capillaire, 8 quarts; water, 14 quarts. Other Dantzig liqueurs mentioned are the _Eau de vie de Dantzig_, _Eau Forcifère_, _Christophelet_, _Eau Carminative_, _de Musettier_, _de Girofle_, _Persicot_, _Amer d’Angleterre_, and _Eau des Favorites_, the ruby gold sprinkled _Eau de Lisette_, the yellow _Krambambuli_,[85] the _Eau de Baal_, and the _Liqueur des Évèques_. FRENCH LIQUEURS. _Vespetro._[86] Angelica seed, 3 ounces; coriander seed, 2 ounces; fennel seed, aniseed, ½ ounce each; lemons sliced, oranges sliced, 6 ounces each; spirits of wine, 60 o.p., 12 quarts; water, 9½ pints; capillaire, 3 pints. _Eau de Scubac._[87] Lemon peel, 6 ounces; coriander, 4 ounces; aniseed, juniper berries, cinnamon, 2 ounces each; angelica root, 1½ ounces; saffron, 1 ounce; spirits of wine, 60 o.p., 10 quarts; orange-flower water, 2 quarts; capillaire, 4 quarts; water, 8 quarts. _Elixir de Garus._[88] Myrrh, aloes, 2 drams each; cloves, nutmegs, 3 drams each; saffron, 1 ounce; cinnamon, 5 drams; spirits of wine, p., 5 quarts; sugar, 6 pounds. _Amiable[89] Vainqueur._ Spirits of wine, p., 25 quarts; essential oil of citron, 1 ounce; of neroli, of angelica, ½ ounce each; tincture of vanilla, 1 dram; sugar 12 pounds; water, 4 quarts. _Guignolet[90] d’Angers._ Spirits of wine, p., 12 quarts; cherries with the stones, raspberries, gooseberries, red currants, 1 pound each; oil of cinnamon, of cloves, 10 drops each; sugar, 7 pounds; water, 2 quarts. _Huile des Jeunes Mariés._ Aniseed, fennel seed, 2 ounces each; angelica seed, cumin seed, caraway seed, 1 ounce each; coriander, 3 ounces; spirits of wine, p., 4 quarts; distilled water, 3 quarts; sugar, 10 pounds. _Colour, yellow._ Other French liqueurs worthy of notice are _Eau Archiepiscopale_, _des Financiers_, _de Noyeau_, _de Phalsbourg_, _de Jasmin_, _des chevaliers de Saint Louis_, _des Pacificateurs de la Grèce_, _Souvenir d’un Brave_, _Goûte Nationale_, _Coquette Flatteuse_, _Ratafias_ of different kinds, such as _Absinthe_, _Angelique_, _Celery_, _Quatre Graines_,[91] _Cerises_, _Noyeau_ and _Carve_,[92] _Amour sans Fin_, _Gaîté Française_, _Plaisir des Dames_, _Citronelle_, _Elixir Columbat_, _Eau des Chevaliers de la Legion d’Honneur_, _Eau des Amis_, _Crème de Macaron_, and _Eau de Pologne_, the crimson _Alkermes_, the emerald _Huile des Venus_, the _Elixir des Anges_, the pale straw-coloured _Eau de vie d’Andaye_,[93] the crimson _Nectar des Dieux_, and _Missilimakinac_. The most important, or rather the most popular in this country, of the very numerous alcoholic preparations which are flavoured, or perfumed, or sweetened, or more commonly treated in all these three ways to be agreeable to the taste are, placing them as they suggest themselves:— _Kümmel_, or _Kimmel_, as it is sometimes incorrectly written, from the German name of the herb _cumin_, is made with sweetened spirit, generally brandy, flavoured with coriander and caraway seeds. It is chiefly produced at Riga, and is much esteemed in Java and the Eastern Archipelago generally. _Maraschino_ is distilled from bruised cherries. The fruit and seed are crushed together. It is commonly prepared in Italy and Dalmatia from a delicately flavoured variety called _Marazques_ or _Marascas_, a small, black, wild cherry, so named, it is said, from its bitterness. Zara, in Dalmatia, is the principal place of production of _Maraschino_. _Cassis_[94] (or _Cacis_) is a sort of ratafia made with the fruit of the cassis, the vulgar French name of a species of gooseberry with black berries. _Noyau_, or _Crème de Noyau_, derived from the French word for a kernel, is commonly prepared from white brandy, bitter almonds or amygdalin, sugar candy, mace, and nutmeg. Its distinctive flavour comes from the amygdalin, or the kernels of peaches, plums, cherries, apricots, and other fruit. In Dominica the bark of the noyau tree (_Cerasus occidentalis_) is used, and in France the leaves of a small convolvulus-like tropical plant called _Ipomœa dissectis_. It is coloured white and pink. _Ratafias_ are called by du Verger _liqueurs de conversation_, and _eau clairettes_ and _hypoteques_, an old term of which Menage expresses himself unable to find the derivation as applied to a liqueur. The Master Distiller considers them preferable to spirituous liqueurs. Procope, the ancient Master of Paris, includes under this term liqueurs, or syrups, as we should say, of cherries, strawberries, gooseberries, apricots, peaches, and other fruits. He it was who first proposed the pressure of the fruits, without infusing them entire. Some years afterwards, Breard, one of the chiefs of the fruitery of Louis XIV., gave these liqueurs the name of _Hypoteques_ to distinguish them. The products both of Procope and Breard were of the highest excellence. “‘I,’ says du Verger, ‘have always considered Procope’s Ratafias as finer and more delicate, those of Breard softer and more flowing; but,’ he adds, ‘as tastes differ, both their Ratafias have their approvers and their critics. It is difficult to equal them in cold countries, either in taste or in smell.’” They are called _Liqueurs of conversation_, because, according to this authority, in talking after meals, you may drink of them three or four times as much as of other liqueurs without fear of any inconvenience. Nay, they nourish and fortify the stomach, and in addition to being pleasant to the palate, are good friends of the liver. The first _Ratafia_ was called _Eau de Cerises_, or cherry water. The kernels should be added to the juice of the fruit with cinnamon and mace in small quantities. This renders the composition beneficent, strengthens the brain, and banishes the vapours. The _Eau clairette de framboises_ is also composed of cherries, though a few strawberries are added to give the dominant flavour. It should, therefore, says the Master Distiller, be rather called _Eau clairette framboisée_. _L’eau clairette de groseilles_ has a specific virtue against biliousness. _L’eau clairette de grenade_ is the most agreeable of _Ratafias_, but has an astringent property. _L’eau clairette de coings_ is still more estimable than the preceding, and imparts a new activity to the limbs. _Eau clairette de Chamberri_ should be made of the ripest black grapes, a small quantity of spirit of wine, a little sugar, and other ingredients. In addition to giving an appetite, it rejoices the heart. The longer it is kept, as in the case with all _Ratafias_, the better. The white _Ratafias_, or _Hypoteques_, should be mixed with cinnamon, mace, cloves, and coriander. Under these circumstances they render the blood balsamic. The best fruits for white _Ratafias_ are oranges, peaches, and apricots. _Curaçoa_ derives its name from the group of small islands in the West Indies, situated near the north shore of Venezuela, in the Caribbean Sea. The liqueur is made in these islands by the Dutch. It is also made at Amsterdam from orange peel imported from the Curaçoas. The bitter orange used is the _Citrus bigaradia_. It is commonly obtained by digesting orange peel in sweetened spirits, and flavouring with cinnamon, cloves, or mace. The spirits employed are usually reduced to nearly 56 under proof, and each gallon contains about 3½ pounds of sugar. _Curaçoa_ varies in colour. The darker is produced by powdered Brazil wood, mellowed by caramel. _Parfait Amour_ is a liqueur composed of several ingredients, such as citron, clove, muscat, and others. _Kirsch_, _Kirschwasser_, or _Kirschenwasser_, or cherry water, is the genuine drink of the Black Forest. The head-quarters of this liqueur, as Griesbach and Petersthal in the Reuch valley, are rich in cherry trees of the Machaleb variety. H. W. Wolff, in his _Rambles_, rises into an almost poetic description of its virtues. “It is,” he says, referring to the Black Foresters, “their general stimulant and comforter, their consoler in grief, their promoter of conviviality, their safety valve in trouble or excitement.” After this, little can be added without the danger, or rather the certainty, of _bathos_. When genuine—for alas, it shares the common fate of drinks, adulteration—it is said to be ardent and slightly poisonous. In other words, it contains “that excellent stomachic, hydrocyanic acid.” Of late the Black Foresters have rivalled the Servians in a spirit distilled from wild plums. Stolberg thinks _Kirschenwasser_ in no way inferior to the spirit made from corn at Dantzic,[95] and others hold it equal to the Dalmatian _Maraschino_. The liqueur is also made in Germany, France, and elsewhere. _Pomeranzen_, or _Pomeranzen-Wasser_, somewhat resembling our orangeade, is principally drunk in Northern Germany. _Raspail_ was originally, as many other liqueurs, medicinal, and was so called from the name of its inventor. Mariani has made an _Elixir à la coca du Pérou_. This, like _Raspail_, is an agreeable tonic. _Vermuth_[96] is composed of white wine, angelica, absinthe, and other aromatic herbs. Many sweet wines approach very nearly liqueurs. Of these are in Austria some sweet wines of Transylvania and Dalmatia. In Spain, the _Tinto d’Alicante_, and the white _Muscats_ of Malaga. In France, _Hermitage_, _Grenache_, _Colmar_, and the _Muscats_ of Rivesaltes and of Roquevaire. In Cyprus, _La Commanderie_. In Italy, the _Muscats_ of Vesuvius, Orvieto and Montefiascone, the holy wine of Castiglione, the white wines of Albano, and the aromatic wine of Chiavenna. In Greece, the _Malmseys_ of Santorin and the Ionian Isles. In Russia, the wines of _Koos_ and _Sudach_ in the Crimea; and in Mexico, those of _Passo del Nocte_, _Paras_, _San Luiz de la Paz_, and _Zelaya_. In the _Widdowes Treasure_, London, 1595, are receipts for _Sirrop of Roses_ or _Violets_, and two receipts for _Rosa Solis_, and in the _Good Housewife’s Jewele_, London, 1596, are receipts for distilling of _Rosemary water_, _Imperiall water_, _Sinamon water_, and the _Water of Life_. [Illustration] AMERICAN DRINKS. Cobblers—Cocktails—Flips, etc.—Punch—Varieties—A Bar Tender—Anstey’s _Pleader’s Guide_—A Yard of Flannel—Bottled Velvet—Rumfustian, etc. The great authority, probably the greatest authority, on this interesting subject is a gentleman who, with the true modesty of genius, allows himself to be known only by the pseudonym of _Jerry Thomas_. Formerly a bar-tender at the Metropolitan Hotel, New York, and the Planter’s House, St. Louis, he is said to have travelled over Europe and America in “search of all that is recondite in this branch of the spirit art.” His very name, says one of his admirers, is synonymous in the lexicon of mixed drinks with all that is rare and original. Among the chief American drinks are, being alphabetically arranged, _cobblers_, _cocktails_, _cups_, _flips_, _juleps_, _mulls_, _nectars_, _neguses_, _noggs_, _punches_—of which there are at least three score—_sangarees_, _shrubs_, _slings_, _smashes_, and _toddies_.[97] The _cobbler_ is an American invention, though now common in other countries. It requires small skill in its composition, but should be arranged to please the eye. Of this drink the straw is the leading characteristic. The _cocktail_ is a comparatively modern discovery. In this drink _Bogart’s Bitters_ occupies invariably a prominent place. The _Crusta_ is an improvement on the _cocktail_, and is said to have been invented by Santina, a celebrated Spanish caterer. Its _differentia_ is a small quantity of lemon juice and a little lump of ice. The paring of a lemon must also line the glass, from which feature it probably derives its name. _Flip_ has been immortalised by Dibdin as the favourite beverage of sailors, though it has been asserted that they seldom drink it; a somewhat hazardous statement, unless limited to the times in which there is none to be had. The essential feature in _a flip_ is repeated pouring between two vessels, supposed to produce smoothness in the drink. The Slang Dictionary holds _flip_ to be synonymous with _Flannel_, the old term for gin and beer drunk hot with nutmeg, sugar, etc., a play on the old name _lamb’s wool_. The anecdote of Goldsmith drinking _flannel_ in a night-house with George Parker, Ned Shuter, and the demure, grave-looking gentleman, is well known. [Illustration: MINT JULEP.] The _julep_ is especially popular in the Southern States, and is said to have been introduced into England by Captain Marryatt. That romance-writing seaman in his work on _America_, says: “I must descant a little upon the _mint julep_, as it is, with the thermometer at 100°, one of the most delightful and insinuating potations that ever was invented, and may be drunk with equal satisfaction when the thermometer is as low as 70°. There are many varieties, such as those composed of _Claret_, _Madeira_, etc., but the ingredients of the real _mint julep_ are as follows. I learned how to make them, and succeeded pretty well.” Then follows the receipt:— “Put into a tumbler about a dozen sprigs of the tender shoots of mint, upon them put a spoonful of white sugar, and equal proportions of peach and common brandy so as to fill it up one-third, or perhaps a little less. Then take rasped or pounded ice and fill up the tumbler. Epicures rub the lips of the tumbler with a piece of fresh pine apple, and the tumbler itself is very often incrusted outside with stalactites of ice. As the ice melts, you drink.” “I once,” says the marine author of this receipt, of which the reader has _ipsissima verba_, “I once overheard two ladies talking in the next room to me, and one of them said, ‘Well, if I have a weakness for any one thing, it is for a _mint julep_!’” This weakness of the American lady was, in the opinion of the Metropolitan Hotel barman in New York, very amiable, and proved, not only her good taste, but her good sense. In _mulls_, which may be made of any kind of wine, the essential feature is the boiling. Sugar and spice, of which the nursery song tells us little girls are manufactured, are also invariably used in _mulls_. We give a rhymed receipt for mulled wine, not for the sake of the poetry, which is indifferent, but for that of the cookery, which is not bad. “First, my dear madam, you must take Nine eggs, which carefully you’ll break, Into a bowl you’ll drop the white, The yolks into another by it.” Here the poet was evidently hard pressed for a rhyme. “Let Betsy beat the whites with switch, Till they appear quite frothed and rich; Another hand the yolks must beat With sugar, which will make them sweet.” An ordinary effect of sugar. Poet probably hard pressed as before. “Three or four spoonfuls maybe’ll do, Though some perhaps would take but two. Into a skillet next you’ll pour A bottle of good wine, or more; Put half a pint of water, too, Or it may prove too strong for you.” This is personal, nay more, it might to some good people be offensive, as indicating deficiency of cerebral power or endurance. “And while the eggs by two are beating, The wine and water may be heating; But when it comes to boiling heat, The yolks and whites together beat With half a pint of water more, Mixing them well, then gently pour Into the skillet with the wine, And stir it briskly all the time.” Poet again hard pressed. “Then pour it off into a pitcher, Grate nutmeg in to make it richer, Then drink it hot, for he’s a fool Who lets such precious liquor cool.” Of _nectar_ we have no information worth the reader’s acceptance. It appears to be applied indifferently to any dulcet drink. _Negus_ may be made of any sweet wine, but is commonly composed of Port. “It is,” says Jerry Thomas, “a most refreshing and elegant beverage, particularly for those who do not take punch or grog after supper.” _Egg-nogg_, of which other _noggs_ seem to be the lineal descendants, though a beverage of American origin, has “a popularity that is cosmopolitan. In the South of the United States it is almost indispensable at Christmas time, and at the North it is a favourite at all seasons.” In Scotland the beverage is called “_auld man’s milk_.” The presence of the egg constitutes the _differentia_ in this drink. Every well-ordered bar has a tin egg-nogg “_shaker_,” which is a great aid in mixing. The historian will be glad to learn that it was General Harrison’s favourite beverage, and the consumptive and debilitated person that it is full of nourishment. [Illustration: “A CROWN BOWL OF PUNCH.”] _Punch_[98] is remarkable for its variety. It is considered necessary by the adept to rub the sugar on the rind of the citron or lemon, to extract properly what the experienced drinker calls “the ambrosial essence.” The extraction of the ambrosial essence, and the making the mixture sweet and strong, using tea instead of water, and thoroughly amalgamating all the compounds, so that the taste of neither the bitter, the sweet, the spirit, nor the element shall be perceptible one over the other, is the grand secret of making _punch_. And to this, as to other learning, there is no royal road. It must, alas! be laboriously acquired by practice. Many are the mysteries of its concoction. For instance, it is essential in making _hot punch_ that you put in the spirits before the water; in _cold punch_ the other way. The precise portions of spirit and water, or even of the acidity and sweetness, can have no general rule. To attempt offering one would only mislead. A certain inspiration must animate the artist. It has been asserted that no two persons make this drink alike. This remark is admirable, and might probably be applied not only to punch, but to every drink that has yet been composed. It has been said that of _punches_ there are at least threescore. Here follow a few of the many varieties: _Brandy_, _Sherry_, _Gin_, _Whiskey_, _Port_, _Sauterne_, _Claret_, _Missisippi_, _Vanilla_, _Pine Apple_, _Orgeat_, _Curaçoa_, _Roman_, _Glasgow_, _Milk_, and _Regent’s_, brewed by George IV.; _St. Charles’_, _Louisiana_, _Sugar House_, _La Patria_, _Spread Eagle_, _Imperial_, _Rochester_, and _Rocky Mountain_; _Non-Such_, _Philadelphia_, _Fish-House_, _Canadian_, _Tip-Top_, _Bimbo_, _Nuremburgh_, _Ruby_, _Royal_, _Century Club_, _Duke of Norfolk_, _Uncle Toby_, and _Gothic_. People have immortalised themselves by the invention of _punches_ to which a grateful country has attached their names. Of these famous ones are General Ford, for many years commanding engineer at Dover; Dr. Shelton Mackenzie, of Glasgow; D’Orsay; and M. Grassot, the eminent French comedian of the Palais Royal, who communicated his receipt to Mr. Howard Paul, the equally eminent entertainer, when performing in Paris. Last, though not least, the military have thus distinguished themselves by the _National Guard_, the _7th Regiment_ Punch, the _69th Regiment_ Punch, the _32nd Regiment_ or _Victoria_ Punch, and the _Light Guard_ Punch. The _sangaree_, originally a West Indian drink, is as unsatisfactory in its explanation as in its etymology. It seems, indeed, to be little more than spirit and water, with sugar and nutmeg to taste. It very nearly approaches, if it is not identical with, _toddy_.[99] _Shrubs_[100] are unsatisfactory, like _sangarees_. They seem to have no distinctive or differentiating feature. The most common kinds are _Rum_, _Brandy_, _Cherry_, and _Currant_. _Slings_ are very closely related to _toddies_. Their difference is, indeed, infinitesimal, so far as we are able to learn.[101] Of the _smash_, even Jerry Thomas speaks slightingly. He says, “This beverage is simply a _julep_ on a small plan.” It, however, can boast of three species—_gin_, _brandy_, and _whiskey_, and for all a small bar-glass must be used. It is usual, though not apparently essential, to lay two small pieces of orange on the top, and to ornament with the berries of the season. _Toddy_ is the Hindustani _tári tádi_, or juice of the palmyra and cocoa-nut. _Tar_ is the Hindustani word for a palm. It is the name given by Europeans to the sweet liquors produced by puncturing the spathes or stems of certain palms. In the West Indies _toddy_ is obtained from the trunk of the _Attalea cohune_, a native of the Isthmus of Panama. In South-Eastern Asia the palms from which it is collected are the _gomuti_, _cocoa-nut_, _palmyra_, _date_, and the _kittul_ (_Caryota urens_). When newly drawn the liquor is clear, and in taste resembles malt. In a very short time it becomes turbid, whitish, and sub-acid, quickly running into the various stages of fermentation, and acquiring an intoxicating quality. In our use of the word, _toddy_ seems to mean nothing more than spirit and water sweetened, with the occasional addition of lemon peel. _Whiskey toddy_ is the common and favourite species, though there are also _apple_, _gin_, and _brandy toddies_. _Toddy_ differs from grog in being always made with boiling water, but this distinction is not universally maintained, nor, indeed, used by the best authors. _Whiskey_ is probably the “vulgar” kind alluded to by Anstey in his _Pleader’s Guide_, Lect. 7. “First count’s for that with divers jugs, To wit, twelve pots, twelve cups, twelve mugs, Of certain vulgar drink called _toddy_, Said Gull did sluice said Gudgeon’s body.” The names of American drinks form an amusing study. Passing over the well known sleepers, sifters, flosters, knickerbockers, ching-chings, Alabama fog-cutters and thunderbolt cocktails, the lightning smashes and eye-openers of Connecticut, the corpse revivers, the Mother Shiptons and the Maiden’s Prayers, we propose to give a list of some of the most remarkable titles, with receipts added, to satisfy the appetite of any who care to compound them. _A Yard of Flannel._ _A yard of flannel_, otherwise called _egg flip_.—Boil a quart of ale in a tinned saucepan. Beat up yolks of four with the whites of two eggs. Add four tablespoonfuls of brown sugar and a _soupçon_ of nutmeg. Pour on this by degrees the hot ale, taking care to prevent mixture from curdling. Pour back and forward repeatedly, raising the hand as high as possible. This produces the frothing and smoothness essential to the goodness of the drink. It is called _a yard of flannel_ from its fleecy appearance. _White Tiger’s Milk_ (à la Thomas Dunn English, Esq.). Half a gill apple jack, ½ gill peach brandy, ½ teaspoonful aromatic tincture,[102] white of an egg well beaten. Sweeten with white sugar to taste. Pour the mixture into 1 quart of milk, stir well, and sprinkle with nutmeg. This receipt will make a quart of the compound. _Bottled Velvet_ (à la Sir John Bayley). A bottle of Moselle, ½ a pint of sherry, small quantity of lemon peel, 2 tablespoonfuls of sugar. Well mix, add a sprig of verbena, strain, and ice. _Stone Fence._ One wine glass of whiskey (Bourbon), 2 small lumps of ice. Use large bar-glass, and fill up with sweet cider. _Sleeper._ To a gill of old rum add 1 ounce of sugar, 2 yolks of eggs, and the juice of half a lemon. Boil ½ a pint of water with 6 cloves, 6 coriander seeds, and a bit of cinnamon. Whisk all together, and strain into a tumbler. _Rumfustian._ Whisk yolks of a dozen eggs, and put into a quart of beer and a pint of gin. Put a bottle of sherry into a saucepan, with a stick of cinnamon, a grated nutmeg, a dozen lumps of sugar, and the thin rind of a lemon. When the wine boils, pour it on gin and beer, and drink hot. _Bimbo Punch._ Steep in 1 quart cognac brandy 6 lemons, cut in thin slices, for six hours. Then remove lemon without squeezing. Dissolve 1 pound loaf sugar in 1 quart boiling water, and add this hot solution to the cognac. Let it cool. _Bishop._ Stick an orange full of cloves, and roast it. When brown, cut it in quarters, and pour over it 1 quart of hot port. Add sugar to taste, and let mixture simmer for half an hour. _Archbishop._ The same as _Bishop_, with substitution of best claret for port. _Cardinal._ The same as _Archbishop_, with substitution of champagne for claret. _Pope._ The same as _Cardinal_, with substitution of Burgundy for champagne. _Locomotive._ Put 2 yolks of eggs into a goblet with 1 oz. of honey, a little essence of cloves, and a liqueur glass of Curaçoa; add 1 pint of high Burgundy made hot, whisk together, and serve hot in glasses. _Pousse l’Amour._ Fill a small wineglass half full of maraschino, then put in yolk of 1 egg; in this pour vanilla cordial, and dash the surface with cognac. _Blue Blazer_ (use two large silver-plated mugs with handles). One wine glass Scotch whiskey, 1 ditto boiling water. Mix whiskey and water in one mug; ignite, and, while blazing, pour from one mug to the other. Sweeten to taste, and serve in a bar tumbler, with a piece of lemon peel. _Blue Blazer_ is really nothing more than ordinary whiskey and water. _Black Stripe._ Into a small bar-glass pour 1 wine glass of Santa Cruz rum and 1 tablespoonful of molasses; cool with shaved ice, or fill up with boiling water, according to season. Grate nutmeg on top. This is ordinary rum and water. The following appeared in _Moonshine_, and may fitly conclude our chapter on American drinks, for which the verdant English youth has paid to the cunning dispenser so many nimble ninepences:— “Thou art thirsty, Amaryllis; say to what dost thou incline? Wilt thou toy with amber bubbles at the _Fons Burtonis_ brink? Shall I crown the crystal goblet with the flashing _Rhenish_ wine? Or it may be thou would’st wish for an _American long drink_? Shall I brew a _Flash of Lightning_ or a _Bourbon Whiskey-skin_? Or a _Saratoga Brace-up_? Sweetest, you have but to say. Nay, perhaps a _Bottle Cocktail_ would your kind approval win? Or a _Santa Cruz Rum Daisy_ will be something in your way? I can recommend a _Morning-Glory Cocktail_ to your taste And a _Corker_ or a _Nerver_ there are few who will despise; _Tom and Jerry_ offers pleasures it were folly rank to waste; In a _Nectar_ for the dog-days sweet Elysian rapture lies. Be not silent, Amaryllis, name your poison, whatsoe’er You’ve a mind for, be it _Thunder_, _Locomotive_, or _Egg Nogg_. I have all ingredients handy, and I reckon I’m all there When the question’s on the _tapis_ as to what shall be the grog.” [Illustration: AN AMERICAN BAR-TENDER.] [Illustration] BEERS. Definition—Different Modes of Manufacture—Antiquity—Osiris, the Inventor—Adam’s Ale—Egyptian—Scandinavian—Adulterations. AFRICA: Pitto, Ballo, Bouza. AMERICA: Persimon, Chica, Vinho de Batatas. BAVARIA: Schenk and Lager. BELGIUM: Lambic, Faro. BORNEO: Ava or Cava. CHINA: Samtchoo. The dictionary definition, or rather description, of Beer is “an alcoholic liquor made from any farinaceous grain, but generally from barley.” This barley clause is, of course, not true in all countries, nor is beer always made from a farinaceous grain. For the rest, the description is all that could be desired. After the barley is malted and grained, its fermentable substance is extracted by hot water. To this extract or infusion hops, or some other plant of an agreeable bitterness, are added, and it is afterwards boiled for some time, both to concentrate it and to obtain all the useful matters from the hops. The liquor is subsequently allowed to ferment in vats. The time allowed for fermentation depends upon the quality and kind of beer. After it has become clear it is stored for drink. This ordinary popular description of beer will be probably sufficient to satisfy the general reader. But we must add to it a second explanation of beer, which is applied to a fermented extract, not from any farinaceous grain, but from the roots and other parts of various plants, as ginger, spruce-sap, beet, molasses, and many more. The scientific inquirer may learn the mysteries of malting and brewing, which are very nearly distinct trades, in the many treatises on beer-making which have adorned the literature of this and other countries. In these he may read as much as he wills of the _steeping_ of the barley, its extension, its absorption of water, and the time occupied in this process; of the _couching_ and _sweating_, as it is called, a result of the partial germination of the grain; of the _flooring_, or spreading out like hay over a field; of the _kiln-drying_, or the introduction of the half-germinated grain into a kiln with a perforated floor, with the necessary and variable amount of heat beneath it. And if all this is not enough, he may continue to read at full length of _cornings_ or _cummings_, of _pale_ and _amber-coloured malt_, of _grinding the malt_, of _washing the malt thus ground_, of _boiling the worts with hops_, of _cooling the worts_, of _fermenting the worts_, and, finally, of _clearing and storing_. Beer is probably a word of German, as ale, signifying the same thing, is of Scandinavian origin. But the source of the German word is a moot question of comparative philology. Those interested in this matter may find abundant information in a note inserted by M. A. Schleicher in the _Zeitschrift_ of Kuhn. We are led thereby to a Gothic form, _pius_, which in its turn conducts us to the Lithuanian _pyvas_. _Pyvas_ or _pivas_—since etymology is a science _dans laquelle les consonants font peu de chose, et les voyelles rien de tout_—may be easily attached to the secondary root _piv_ found in the Sanskrit _pivâmi._ In Indo-European tongues, and in accordance with the dictum of Voltaire, p, b, v, are interchangeable as labials. And so we come to the conclusion that _pivas_, or its descendant _beer_, means nothing else but _drink_; or, in other words, that this particular form of drink is _the_ drink _par excellence_. And so we might rest content, were it not for the uneasy scruples of a certain M. Pictet, who has introduced a Slavic origin. But of etymology this taste will suffice. Twenty centuries before the Christian era, Osiris, according to some authors, invented beer,[103] and according to others it has been at all times a drink of the Hebrews. We have, indeed, heard of Adam’s ale, but that term has been generally applied to a species of drink which would hardly come under our present category. It is perhaps more probable that the beverage of Osiris and the early Hebrews was a simple infusion of barley without more. Pliny, however, Theophrastus, and Tacitus, speak of beer as known from very early times to the people of the North, who were prevented by their situation from the cultivation of wine.[104] The ancient beer of Egypt is compared by Diodorus Siculus to wine on account of its strength and flavour. This Egyptian beer is indeed spoken of by Herodotus as _barley wine_, a title which still survives in some of the windows of our public-houses. At present beer is the habitual drink of the English, German, Dutch, and Scandinavian races. A drink, better called _barley water_ than _beer_, appears to have been the favourite beverage of the Danes and Anglo-Saxons, our ancestors in the remote past. Before Christianity had enlightened and corrected their views about the delights of a future state, these benighted folk supposed that the chief felicity enjoyed by the good—in those days synonymous with the brave—after their death and transplantation into Odin’s paradise, would be to drink in large goblets large quantities of ale. Perpetual intoxication thus entered largely into their conception of celestial joy. Beer as we understand it—modified, that is, by the introduction of the hop—was probably little known in England before the beginning of the sixteenth century. The varieties of beer at the present time are numerous. Some of them will be considered later on in detail. There are, however, only three principal types of fabrication,—the Belgian, Bavarian, and English. The beers of England, as of France, and for the most part of Germany, become sour by the contact of air. This defect is absent from Bavarian beers. So favourite a drink has, of course, been largely adulterated. Taste, colour, and smell are frequently due to unscrupulous falsifications. Bitterness is produced by strychnine, aloes, nux vomica, gentian, quassia, centaury, pyrethrum, absinthe, and many other ingredients. Colour is obtained by liquorice, chicory, and caramel; and flavour by other additions, which perhaps it is better not to particularize. Water, of course, is added to beer, as to most drinks, to enlarge the quantity and therefore the price. Potatoes are frequently a substitute for grain. Potash is introduced to give the much-desired “_head_,” chalk to diminish acidity, and chloride of sodium, or common salt, for the sake of what is called a _piquant_ flavour. It were well if these little eccentricities of the beer vendors had here their confine; but the sacred hunger for gold has added, alas! to these, virulent and narcotic poisons,[105] such as belladonna and opium, henbane and picric or carbazotic acid. In the city of London this kind of adulteration was formerly, it was fondly imagined, to some extent prevented by some ancient guardians, known as _ale-conners_, who had the right of entering all public-houses and tasting their ales. Only the most important beers of different countries are given in the following list, arranged alphabetically for convenience of reference:— AFRICA. Captain Clapperton _(Expedition to Africa_, i., 133, 187) found at Wow-wow, the metropolis of Borghoo, a kind of ale bearing the name of _pitto_, obtained from the same grain as that used for the same purpose in Dahomey, and by a process nearly similar to the brewing of beer in England from malt, only that no hops were added, a defect which prevented it keeping for any length of time. The people of the countries from the Gambia to the Senegal use a kind of beer called _ballo_. At a village called _Wezo_ there is a beer called _otèe_, a sort of ale made from millet, of a very enlivening nature. Another sort of beer, called _gear_, is found at Ragada. At _Whidah_ an excellent beer is made from two sorts of maize. The Jews at Taffilet use beer of their own brewing. Isaacs (_Travels in Africa_, ii., 319) says that the Zoola nation, between Delagoa Bay and the Bay of Natal, has a description of beer, with which the natives are wont to get drunk. This beer is made from a seed called _loopoco_, something in size and colour like rape. It has powerful fermenting properties, and forms a beverage of a light brown hue, potent and stimulating. In Sofala a beer is made from rice and millet; also in Abyssinia is to be found a drink of many names—_tallah_, or _selleh_, or _donqua_, or _sona_—commonly brewed from wheat, millet or barley, mixed with a bitter herb called _geso_. According to Bruce, Abyssinian beer of an inferior kind is made from _tocusso_. This is really a variety of _bouza_, which is also made from _teff_, the _poa abyssinica_ of botanists. AMERICA. _Persimon_ beer, from the fruit of the date plum (_Diospyros Virginiana_), is drunk in North America. In South America, long before the Spanish conquest, the Indians prepared and drank a beer obtained from Indian corn, called _chica_ or maize beer. The process followed in making _chica_ is very similar to that of beer brewing in Britain. The maize is moistened with water, allowed partially to germinate and dried in the sun. The maize malt so prepared is bruised, treated with warm water, and allowed to ferment. The liquor is yellow, and has an acid taste something like cider. It is in common demand on the west coast. In the valleys of the Sierra the maize malt is subjected to human mastication, not invariably by the young and beautiful girls, but by old ladies and gentlemen who still retain, by the indulgence of nature, the requisite dental arrangement. The saliva mixed with the chewed morsel is supposed to produce a more excellent _chica_. Indeed, the result is so choice that this kind is commonly called Peruvian nectar. _Chica_ can also be made from barley, rice, peas, grapes, pine-apples, and manioc. The Brazilians have a beer called _Vinho de Batatas_, from the Batata[106] root. _Sora_, a Peruvian beer, was formerly forbidden by the Incas because of its extremely intoxicating nature. AUSTRIA. The most famous beer is perhaps the Pilsener, or white beer, from Pilsen in Bohemia, the favourite drink in Vienna. Gratzer is brewed from wheat malt. BAVARIA. The peculiar flavour of the Bavarian ale is perhaps a result of the very free use of pitch or resinous matters to protect the wood of the fermenting tun, but it seems more probable that it is due to the commixture of pine tops. _Schenk_ beer is draught beer, in contradistinction to _Lager_, or store beer. The one is drunk in summer, the other in winter. _Bock beer_[107] and _Salvator_, dark heavy kinds of stout, are both well known. _Kaiserslautern_ is the name of a famous brewage in Rhenish Bavaria. BELGIUM. White beers, the result of a mixture of oats and wheat, called _Walgbaert_ and _Happe_, were made in Brussels in the fifteenth century. _Roetbier_ and _Zwartbier_ were, as their names tell us, red and black beers. _Cuyte_ was at one time a favourite and aristocratic drink. It has since fallen from its high estate. There are some forty kinds of beer, at least, now manufactured in Brussels. The white beer of Louvain in South Brabant is the most esteemed; but an Englishman has described it as having the flavour of pitch, soapsuds and vinegar. The winter brew is termed _Faro_, the summer _Lambic_. The _Faro_ is by some said to be prepared from the strong _Lambic_ and a small beer called _Mars_. All Belgium beers, according to the opinion of some experts, have a certain stamp of vinosity. In addition to the _Lambic_ and _Faro_, which are distinguished in this particular, may be mentioned the _Uitzet_ of Flanders, the _Arge_, of Antwerp, and _Fortes-Saisons_ of the Walloons. The white sparkling beers of Louvain are the best of summer beers, they are succeeded by those of _Hougaerde_ and _Diest_. The brown beers of _Malines_ and the _Saison_ of _Liege_ possess good reports. Latterly the _Grisettes_ of _Gembloux_, the beer of _Dinant_, the _blonde_ of _Buiche_, and the ale of _Oppuers_ have been creditably mentioned. BORNEO. The aborigines[108] of Borneo, if we are to believe Commodore Roggewein,[109] are the “basest, most cruel and perfidious people in the world.” They are “honest, industrious, strongly affectionate and self-denying,” if we are to credit the account of the Italian missionary, Antonio Ventimiglia. When such diversity of opinion is manifested about the people, some discordance might naturally be supposed to exhibit itself in the matter of their potations. But this is not thus. The great drink of the Beajus is allowed on all hands to be the _ava_ or _cava_, prepared from the _piper methysticum_, or intoxicating pepper plant. This is a shrub with thick roots, long heart-shaped leaves, and a clump or spike of berries. The root is chewed only—it is satisfactory to learn—by young girls with good teeth and dainty mouths.[110] Water or cocoa-nut milk is poured on the masticated pulp, fermentation ensues, and the _Beajus_ drink and become drunken. The mass of chewed matter is kneaded with considerable dexterity by practised professionals. “Every tongue is mute,” says Mariner—one of the crew of a vessel seized by the natives in the commencement of this century,—“while this operation is going on; every eye is upon them, watching every motion of their arms as they describe the various curvilinear turns essential to success.” _Ava_ is also drunk in Otaheite, in the Feejee islands, and those of the Marquesas and of the South Seas. CHINA. _Tar-asun_, extracted from barley or wheat, is the beer of China. It is sweet, and commonly drunk warm, before distillation. The mixed liquor from which it is prepared is called _tchoo_, or wine; after that, _sam_ or _san_ is prefixed, to show its hot nature. _Samtchoo_—the word is spelt in many ways—may, says Barrow (_Travels_, p. 304), be considered the basis of the best _arrack_, itself a mere rectification of the above spirit with the addition of molasses and the juice of the cocoa-nut tree. _Bell’s Travels_, ii., 9. [Illustration] [Illustration] ENGLAND. Love of the English for Beer—A National Drink—Private Brewing—A French View of English Society—Sir John Barleycorn—The “Black Jack” and “Leather Bottel”—“Toby Philpot”—Burton-on-Trent—Bottled Beer—Brewers—The Village Ale-house—Various Beers. “Back and syde goo bare, goo bare, Both hande and foote goo colde; But, Bellie, God send the good ale inowghe Whether hyt be newe or old.” “Brynge us home good ale, syr, brynge us home good ale, And for our der lady’s love, brynge us som good ale. Brynge us home no beff, syr, for that is full of bonys, But brynge us home goode ale y-nough, for that my love alone ys; Brynge us home no wetyn brede, for yᵗ be ful of branne, Nothyr of no ry brede, for yᵗ is of yᵉ same; Brynge us home no porke, syr, for yᵗ is verie fatt, Nothyr no barly brede, for neythir love I that; Brynge us home no muton, for that is tough and lene, Neyther no trypys, for thei be seldyn clene; Brynge us home no veel, syr, that do I not desyr, But brynge us home good ale y-nough to drynke by yᵉ fyer; Brynge us home no syder, nor no palde[111] wyne, For, and yᵘ do, thow shalt have Criste’s curse and mine.” The foregoing verses epitomise the praise of good beer. The first is from one of the earliest known drinking songs in the English language—the last is an old Wassail song—the Wassail bowl, which was of hot spiced ale, with roasted apples bobbing therein,—a kindly way of welcome on New Year’s Eve, of Saxon derivation as its name “Wes-hal,” _be of health_, or _your health_, testifies. That the Anglo-Saxon took kindly to his beer, we have already seen; and that that feeling exists at the present day is undoubted, for what says the refrain of a comparatively modern drinking song? “I loves a drop of good beer—I does— I’se partickler fond of my beer—I is— And ⸺ their eyes, If ever they tries To rob a poor man of his beer.” Its popularity has never waned—and it has reached to such a height that the brewing trade seems to be instituted for the propagation of Peers of the realm—a fact which Dr. Johnson even could not have foreseen, although, at the sale of Thrale’s brewery, he did say that they had not met together to sell boilers and vats, but “the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dream of avarice.” It was the national drink—for tea and coffee were not introduced into England until the middle of the seventeenth century—and it is only of very modern times that the “free breakfast table” fad of statesmanship has made those beverages so popular, by bringing them within the means of the very poorest. Beer was, perforce, drank morning, noon and night by those, and they were the vast majority, who could not afford wine—and, as a rule, after the Norman Conquest, when the Anglo-Saxons copied the soberer customs of their conquerors, the English were not drunkards as a nation; in fact, although almost all their jests hinge on drinking, there is in most of them an underlying moral, which in print are as telling as in this illustration, which, in deference to nasty Mrs. Grundy, has been slightly toned down. Here is very cleverly satirised for reprobation the phases of men under the influence of drink. How it transforms them into beasts, some like lions, others like asses and calves, sensual as hogs, greedy as goats, stupid as gulls. [Illustration] Every man brewed his own beer up to the seventeenth century, when we find Pepys speaking of Cobb’s strong ales at Margate; and in the reign of Queen Elizabeth the public brewing had begun at Burton, for an inquiry was made by Walsingham to Sir Ralph Sadler, the governor of Tutbury Castle, as to “What place neere Tutbury, beere may be provided for her Majesty’s use?” and the answer was that it might be obtained at Burton, three miles off. Good Queen Bess would, indeed, have fared badly without her beer, for her breakfast beverages were always beer and wine. Yet every one was fairly sober. They were weaned on alcoholic liquors, and, consequently, enjoyed them as foods, as they undoubtedly are, if properly used. It is very well to “see our sen as others see us,” but it is almost impossible to agree with Estienne Perlin, who published his _Description des Royaulmes d’Angleterre et d’Escosse_, at Paris in 1558, in which he says that the English “sont fort grands yvrongnes.” His description is, we feel, as untrustworthy as his English. “Car si un Anglois vous veult traicter, vous dira en son langage, _vis dring a quarta rim vim gasquim, vim hespaignol, vim malvoysi_, c’est a dire veulx tu venir boire une quarte de vin du gascoigne, une autre d’espaigne, & une autre de malvoisie, en beuvant & en mengeant vous diront plus de cent fois _drind iou_, c’est a dire je m’en vois boyre a toy, & vous leur responderes en leur langage _iplaigiu_, qui est a dire, je vous plege. Si vous les remarcies vous leurs dires en leurs langages, _god tanque artelay_, c’est a dire, je vous remercie de bon cœur. Eulx estans yvres, vous jureront le sang et le mort que vous beures tout ce que vous tenes dedans vostre tace, & vous diront ainsi, _bigod sol drind iou agoud oin_.” It is much to be feared that the worthy Frenchman, if his description is to be at all relied on, mixed with rather a fast lot. Ale was looked upon as a kindly creature, and our ancestors of the seventeenth century had several ballads in praise of the “little Barleycorn” and the indictment, as well as the “Bloody Murther,” of Sir John Barleycorn. From this latter the peasant poet, Burns, plagiarised right royally. There was also a very curious Chap book published in the early part of the eighteenth century, entitled, “The whole TRIAL and INDICTMENT of _Sir_ JOHN BARLEY-CORN—_Kⁿᵗ_. A Person of Noble Birth and Extraction, and well known by Rich and Poor throughout the Kingdom of _Great Britain_: Being accused of several Misdemeanours, by him committed against His Majesty’s Liege People; by killing some, wounding others, and bringing Thousands to Beggary, and ruins many a poor Family. Here you have the Substance of the Evidence given in against him on his Trial, with the Names of the Judges, Jury, and Witnesses. Also the Comical Defence Sir _John_ makes for himself, and the Character given him by some of his Neighbours, namely, _Hewson_ the Cobbler, an honest friend of Sir John’s, who is entomb’d as a _Memorandum_, at the _Two Brewers_ in _East Smithfield_. _Taken in Short Hand by_ Thomas Tosspott, _Foreman of the Jury_.” [Illustration] One of the witnesses, hight Mistress _Full-Pot_, the hostess, called in his defence, thus winds up her evidence,— “Nay, I beseech you, give me leave to speak to you; if you put him to Death, all _England_ is undone, for there is not such another in the Land that can do as he can do, and hath done; for he can make a Cripple to go, he can make a Coward to fight with a valiant Soldier, nay, he can make a good Soldier feel neither Hunger or Cold. Besides, for Valour in himself, there are few that can encounter with him, for he can pull down the strongest Man in the World, and lay him fast asleep.” Of course, the jury found a verdict of _Not Guilty_. Beer has a large literature of its own, principally metrical, but this has pretty well been collected in two books—_The Curiosities of Ale and Beer_, by John Bickerdyke; and _In Praise of Ale_, by W. T. Marchant—either of which would be a valuable addition to any one’s library. Yet in neither of them is met with Ned Ward’s “_Dialogue between Claret and Darby Ale_,” published 1691, in which each of the drinks speak for themselves; and, of course, the arguments of ale are all potent over his antagonist. Space will only allow of a very short extract. “_Darby._—I’m glad to know you, High and Mighty _Sir_; Think you your pompous empty Name could stir My Choler? No, your Title makes me fear As much as if you’d been _Six Shilling Beer_. _Claret._—Thou _Son of Earth_, thou dull insipid thing, To level me, who am of Liquors _King_, With lean _Small Beer_, but that thou art not worth My Anger, else I’de frown thee into Earth. _Darby._—I neither fear your Frown, nor court your Smile; But, if I’m not mistaken all this while, By other names than Claret you are known— _Claret._—You do not hear me, Sir, the Fact disown, Some call me _Barcelona_, some _Navar_, Some _Syracuse_, but at the Vintner’s Bar _My_ name’s _Red Port_. But call me what they will, _Claret_ I am, and will be Claret still,” etc., etc. [Illustration] Not content with praising the liquor ale, our ancestors fell to eulogising the vessels used for its consumption, and the “Black Jack” and “Leather Bottel” both came in for their meed of praise. Sketches of a fine example of each are here given, taken from the national collection in the British Museum. The Black Jack is a jug or pitcher, made of leather, which was sometimes ornamented with a silver rim and a silver plate with the owner’s name or coat of arms engraved thereon. Here is a short lyric, “In praise of the Black Jack.”[112] “Be your liquor small, or as thick as mudd, The cheating bottle cryes, good, good, good, Whereat the master begins to storme, Cause he said more than he could performe. _And I wish that his heires may never want Sack,_ _That first devis’d the bonny black Jack._ No Tankerd, Flaggon, Bottle nor Jugg Are half so good, or so well can hold Tugg, For when they are broke, or full of cracks, Then they must fly to the brave black Jacks. _And I wish_, etc. When the Bottle and Jack stands together, O fie on’t, The Bottle looks just like a dwarfe to a Gyant; Then had we not reason Jacks to chuse For this’l make Boots, when the Bottle mends shoes. _And I wish_, etc. And as for the bottle you never can fill it Without a Tunnell, but you must spill it, ’Tis as hard to get in, as it is to get out, ’Tis not so with a Jack, for it runs like a Spout _And I wish_, etc. And when we have drank out all our store, The Jack goes for Barme to brew us some more; And when our Stomacks with hunger have bled, Then it marches for more to make us some bread. _And I wish_, etc. I now will cease to speak of the Jack, But hope his assistance I never shall lack, And I hope that now every honest man, Instead of Jack will y’clip him John. _And I wish_, etc.” But the composer of “A Song in praise of the Leather Bottel” could rise to the magnitude of his subject in a far superior manner than the preceding poet, the refrain of his song being of a higher type. “And I wish in Heaven his Soul may dwell, That first devised the Leather Bottel.” [Illustration] The uses of the Bottel were so manifest, and its material so superior to any other, that it occupied a higher position. It was better than wood, for it would not run, and was unbreakable. When a man and his wife fell out, as will occasionally happen even in the best matrimonial existence, the bottel could be thrown at each other, without great injury either to human, or the bottel. It held no temptation to steal, as if it were of silver; nor could it be broken, as if it were of glass—because, as the song justly says,— “Then what do you say to these Glasses fine? Yes, they shall have no Praise of mine; For when a Company there are sat, For to be merry, as we are met; Then, if you chance to touch the Brim, Down falls your Liquor, and all therein; If your Table Cloath be never so fine, There lies your Beer, your Ale or Wine; It may be for a small Abuse, A young Man may his Service lose; But had it been in a Leather Bottel, And the Stopple in, then all had been well.” The rhymester recapitulates the gratitude of all classes for this extremely handy and unbreakable convenience, and winds up thus, somewhat sadly— “Then when the Bottel doth grow old, And will good Liquor no longer hold, Out of its side you may take a Clout, Will mend your Shooes when they’r worn out; Else take it, and hang it upon a Pin, It will serve to put many Trifles in, As Hinges, Awls, and Candle-ends, For young Beginners must have such things. _Then I wish_, etc.” The next most popular English drinking vessel was the _greybeard_, or as it was sometimes, but seldom, called the _Bellarmine_, from the Cardinal of that name so famous for his controversial works. These jugs were imported largely from the Low Countries, where the Cardinal’s name was a reproach. These greybeards are of very common occurrence, being frequently found in excavating on the sites of old houses. Two centuries after the greybeard, came the brown Staffordshire _Toby Philpot_, an enormously stout old gentleman, whose arms and hands encircle his enormous paunch, and his three-cornered hat forms a most convenient lip, whence the ale can be poured. It owes its origin to a once very popular drinking song, entitled “The Brown Jug,” which is an imitation from the Latin of Hieronymus Amaltheus, by Francis Fawkes, M.A., published in 1761, which is the date of the accompanying illustration. [Illustration] “Dear Tom, this brown jug, which now foams with mild ale, Out of which I now drink to sweet Nan of the Vale, Was once Toby Philpot, a thirsty old soul, As e’er cracked a bottle, or fathom’d a bowl; In bousing about, ’twas his pride to excel, And amongst jolly topers he bore off the bell. It chanced as in dog-days he sat at his ease, In his flower-woven arbour, as gay as you please, With his friend and a pipe, puffing sorrow away, And with honest Old Stingo sat soaking his clay, His breath-doors of life on a sudden were shut, And he died full big as a Dorchester Butt. His body, when long in the ground it had lain, And time into clay had dissolved it again, A potter found out, in its covert so snug, And with part of Fat Toby he form’d this brown jug; Now sacred to friendship, to mirth, and mild ale— So here’s to my lovely sweet Nan of the Vale.” Burton-on-Trent may be termed the Metropolis of English Beer, and there, veritably, “Beer is King.” This pre-eminence is attributed to the quality of the water, which seems peculiarly fitted for brewing purposes, and the fact that the large brewers there located use none but the finest malt and hops procurable. There is an old saying, that wherever an Englishman has trodden, and where has he not? there may be found an empty beer bottle. And, truly, he does carry the taste for his natural beverage wherever he goes, and the export trade is enormous, every ship wanting freight, filling up with bottled beer, as a safe thing. Fuller, in his _Worthies of England_ (ed. 1662, p. 115), gives his account of the origin of bottled beer. Speaking of Alexander Nowell, who was made Dean of St. Paul’s as soon as Queen Elizabeth came to the throne, he mentions his fondness for fishing, and says, “Without offence it may be remembred, that leaving a _Bottle_ of _Ale_ (when fishing) in the _Grasse_; he found it some dayes after, no _Bottle_, but a _Gun_, such the sound at the opening therof. And this is believed (Casualty is _Mother_ of more _Inventions_ than _Industry_) the original of _bottled-ale_ in _England_.” The London brewer had to be content, before Sir Hugh Myddleton brought the New River to the Metropolis, with the water obtained from the Thames, for Artesian wells were not, and other well water must, from the crowded state of the City, have been highly charged with organic matter. But their trade was so important that they were incorporated into a Gild, and the Brewers’ Company is now in existence, having their Hall in Addle Street, Wood Street. The City still maintains the importance of beer as a beverage by keeping an Ale Conner, whose duty is to taste ales, and see that the price charged is not excessive. Their oath of office may be found in the _Liber Albus_, published at the instance of the Government. [Illustration: VILLAGE INN.] [Illustration: VILLAGE INN.] The names of our great English brewers are too well known among the English people to need recapitulation—and space is too scarce to describe their premises. The London draymen have always been noted as a race of tall stalwart men, and brewers generally have taken a pride in getting the largest and strongest horses for their work. These two draymen are of the time of George I., and the weight they are carrying contrasts favourably with the satire of a huge dray horse dragging a four and a half gallon cask. On one notable occasion brewers’ draymen have gone beyond their last. When General Haynau visited Barclay’s Brewery, they rose in indignation against him and chased him from the place, because it was alleged that the General had caused a lady to be flogged! [Illustration] The Village Ale-house is, or was, the village club, and certainly is a welcome place of rest for the wayfarer. They are always clean, and frequently quaint, although now-a-days it would be hard to find, as Rowlandson did, a turnspit dog on duty. [Illustration] The names of ales are legion; but some are worthy of a passing notice on account of their strength, such as some of the College Ales, those brewed at the birth of an heir—to be drank at his coming of age, Ten Guinea Ale, etc., and there are any quantity of pseudo beers—_i.e._ those not made from malt and hops, China Ale, Radish Ale, ale made from beet or mangel wurzel, and heather beer, which latter is of so great antiquity that its method of manufacture is said to have been lost with the extirpation of the Picts, although some say it was brewed by the Danes. It is probable that the flowers and tops of the heath were used as a substitute for hops, as, previous to the introduction of the latter plant, broom, wormwood and other bitter herbs were used. J. A. [Illustration: _After Rowlandson._] FRANCE: Cerevisia; Double Bière; Adulteration. GERMANY: Mum; Beer Factories; Faust. INDIA: Pachwai, Piworree. JAPAN: Saki; Kæmpfer. RUSSIA: Kvas; Vodki; Pivo. SWEDEN: Spruce. TARTARY: Baksoum. FRANCE. In France beer was originally known as _cervoise_ from the Low Latin _cerevisia_. There are two sorts, white and red; the latter has more hops. When much grain enters into the composition it is called _double bière_. Its qualities vary here as elsewhere, according to the grain employed in its manufacture, the malt, and the fermentation. It has been commonly adulterated with _ledum palustre_ or wild rosemary, a strong narcotic. Allusions to beer are comparatively infrequent in French works. The details of its manufacture, which present no remarkable points of variation, may be found in any French work on brewing. [Illustration: _After A. L. Mayer._] GERMANY. Of the many beers of this country, perhaps the most deserving of notice here is the _Mum_ of Brunswick, well known and appreciated for its excellence. The process observed in its manufacture has been, it is said, always kept a mystery,[113] and to prevent discovery, the men who brewed it were hired for life. The origin of the word _Mum_ is obscure. The German _Mumme_, a strong ale producing silence[114] from intoxication; the Danish word for a mask, because it exhibits the parties drinking it with a new face; and _Christian Mummer_ of Brunswick, the supposed inventor of the drink, have been by turns suggested. The varied kinds of _Schenk_, or winter beer, and _Lager_, or summer beer, are fairly well known. The Leipzig Goose and the Berlin white beer are refreshing drinks in summer. An excellent description of _Bierbrauerei_ apparatus is given in Brockhaus’ _Conversations Lexikon_, Band iii. The most important beer factories are in Munich,[115] Erlangen, Zirndorf, Nürnberg, and Vienna. German beer is far less potent than that of England, but want of strength is made up by the quantity taken. From the time of Goethe, and long before, Germans were great consumers of beer, and the scene in his “Faust,” of students in Auerbach’s Cellar, was typical of his time. Now-a-days there is no degeneracy in the German beer drinker, and a Viennese “Saufender Renommist” will drink his thirty half-pints of _Märzen_ at a sitting. German beers are now readily attainable at any German restaurant in London. INDIA. The Hill-tribes of India commonly consume _Pachwai_, prepared from rice and other grain in Bengal. In Nepaul a beer named _Phaur_, made from rice or wheat, is brewed much in the same manner as English ale, which it is said strongly to resemble. It is in considerable repute and, according to Hamilton,[116] wheat and barley are in Nepaul reared for the express purpose of making the beer and other drinks similar to it. In the West Indies the negroes make a fermented drink resembling beer from _cassava_, which in Barbadoes is termed _piworree_,[117] and in other places _ouycou_. This plant, the _manioc_ or _mandioc_ of America, grows to the size of a small tree, and produces roots like our parsnips.[118] _Ouycou_ is sometimes brewed very strong. It is considered nourishing and refreshing, as indeed most drinks which gratify the palate seem to be considered. Molasses and yams are used in its preparation. The liquor is red. _Piworree_ or _paiwari_ is also made by the Indians in Honduras, as in Brazil, from cassava. Cassava bread carbonised superficially is placed in hot water until fermentation arises. To promote this, feminine chewing is found efficacious. The taste, says Simmonds, is said to resemble that of ale, but is not “quite so agreeable—this may easily be believed.” _Cela dépend_, as in the case of the _chica_ of the sierras of South America. JAPAN. Kæmpfer, in his _History of Japan_, i., 121, tells us that in the manufacture of _Sacke_ or _Saki_,[119] a strong and wholesome beer produced from rice, the Japanese are not excelled by any other people. This beer, a very ancient drink, is white when fresh, but becomes brown, if it remains long in the cask. It is manufactured to the highest degree of excellence in Osacca, and thence exported to other countries. The beer’s name is said to be derived from that of this city, being the genitive case of the word, with the initial letter omitted. It is wholesome and pleasant, but should be drunk moderately warm.[120] There are many varieties of _saki_, distinguished by different names. RUSSIA. _Quass_, or _Kvas_, a word signifying _sour_, an ancient Scythian beverage, is the ordinary household beer of Russia. A variety of it called _Kisslyschtschy_ is variably described as exceedingly pleasant, and as an abominable small beer, something like sweet wort or treacle beer, almost as vile as the _Vodki_ or Russian gin. These matters of course depend on individual taste. The Russian _pivo_, also in common use, is said to resemble German beer, but German beers are many and diverse. SWEDEN. Swedish beer is made at Stockholm. _Spruce_ beer is much in use. This drink is said to have originated from a decoction of the tops of the spruce fir. In Norway and Denmark as well as in Sweden this liquor is made from boiling the leaves, rind and branches of pines. But the _Spruce_ beer of Great Britain and Ireland—either white or brown, according as sugar or molasses is employed in the making—is an essence or fluid extract procured by boiling the shoots, tops, bark and cones of the Scotch fir (_pinus sylvestris_). _Spruce beer_ is supposed to be of much medicinal value as an antiscorbutic. Samuel Morewood presents us with a gratifying reflection on this matter. While, he says, _Spruce_ is beneficial to the health of man, it has not, by its “consequence depreciated his character, or lowered him in his moral dignity.” TARTARY. The beer to be met with in Tartary is for the most part of an indifferent quality. That brewed from barley and millet by the Turkestans, termed _baksoum_, more resembles water boiled with rice than beer. They, however, admire it, and affirm that it is an invaluable remedy for dysentery. The reader will have already perceived that it is a cosmopolitan practice to pamper the appetite under the pretence of preserving the health. _Baksoum_ is acid in taste, of no scent, a feeble intoxicant, and cannot be kept for any length of time. [Illustration] _Non-Alcoholic Drinks._ [Illustration] TEA. I. Popularity of Tea as a Drink—Consumption in England, and comparative Use all over the World—Legend of its Origin—Date of its Use—Growth of the Plant—Different Kinds of Tea—Great Falling off in the Exports from China—Ceylon Tea—High Prices of—Statistics—Analysis of Tea. Of all non-alcoholic beverages, Tea claims the pre-eminence, being drank by nearly, if not quite, half the population of the world, and common alike to all climes and all nations. In China it is the national beverage, and it is used not only as an ordinary drink, but it is the chief factor in visits of ceremony, and in hospitality. Japan, too, is a large consumer, and its houses of entertainment are “Tea” houses. In the wilds of Thibet its use is universal, and so it is on the steppes of Tartary, where, however, it is made as nauseous and repulsive a drink as possible. In Russia, it is the traveller’s comfort, and every post house is bound by law to have its _samovar_ hot and boiling, ready for the wayfarer. In Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania, the “billy” of tea is familiar, and forms the only drink of the shepherd, the stockman, and the digger. All the British colonies and possessions are devotees to the “cup which cheers, but not inebriates.” Great Britain herself is a great tea drinker, whether it be the “five o’clock tea,” which has developed into a cult, with vestments peculiar thereto; the poor seamstress, stitching for hard life, who takes it to keep herself awake for her task; or the labourer, who takes his tin bottle with him to the field. In fact, go where you will, in every civilized portion of the world (except Greece, where the consumption is merely nominal), and you will find drinkers of tea. Great Britain is the centre of the tea trade of the world, and in 1889 she imported a total quantity of 222,147,661 lbs., the declared value of which was £9,987,967. Of this she took for her own consumption, and paid duty thereon, 185,628,491 lbs, which, at 6_d._ per lb. duty, produced a revenue of £4,640,704. Wisely or not, Mr. Goschen, in the Budget for 1890, reduced the duty to 4_d._ per lb. In spite of this enormous quantity of tea drank in Great Britain, she does not rank as the largest consumer per head, which, leaving out China, Japan, Thibet, and Tartary, where statistics are unknown, is as follows:—[121] Australian Colonies, New Zealand, Tasmania, Great Britain, Newfoundland, Canada, Bermuda, United States, Holland, Cape Colony, Natal, Russia, Denmark, Uruguay, Argentine Republic, B. Honduras, Barbadoes, Trinidad, Antigua, British Guiana, Persia, Portugal, Bahamas, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, Grenada, Morocco, St. Vincent, Jamaica, Belgium, Sweden, France, Roumania, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Spain, Turkey (no returns), Italy (ditto), Greece (nominal), Mauritius, 1888, 106,589 lbs. Sierra Leone, 1888, 6,008 lbs. The tea shrub grows wild in Assam, and in other parts between the limits of N. Latitude 15° to 40°, and this zone is most favourable to its growth in its cultivated form, although of late years Ceylon, which is nearer the equator, has made enormous strides in the production of tea. Up to the present time, however, China has furnished the largest quantity, and for centuries has enjoyed the monopoly of its production; a monopoly now broken down, and every day vanishing, mainly owing to the roguery of its manufacturers and the folly of its growers. Of course such a plant could have had no common origin, and no reader need be surprised at its story. The legend runs that Prince Darma, or Djarma, the third son of King Kosjusvo, went, very many centuries ago, from India to China, where he abode, and became celebrated for his piety. Like the _fakirs_ of India, he showed his religious tendencies in a morbid manner—living only under heaven’s canopy, fasting for weeks together, and eliminating sleep altogether from his daily wants. Tradition says that this state of things continued for years, until, one day, weary nature asserted her pre-eminence, and Darma slept. Imagine his holy horror on his awakening! Something of the same kind must have possessed Cranmer when he stretched forth his right hand in the flames of his funereal pyre, with the heart-wrung exclamation, “This hand hath offended.” So with Darma; filled with pious horror, his first thought was, how to expiate his offence, and his peccant eyelids were, consequently, cut off and thrown upon the ground. Next day, returning to the spot where he had involuntarily sinned, he saw two shrubs, of a kind never before beheld in China. He tasted them, found them aromatic, and, moreover, possessing the quality of imparting wakefulness to their consumer. The discovery and miracle became noised abroad, and hence the popularity of tea in China. But, apart from this legend, the Chinese themselves have no certain record of the introduction of tea into their country. They believe that it was in use in the third century, and in the latter end of the fourth century, Wangmung, a minister of the Tsin dynasty, made it fashionable and much increased its consumption. In all probability it was chewed at that time, for a decoction of it does not appear to have been drank until the time of the Suy dynasty, when the Emperor Wass-te, suffering from headache, was cured by drinking an infusion of tea leaves, by the advice of a Buddhist priest. In the early seventh century this manner of using the shrub was general, and it has maintained its popularity unto the present time, making itself friends wherever it is introduced. The tea-plant somewhat resembles the Camellia Japonica, and Linnæus, imagining that the black and green teas came from different shrubs, named them _Thea bohea_ and _Thea viridis_. Fortune has definitely settled that both green and black tea are made off the same plants, and it is now taken that there is but one tea-plant, the _Thea Sinensis_, of which, however, there are several varieties, induced by climate, soil, etc. Tea-plants are grown from seeds, and are made bushy by pinching off the leading shoots. They are planted in rows, each plant being three or four feet distant from the other, and the leaves are stripped in the fourth or fifth year of its growth, and are plucked until the tenth or twelfth, when the plant is grubbed up. May and June are the general months of picking, which is done mostly by women; but the time varies according to the district. The young and early leaves give the finest and most delicate teas, but the flavour very much depends upon the drying and roasting; but still some soils and climates have a great deal to do with the taste, the finest tea in China growing between the 27th and 31st parallels of latitude. [Illustration: THEA SINENSIS.] The Trade names of teas imported from China to England are: _Black_—Congou, Souchong, Ning Yong and Oolong, Flowery and Orange Pekoe. The latter, and Caper, being artificially scented, are, therefore, carefully eschewed by _cognoscenti_. _Green_—Twankay, Hyson Skin, Hyson, Young Hyson, Imperial, and Gunpowder. Black tea has the rougher taste, and produces the darkest infusion. Green tea, however, has the greater effect upon the nerves, and if taken strong, acts as a narcotic, producing, with some people, tremblings and headaches, and on small animals even causing paralysis. It is, therefore, generally mixed with black in small proportion, say ¼ lb. to 1 lb. black tea. There is also what is called _brick tea_, which is consumed in the North of China, Tartary, and Thibet, but which we never see in England. This choice tea is made from the stalks and refuse and decayed twigs, mixed with the serum of sheep and ox blood, which, when it is pressed into moulds, hardens it. The Russians are said to get the finest tea that comes out of China—called Caravan Tea—which is made into large bales, covered with lead. This goes to Russia entirely overland, and to this fact some attribute its superior and delicate flavour. The tea trade of China is rapidly going from her, and she has but herself, and the shortsighted knavery of her growers and manufacturers, to thank for it. According to a Tea Circular,[122] the following are the imports and deliveries of China tea from 1st to 30th June:—