Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected
without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have
been retained as printed.
Words printed in italics are marked with underscores: _italics_.
The cover of this ebook was created by the transcriber and is hereby
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[Illustration: SPRIG OF BORAGE IN GLASS CUP OF THE THIRD OR FOURTH CENTURY.
London Published by John Van Voorst Paternoster Row.]
CUPS AND THEIR CUSTOMS
"Touch brim! touch foot! the wine is red,
And leaps to the lips of the free;
Our wassail true is quickly said,--
Comrade! I drink to thee!
"Touch foot! touch brim! who cares? who cares?
Brothers in sorrow or glee,
Glory or danger each gallantly shares:
Comrade! I drink to thee!
"Touch brim! touch foot! once again, old friend,
Though the present our last draught be;
We were boys--we are men--we'll be true to the end:
Brother! I drink to thee!"
_SECOND EDITION._
LONDON:
JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW.
MDCCCLXIX.
PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS,
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.
PREFACE.
The principal object of these pages is to furnish a collection of
recipes for the brewing of compound drinks, technically called "Cups,"
all of which have been selected with the most scrupulous attention to
the rules of gastronomy, and their virtues tested and approved by
repeated trials. These we are inclined to put into type, from a belief
that, if they were more generally adopted, it would be the means of
getting rid of a great deal of that stereotyped drinking which at
present holds sway at the festive boards of England. In doing this, we
have endeavoured to simplify the matter as much as possible, adding
such hints and remarks as may prove serviceable to the uninitiated,
whilst we have discarded a goodly number of modern compounds as
unpalatable and unscientific. As, in this age of progress, most things
are raised to the position of a science, we see no reason why
Bacchanology, if the term please our readers, should not hold a
respectable place, and be entitled to its due _mead_ of praise; so, by
way of introduction, we have ventured to take a cursory glance at the
customs which have been attached to drinking from the earliest periods
to the present time. This, however, we set forth as no elaborate
history, but only as an arrangement of such scraps as have from time
to time fallen in our way, and have helped us to form ideas of the
social manners of bygone times.
We have selected a sprig of Borage for our frontispiece, by reason
of the usefulness of that pleasant herb in the flavouring of cups.
Elsewhere than in England, plants for flavouring are accounted of rare
virtue. So much are they esteemed in the East, that an anti-Brahminical
writer, showing the worthlessness of Hindu superstitions, says, "They
command you to cut down a living and sweet basil-plant, that you may
crown a lifeless stone." Our use of flavouring-herbs is the reverse of
this justly condemned one; for we crop them that hearts may be warmed
and life lengthened.
And here we would remark that, although our endeavours are directed
towards the resuscitation of better times than those we live in, times
of heartier customs and of more genial ways, we raise no lamentation
for the departure of the golden age, in the spirit of Hoffmann von
Fallersleben, who sings:--
"Would our bottles but grow deeper,
Did our wine but once get cheaper,
Then on earth there might unfold
The golden times, the age of gold!
"But not for us; we are commanded
To go with temperance even-handed.
The golden age is for the dead:
We've got the paper age instead!
"For, ah! our bottles still decline,
And daily dearer grows our wine,
And flat and void our pockets fall;
Faith! soon there'll be no times at all!"
This is rather the cry of those who live that they may drink, than of
our wiser selves, who drink that we may live. In truth, we are not dead
to the charms of other drinks, in moderation. The apple has had a share
of our favour, being recommended to our literary notice by an olden
poet--
"Praised and caress'd, the tuneful Phillips sung
Of cyder famed, whence first his laurels sprung;"
and we have looked with a friendly eye upon the wool of a porter-pot,
and involuntarily apostrophized it in the words of the old stanza,
"Rise then, my Muse, and to the world proclaim
The mighty charms of porter's potent name,"
without the least jealous feeling being aroused at the employment of a
Muse whose labours ought to be secured solely for humanity; but a
cup-drink, little and good, will, for its social and moral qualities,
ever hold the chief place in our likings.
Lastly, although we know many of our friends to be first-rate judges of
pleasant beverages, yet we believe that but few of them are acquainted
with their composition or history in times past. Should, therefore, any
hints we may have thrown out assist in adding to the conviviality of
the festive board, we feel we shall not have scribbled in vain; and we
beg especially to dedicate this bagatelle to all those good souls who
have been taught by experience that a firm adhesion to the "pigskin,"
and a rattling galopade to the music of the twanging horn and the
melody of the merry Pack, is the best incentive to the enjoyment of all
good things, especially good appetite, good fellowship, and
GOOD HEALTH.
...... And, although alone,
We'll drain one draught in
Memory of many a joyous
Banquet past.
PREFACE
TO
THE SECOND EDITION.
The Second Edition of this book contains much additional matter, all of
which has been derived from notes collected by one of the original
authors of the work, whose untimely death is mourned, and whose genial
hospitality is remembered, by very many friends. The compiler believes
that the additions made will greatly increase the usefulness of the
book to all compounders of Cups.
CUPS AND THEIR CUSTOMS.
.... "Then shall our names,
Familiar in their mouths as household words,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd."
As in all countries and in all ages drinking has existed as a necessary
institution, so we find it has been invariably accompanied by its
peculiar forms and ceremonies. But in endeavouring to trace these, we
are at once beset with the difficulty of fixing a starting-point. If we
were inclined to treat the subject in a rollicking fashion, we could
find a high antiquity ready-made to our hands in the apocryphal doings
of mythology, and might quote the nectar of the gods as the first of
all potations; for we are told that
"When Mars, the God of War, of Venus first did think,
He laid aside his helm and shield, and mix'd a drop of drink."
But it is our intention, at the risk of being considered pedantic, to
discourse on customs more tangible and real. If we are believers in the
existence of pre-Adamite man, the records he has left us, in the shape
of flint and stone implements, are far too difficult of _solution_
to be rendered available for drinking-purposes, or to assist us in
forming any idea of his inner life: we must therefore commence our
history at the time
...... "when God made choice to rear
His mighty champion, strong above compare,
Whose drink was only from the limpid brook."
Nor need we pause to dilate on the quality of this primæval draught;
for "Adam's ale" has always been an accepted world-wide beverage, even
before drinking-fountains were invented, and will continue till the
end of time to form the foundation of every other drinkable compound.
Neither was it necessary for the historian to inform us of the vessel
from which our grand progenitor quaffed his limpid potion, since our
common sense would tell us that the hollowed palm of his hand would
serve as the readiest and most probable means. To trace the origin of
drinking-vessels, and apply it to our modern word "cup," we must
introduce a singular historical fact, which, though leading us to it
by rather a circuitous route, it would not be proper to omit. We must
go back to a high antiquity if we would seek the derivation of the
word, inasmuch as its Celtic root is nearly in a mythologic age, so
far as the written history of the Celts is concerned--though the
barbarous custom from which the signification of our cups or goblets
is taken (that of drinking mead from the skull of a slain enemy) is
proved by chronicles to have been in use up to the eleventh century.
From this, a cup or goblet for containing liquor was called the
_Skull_ or _Skoll_, a root-word nearly retained in the Icelandic
_Skal_, _Skaal_, and _Skyllde_, the German _Schale_, the Danish
_Skaal_, and, coming to our own shores, in the Cornish _Skala_. So
ale-goblets in Celtic were termed _Kalt-skaal_; and, though applied in
other ways, the word lingers in the Highland Scotch as _Skiel_ (a
tub), and in the Orkneys the same word does duty for a flagon. From
this root, though more immediately derived from _Scutella_, a concave
vessel, through the Italian _Scodella_ and the French _Ecuelle_ (a
porringer), we have the homestead word Skillet still used in England.
There is no lack, in old chronicles, of examples illustrative of that
most barbarous practice of converting the skull of an enemy into a
drinking-cup. Warnefrid, in his work 'De Gestis Longobard.,' says,
"Albin slew Cuminum, and having carried away his head, converted it
into a drinking-vessel, which kind of cup with us is called Schala."
The same thing is said of the Boii by Livy, of the Scythians by
Herodotus, of the Scordisci by Rufus Festus, of the Gauls by Diodorus
Siculus, and of the Celts by Silius Italicus. Hence it is that Ragnar
Lodbrog, in his death-song, consoles himself with the reflection, "I
shall soon drink beer from hollow cups made of skulls."
In more modern times, the middle ages for example, we find historic
illustration of a new use of the word, where _Skoll_ was applied in
another though allied sense. Thus it is said of one of the leaders in
the Gowryan conspiracy "that he did drink his _skoll_ to my Lord
Duke," meaning that the health of that nobleman was pledged; and
again, at a festive table, we read that the _scoll_ passed about; and,
as a still better illustration, Calderwood says that drinking the
king's _skole_ meant the drinking of his cup in honour of him, which,
he adds, should always be drank standing. In more modern times,
however, drinking-cups have been formed of various materials, all of
which have, at least in regard to idea, a preferable and more humane
foundation than the one from which we derive the term. Thus, for many
centuries past, gold and silver vessels of every form and pattern have
been introduced, either with or without lids, and with or without
handles.
HANAP is the name of a small drinking-cup of the 15th and 16th
centuries, made usually of silver, gilt, standing upon feet. They were
made at Augsburgh and Nuremberg.
In an old French translation of Genesis, we find at v. 5, c.
xliv.:--"Le Hanap que vous avez amblèe est le Hanap mon Seignor, et
quel il solort deleter, male chose avez fait," relating to the silver
cup Joseph ordered to be put in his brother's sack. In some Scotch
songs a drinking-cup is called cogne or cog: this word is also spelt
in different parts of Scotland cogie, and coig. This word may be
compared with _coculum_ (medical Latin for a hollow wooden vessel),
also with the old German _kouch_, and the Welsh _cawg_, a basin.
The Flemish drinking-cups of the 16th and 17th centuries were called
_vidricomes_, _i.e._ "come-agains."
The bell-shaped drinking-glasses of the sixteenth century are specially
worthy of observation; and there are three very good specimens in the
Bernal Collection at the South-Kensington Museum, one of which is said
to be German, and the others Venetian. The mounting of the German glass
consists of a hollow sphere in silver, which encloses a dice and is
surmounted by a small statuette of Fortune. To the mounting of another
of these glasses is attached a little bell. These glasses will stand in
the reversed position only, and were of course intended to be emptied
at one draught, the dice being shaken or the bell tinkled as a finale
to the proceeding. There is also a curious cup in the possession of the
Vintners' Company, representing a milk-maid carrying a pail on her
head. This pail is set on a swivel, and is so contrived that the
uninitiated, when attempting to drink, invariably receive its contents
on their neck or chest.
In the last century it was very fashionable to convert the egg of the
ostrich or the polished shell of the cocoa-nut, set in silver, into a
drinking-vessel.
Many varieties of tankards were formerly in use, among which we may
mention the Peg-tankard and the Whistle-tankard, the latter of which
was constructed with a whistle attached to the brim, which could be
sounded when the cup required replenishing (from which, in all
probability, originated the saying, "If you want more, you must
whistle for it"); or, in more rare instances, the whistle was so
ingeniously contrived at the bottom of the vessel that it would sound
its own note when the tankard was empty. The Peg-tankard was an
ordinary-shaped mug, having in the inside a row of eight pins, one
above another, from top to bottom: this tankard held two quarts, so
that there was a gill of ale, _i.e._ half a pint, Winchester measure,
between each pin. The first person who drank was to empty the tankard
to the first peg or pin, the second was to empty to the next pin, and
so on; the pins were therefore so many measures to the compotators,
making them all drink alike; and as the space between each pin was
such as to contain a large draught of liquor, the company would be
very liable by this method to get drunk, especially when, if they
drank short of the pin, or beyond it, they were obliged to drink
again. For this reason, in Archbishop Anselm's Canons, made in the
Council in London in 1102, priests are enjoined not to go to
drinking-bouts, nor to drink to pegs. This shows the antiquity of the
invention, which, at least, is as old as the Conquest. There is a cup
now in the possession of Henry Howard, Esq., of Corby Castle, which is
said to have belonged to Thomas à Becket. It is made of ivory, set in
gold, with an inscription round the edge of it, "Drink thy wine with
joy;" and on the lid are engraved the words "Sobrii estote," with the
initials T. B. interlaced with a mitre, from which circumstance it is
attributed to Thomas à Becket, but in reality is a work of the 16th
century.
Whitaker, in his 'History of Craven', describing a drinking-horn
belonging to the Lister family, says, "Wine in England was first drank
out of the mazer-bowl, afterwards out of the bugle-horn. The
mazer-bowls were made from maple-wood, so named from the German
_Maser_, a spotted wood. Mr. Shirley possesses a very perfect
mazer-bowl of the time of Richard II. (1377-99). The bowl is of light
mottled wood highly polished, with a broad rim of silver gilt, round
the exterior of which are the following lines:--
"In the name of the Trinite
Fill the kup and drinke to me."
Mr. Milner, in 'Archeologia,' vol. xi. p. 411, describes a maple-wood
tankard, belonging to Lord Arundel, as of Saxon workmanship coeval
with Edgar, A.D. 800, who also passed a law, on the suggestion of St.
Dunstan, to prevent excessive drinking, by ordering cups to be marked
into spaces by pegs, that the quantity taken might be limited.
A considerable number of these ancient maple-wood tankards also exist
in the Museum at the Castle of Rosenburg. They were formerly made by
the Norwegian peasants during the long winter nights; and their style
of ornament cannot be older than the 16th century.
Contemporaneous with mazer-bowls were others called Piggins, Naggins,
Whiskins, Kannes, Pottles, Jakkes, Pronnet-cups and Beakers.
Silver bowls were next introduced; and about the latter end of
Elizabeth's reign these were superseded, as wine grew dearer and men
were temperate, by glasses. The earliest glasses used at banquets were
Venetian and no mention is made of glasses at state banquets before the
time of Elizabeth.
In the latter half of the last century, beer was usually carried from
the cellar to the table in large tankards made of leather, called
Blackjacks, some of which are still to be found, as also smaller ones
more refined in their workmanship, and having either an entire lining
of silver, or a rim of silver to drink from, on which it was customary
to inscribe the name of the owner, together with his trade or
occupation. "Tygs" were two-handled drinking-cups of the time of
Elizabeth, rudely formed of Staffordshire fire-clay called "Tyg." At
the end of the last century, glasses were manufactured of a taper form,
like a tall champagne-glass, but not less than between two and three
feet in height, from which it was considered a great feat to drain the
contents, generally consisting of strong ale, without removing the
glass from the lips, and without spilling any of the liquor,--a
somewhat difficult task towards the conclusion, on account of the
distance the liquid had to pass along the glass before reaching its
receptacle.
The earliest record we have of wine is in the Book of Genesis, where we
are told, "Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard,"
from which it is evident he knew the use that might be made of the
fruit by pressing the juice from it and preserving it: he was, however,
deceived in its strength by its sweetness; for, we are told, "he drank
of the wine, and was drunken." When the offspring of Noah dispersed
into the different countries of the world, they carried the vine with
them, and taught the use which might be made of it. Asia was the first
country to which the gift was imparted; and thence it quickly spread to
Europe and Africa, as we learn from the Iliad of Homer; from which book
we also learn that, at the time of the Trojan war, part of the commerce
consisted in the freight of wines. In order to arrive at customs and
historical evidence less remote, we must take refuge, as historians
have done before us, in the inner life of the two great empires of
Greece and Rome, among whom we find the ceremonies attached to drinking
were by no means sparse; and as the Romans copied most of their social
manners from the Greeks, the formalities observed among the two nations
in drinking differ but little. In public assemblies the wine-cup was
never raised to the lips without previously invoking a blessing from
a supposed good deity, from which custom it is probable that the
grace-cup of later days took its origin; and at the conclusion of their
feast, a cup was quaffed to their good genius, termed "poculum boni
Dei," which corresponds in the present day with the "coup d'étrier"
of the French, the "dock un dorish" of the Highland Scotch, and the
"parting-pot" of our own country. The Romans also frequently drank the
healths of their Emperors; and among other toasts they seldom forgot
"absent friends," though we have no record of their drinking to "all
friends round St. Peter's." It was customary at their entertainments to
elect, by throwing the dice, a person termed "arbiter bibendi," to act
much in the same way as our modern toast-master, his business being to
lay down to the company the rules to be observed in drinking, with the
power to punish such as did not conform to them. The gods having been
propitiated, the master of the feast drank his first cup to the most
distinguished guest, and then handed a full cup to him, in which he
acknowledged the compliment; the cup was then passed round by the
company, invariably from left to right, and always presented with the
right hand: on some occasions each person had his own cup, which a
servant replenished as soon as it was emptied, as described in the
feast of Homer's heroes. The vessels from which they drank were
generally made of wood, decorated with gold and silver, and crowned
with garlands, as also were their heads, particular flowers and herbs
being selected, which were supposed to keep all noxious vapours from
the brain. In some cases their cups were formed entirely of gold,
silver, or bronze. A beautiful example of a bronze cup was found in
Wiltshire, having the names of five Roman towns as an inscription, and
richly decorated with scenes of the chase, from which it has been
imagined that it belonged to a club or society of persons, probably
hunters, and may have been one of their prizes: they also used cups
made from the horns of animals. The wines were commonly drunk out of
small glasses called "cyaths," which held just the twelfth of a pint.
The chief beverage among the Greeks and Romans was the fermented juice
of the grape; but the particular form of it is a matter of some
uncertainty. The "vinum Albanum" was probably a kind of Frontignac, and
of all wines was most esteemed by the Romans,--though Horace speaks in
such glowing terms of Falernian, which was a strong and rough wine, and
was not fit for drinking till it had been kept ten years; and even then
it was customary to mix honey with it to soften it. Homer speaks of a
famous wine of Maronea in Thrace, which would bear mixing with twenty
times the quantity of water, although it was a common practice among
the natives to drink it in its pure state. Salt water was commonly used
by the Romans to dilute their wine, which they considered improved its
flavour, having previously boiled it. This custom is said to have
originated in the efforts of a slave to prevent detection, who, having
robbed his master's wine-cask, filled it up with salt water.
The Romans also mixed with their wine assafoetida, tar, myrrh, aloes,
pepper, spikenard, poppies, worm-wood, cassia, milk, chalk, bitter
almonds, and cypress; and they also exposed their wines to the action
of smoke in a sort of kiln, which thickened and matured it. These mixed
wines were taken in a peculiar kind of vessel called a "murrhine cup,"
which was said to impart a peculiar flavour to them; and though the
substance of which these cups were made is not known, it is fair to
surmise they were made of some aromatic wood similar to the "bitter
cup" of the present day, which is made from the wood of quassia tree.
The customary dilution among the Greeks appears to have consisted of
one part of wine to three parts of water,--the word "nympha" being used
in many classical passages for water, as for example in a Greek epigram
the literal translation of which is, "He delights in mingling with
three Nymphs, making himself the fourth;" this alludes to the custom of
mixing three parts of water with one of wine. In Greece, the wines of
Cyprus, Lesbos, and Chio were much esteemed; those of Lesbos are
especially mentioned by Horace as being wholesome and agreeable, as in
Ode 17, Book I.:--
"Hîc innocentis pocula Lesbii
Duces sub umbra."
"Beneath the shade you here may dine,
And quaff the harmless Lesbian wine."
The origin of wine-making is also claimed by the Persians, who have a
tradition of its accidental discovery by their king Jemsheed. The
monarch being fond of grapes had placed a quantity in a large vessel
in his cellar for future use. Some time afterwards the vessel was
opened, and the grapes were found in a state of fermentation, and,
being very acid, were believed by the king to be poisonous, and marked
accordingly. A lady of his harem being racked by pain, determined to
poison herself, for which purpose she drank some of the grape-juice--in
fact, got very drunk. After sleeping a considerable time, she awoke
perfectly well, and, being pleased with the result, managed in time to
finish all the poison. The monarch discovered what she had done, and
thence took the hint for his own advantage.
The Armenians claim the origin of wine because Noah planted his first
vineyard near Erivan, upon the spot where Noah and his family resided
before the Deluge.
The wines of Chio, however, held the greatest reputation, which was
such that the inhabitants of that island were thought to have been the
first who planted the vine and taught the use of it to other nations.
These wines were held in such esteem and were of so high a value at
Rome, that in the time of Lucullus, at their greatest entertainments,
they drank only one cup of them, at the end of the feast; but as
sweetness and delicacy of flavour were their prevailing qualities, this
final cup may have been taken as a liqueur. Both the Greeks and the
Romans kept their wine in large earthenware jars, made with narrow
necks, swollen bodies, and pointed at the bottom, by which they were
fixed into the earth; these vessels, called Amphoræ, though generally
of earthenware, are mentioned by Homer as being constructed of gold and
of stone. Among the Romans it was customary, at the time of filling
their wine-vessels, to inscribe upon them the name of the consul under
whose office they were filled, thus supplying them with a good means of
distinguishing their vintages and pointing out the excellence of
particular ones, much in the same way as we now speak of the vintages
of '20, '34, or '41. Thus, Pliny mentions a celebrated wine which took
its name from Opimius, in whose consulate it was made, and was
preserved good to his time (a period of nearly 200 years). The vessel
used for carrying the wine to the table was called Ampulla, being a
small bulging bottle covered with leather and having two handles, which
it would be fair to consider the original type of the famous "leathern
bottel," the inventor of which is so highly eulogized in the old song,--
"I wish that his soul in heaven may dwell,
Who first invented the leathern bottel."
The wine was frequently cooled by keeping the vessels in snow; and it
was brought to the table in flasks, which, instead of being corked, had
a little fine oil poured into the necks to exclude the air.
Although the ancients were well acquainted with the excellence of wine,
they were not ignorant of the dangers attending the abuse of it.
Salencus passed a law forbidding the use of wine, upon pain of death,
except in case of sickness; and the inhabitants of Marseilles and
Miletus prohibited the use of it to women. At Rome, in the early ages,
young persons of high birth were not permitted to drink wine till they
attained the age of thirty, and to women the use of it was absolutely
forbidden; but Seneca complains of the violation of this law, and says
that in his day the women valued themselves upon carrying excess of
wine to as great a height as the most robust men. "Like them," says he,
"they pass whole nights at tables, and, with a full glass of unmixed
wine in their hands, they glory in vying with them, and, if they can,
in overcoming them." This worthy philosopher, however, appears not to
have considered excess of drinking in men a vice; for he goes so far as
to advise men of high-strained minds to get intoxicated now and then.
"Not," says he, "that it may over-power us, but only relax our
overstrained faculties." Soon afterwards he adds, "Do you call Cato's
excess in wine a vice? Much sooner may you be able to prove drunkenness
to be a virtue, than Cato to be vicious."
The first history of wine was written in Latin by Bacci in the 16th
century; and in 1775 Sir Edward Barry composed his observations on
"Wines of the Ancients," whose authority, though not reliable, is
curious. After him came Dr. Henderson on Wines; and the best treatise
of the present day is the History of Wine by Cyrus Redding. To all
wine-keepers and consumers I would recommend a perusal of a little work
called 'The Wine Guide,' by Frederick C. Mills (1861).
Let us, with these casual remarks, leave the Greeks and Romans, with
jovial old Horace at their head, quaffing his cup of rosy Falernian,
his brow smothered in evergreens (as was his wont), and pass on to our
immediate ancestry, the Anglo-Saxon race--not forgetting, however, that
the ancient Britons had their veritable cup of honeyed drink, called
Metheglin, though this may be said indeed to have had a still greater
antiquity, if Ben Johnson is right in pronouncing it to have been the
favourite drink of Demosthenes while composing his excellent and
mellifluous orations. The Anglo-Saxons not only enjoyed their
potations, but conducted them with considerable pomp and ceremony,
although, as may readily be conceived, from want of civilization,
excess prevailed. In one of our earliest Saxon romances we learn that
"it came to the mind of Hrothgar to build a great mead-hall, which was
to be the chief palace;" and, further on, we find this palace spoken of
as "the beer-hall, where the Thane performed his office--he that in his
hand bare the twisted ale-cup, from which he poured the bright, sweet
liquor, while the poet sang serene, and the guests boasted of their
exploits." Furthermore we learn that, when the queen entered, she
served out the liquor, first offering the cup to her lord and master,
and afterwards to the guests. In this romance, "the dear or precious
drinking-cup, from which they quaffed the mead," is also spoken of: and
as these worthies had the peculiar custom of burying the drinking-cups
with their dead, we may conclude they were held in high esteem, while
at the same time it gives us an opportunity of actually seeing the
vessels of which the romance informs us; for in Saxon graves, or
barrows, they are now frequently found. They were principally made of
glass; and the twisted pattern alluded to appears to have been the most
prevailing shape. Several other forms have been discovered, all of
which, however, are so formed with rounded bottoms that they will not
stand by themselves; consequently their contents must have been quaffed
before replacing them on the table. It is probable that from this
peculiar shape we derive our modern word "tumbler;" and, if so, the
freak attributed to the Prince Regent, and since his time, occasionally
performed at our Universities, of breaking the stems off the
wine-glasses in order to ensure their being emptied of the contents,
was no new scheme, it having been employed by our ancestors in a more
legitimate and less expensive manner. We also find, in Anglo-Saxon
graves, pitchers from which the drink was poured, differing but little
from those now in common use, as well as buckets in which the ale was
conveyed from the cellar. That drinking-cups among the Anglo-Saxons
were held in high esteem, and were probably of considerable value,
there can be no doubt, from the frequent mention made of their being
bequeathed after death; in proof of which, from among many others, we
may quote the instance of the Mercian king Witlaf giving to the Abbey
of Crowland the horn of his table, "that the elder monks may drink from
it on festivals, and in their benedictions remember sometimes the soul
of the donor," as well as the one mentioned in Gale's 'History of
Ramsey,' to the Abbey of which place the Lady Ethelgiva presented "two
silver cups for the use of the brethren in the refectory, in order
that, while drink is served in them, my memory may be more firmly
imprinted on their hearts." Another curious proof of the estimation in
which they were held is, that in pictures of warlike expeditions, where
representations of the valuable spoils are given, we invariably find
drinking-vessels portrayed most prominently. The ordinary drinks of the
Anglo-Saxons were ale and mead, though wine was also used by them; but
wine is spoken of as "not the drink of children or of fools, but of
elders and wise men:" and the scholar says he does not drink wine,
because he is not rich enough to buy it; from which, _en passant_,
we may notice that scholars were not rich men even in those days, and
up to the present time, we fear, have but little improved their worldly
estate. We cannot learn that the Saxons were in the habit of
compounding drinks, and, beyond the fact of their pledging each other
with the words "Drinc-hæl" and "Wæss-hæl," accompanying the words with
a kiss, and that minstrelsy formed a conspicuous adjunct to their
drinking-festivities, we can obtain but little knowledge of the customs
they pursued. The Vedic "cup-drink" was "Soma," which is described as
being "sweet, honied, sharp and well-flavoured," the liquor of the
Gods. One of the many hymns in the Vedas in its praise may be thus
translated--
"We have drunk the Soma
And are entered into Light,
So that we know the Gods.
What can now an enemy do to us?
What can the malice of any mortal effect
Against thee and us, O! thou immortal God?"
For further information on this and other points, much may be learnt
from Mr. Wright's excellent book of 'Domestic Manners and Sentiments
of the Middle Ages,' where some good illustrations of Saxon
drinking-scenes are sketched from the Harleian and other manuscripts.
From the scarcity of materials descriptive of the social habits of the
Normans, we glean but little as to their customs of drinking; in all
probability they differed but slightly from those of the Saxons,
though at this time wine became of more frequent use, the vessels from
which it was quaffed being bowl-shaped, and generally made of glass.
Will of Malmsbury, describing the customs of Glastonbury soon after
the Conquest, says, that on particular occasions the monks had "mead
in their cans, and wine in their grace-cup." Excess in drinking
appears to have been looked upon with leniency; for, in the stories of
Reginald of Durham, we read of a party drinking all night at the house
of a priest; and in another he mentions a youth passing the whole
night drinking at a tavern with his monastic teacher, till the one
cannot prevail on the other to go home. The qualities of good wine in
the 12th century are thus singularly set forth:--"It should be clear
like the tears of a penitent, so that a man may see distinctly to the
bottom of the glass; its colour should represent the greenness of a
buffalo's horn; when drunk, it should descend impetuously like
thunder; sweet-tasted as an almond; creeping like a squirrel; leaping
like a roebuck; strong like the building of a Cistercian monastery;
glittering like a spark of fire; subtle like the logic of the schools
of Paris; delicate as fine silk; and colder than crystal." If we
pursue our theme through the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, we find
but little to edify us, those times being distinguished more by their
excess and riot than by superiority of beverages or the customs
attached to them. It would be neither profitable nor interesting to
descant on scenes of brawling drunkenness, which ended not
unfrequently in fierce battles--or pause to admire the congregation of
female gossips at the taverns, where the overhanging sign was either
the branch of a tree, from which we derive the saying that "good wine
needs no bush," or the equally common appendage of a besom hanging
from the window, which has supplied us with the idea of "hanging out
the broom." The chief wine drank at this period was Malmsey, first
imported into England in the 13th century, when its average price was
about 50_s._ a butt; this wine, however, attained its greatest
popularity in the 15th century. There is a story in connexion with
this wine which makes it familiar to every schoolboy; and that is, the
part it played in the death of the Duke of Clarence. Whether that
nobleman did choose a butt of Malmsey, and thus carry out the idea of
drowning his cares in wine, as well as his body, matters but little,
we think, to our readers. We may however mention that although great
suspicion has been thrown on the truth of the story, the only two
contemporary writers who mention his death, Fabyan and Comines, appear
to have had no doubt that the Duke of Clarence was actually drowned in
a butt of Malmsey. In the records kept of the expenses of Mary, Queen
of Scots, during her captivity at Tutbury, we find a weekly allowance
of Malmsey granted to her for a bath. In a somewhat scarce French
book, written in the 15th century, entitled 'La Légende de Maître
Pierre Faiferi,' we find the following verse relating to the death of
the Duke of Clarence:--
"I have seen the Duke of Clarence
(So his wayward fate had will'd),
By his special order, drown'd
In a cask with Malmsey fill'd.
That that death should strike his fancy,
This the reason, I suppose;
He might think that hearty drinking
Would appease his dying throes."
A wine called "Clary" was also drank at this period. It appears to
have been an infusion of the herb of that name in spirit, and is
spoken of by physicians of the time as an excellent cordial for the
stomach, and highly efficacious in the cure of hysterical affections.
This may in some measure account for the statement in the Household
Ordinances for the well keeping of the Princess Cecil, afterwards
mother to that right lusty and handsome King, Edward IV.; we there
find it laid down "that for the maintenance of honest mirth she shall
take, an hour before bedtime, a cup of Clary wine." "Red wine" is
also spoken of in the reign of Henry VIII.; but it is uncertain to
what class of wine it belonged, or whence it came: if palatable,
however, its cheapness would recommend it; for at the marriage of
Gervys Clinton and Mary Neville, three hogsheads of it, for the
wedding-feast, were bought for five guineas. Gascony and Guienne wines
were sold in the reign of Henry VIII. at eighteenpence a gallon, and
Malmsey, Romaney, and sack at twelvepence a pint. In the reign of
Edward IV. few places were allowed more than two taverns, and London
was limited to forty. None but those who could spend 100 marks a year,
or the son of a Duke, Marquis, Earl, or Baron, were allowed to keep
more than ten gallons of wine at one time; and only the High Sheriffs,
Magistrates of Cities, and the inhabitants of fortified towns might
keep vessels of wine for their own use. In the same reign, however,
we learn that the Archbishop of York consumed 100 tons on his
enthronement, and as much as four pipes a month were consumed in some
of our noblemen's houses. We must not, however, pass over the 15th
century without proclaiming it as the dawn of the "Cup-epoch," if we
may be allowed the term, as gleaned from the rolls of some of the
ancient colleges of our Universities. In the _computus_ of Magstoke
Priory, A.D. 1447, is an entry in Latin, the translation of which
seems to be this:--"Paid for raisin wine, with comfits and spices,
when Sir S. Montford's fool was here and exhibited his merriments
in the oriel chamber." And even in Edward III.'s reign, we read that
at the Christmas feasts the drinks were a collection of spiced
liquors, and cinnamon and grains of paradise were among the dessert
confections--evidence of compound drinks being in fashion; and these,
although somewhat too much medicated to be in accordance with our
present taste, deserve well of us as leading to better things. Olden
worthies who took their cups regularly, and so lived clean and
cheerful lives, when they were moved to give up their choice recipes
for the public good, described them under the head of "kitchen
physic;" for the oldest "Curry" or Cookery Books (the words are
synonymous) include, under this head, both dishes of meats and
brewages of drinks. One cup is described as "of mighty power in
driving away the cobweby fogs that dull the brain," another as "a
generous and right excellent cordial, very comforting to the stomach;"
and their possession of these good qualities was notably the reason of
their appearance at entertainments. Among the most prominent ranks the
medicated composition called Hypocras, also styled "Ypocras for
Lords," for the making of which various recipes are to be found, one
of which we will quote:--
"Take of Aqua vitæ (brandy) 5 oz.
Pepper 2 oz.
Ginger 2 oz.
Cloves 2 oz.
Grains of Paradise 2 oz.
Ambergris 5 grs.
Musk 2 grs.
Infuse these for twenty-four hours, then put a pound of sugar to a
quart of red wine or cider, and drop three or four drops of the
infusion into it, and it will make it taste richly." This compound was
usually given at marriage festivals, when it was introduced at the
commencement of the banquet, served hot; for it is said to be of so
comforting and generous a nature that the stomach would be at once put
into good temper to enjoy the meats provided. Hypocras (so called from
a particular bag through which it was strained) was also a favourite
winter beverage; and we find in an old almanac of 1699 the lines--
"Sack, Hypocras, now, and burnt brandy
Are drinks as good and warm as can be."
Hypocras, however, is mentioned as early as the 14th century. From
this period we select our champion of compound drinks in no less a
personage than the noblest courtier of Queen Bess; for, among other
legacies of price, Sir Walter Raleigh has handed down to us a recipe
for "Cordial Water," which, in its simplicity and goodness, stands
alone among the compounds of the age. "Take," says he, "a gallon of
strawberries and put them into a pint of aqua vitæ; let them stand
four days, then strain them gently off, and sweeten the liquor as it
pleaseth thee." This beverage, though somewhat too potent for modern
palates, may, by proper dilution, be rendered no unworthy cup even in
the present age. From the same noble hand we get a recipe for Sack
Posset, which full well shows us propriety of taste in its compounder.
"Boil a quart of cream with quantum sufficit of sugar, mace, and
nutmeg; take half a pint of sack, and the same quantity of ale, and
boil them well together, adding sugar; these, being boiled separately,
are now to be added. Heat a pewter dish very hot, and cover your basin
with it, and let it stand by the fire for two or three hours."
With regard to wines, we find in the beginning of the 16th century
that the demand for Malmsey was small; and in 1531 we find Sack first
spoken of, that being the name applied to the vintages of Candia,
Cyprus, and Spain. Shakspeare pronounced Malmsey to be "fulsom," and
bestowed all his praises on "fertil sherries;" and when Shakspeare
makes use of the word Sack, he evidently means by it a superior class
of wine. Thus Sir Launcelot Sparcock, in the "London Prodigal," says,
"Drawer, let me have _sack_ for us old men:
For these girls and knaves small wines are best."
In all probability, the sack of Shakspeare was very much allied to, if
not precisely the same as, our sherry; for Falstaff says, "You rogue!
there is lime in this sack too; there is nothing but roguery to be
found in villanous man; yet a coward is worse than sack with lime in
it;" and we know that lime is used in the manufacture of sherry, in
order to free it from a portion of malic and tartaric acids, and to
assist in producing its dry quality. Sack is spoken of as late as
1717, in a parish register, which allows the minister a pint of it on
the Lord's day, in the winter season; and Swift, writing in 1727, has
the lines--
"As clever Tom Clinch, while the rabble was bawling,
Rode stately through Holborn to die of his calling,
He stopped at the 'George' for a bottle of sack,
And promised to pay for it when he came back."
He was probably of the same opinion as the Elizabethan poet, who sang,
"Sacke will make the merry minde sad,
So will it make the melancholie glad.
If mirthe and sadnesse doth in sacke remain,
When I am sad I'll take some sacke again."
A recipe of this time, attributed to Sir Fleetwood Fletcher, is
curious in its composition in more ways than one; and, as we seldom
find such documents in rhyme, we give it:--
"From famed Barbadoes, on the western main,
Fetch sugar, ounces four; fetch sack from Spain,
A pint; and from the Eastern coast,
Nutmeg, the glory of our northern toast;
O'er flaming coals let them together heat,
Till the all-conquering sack dissolve the sweet;
O'er such another fire put eggs just ten,
New-born from tread of cock and rump of hen;
Stir them with steady hand, and conscience pricking,
To see the untimely end of ten fine chicken;
From shining shelf take down the brazen skillet--
A quart of milk from gentle cow will fill it;
When boil'd and cold put milk and sack to eggs,
Unite them firmly like the triple leagues;
And on the fire let them together dwell
Till miss sing twice 'you must not kiss and tell;'
Each lad and lass take up a silver spoon,
And fall on fiercely like a starved dragoon."
About this time, one Lord Holles, who probably represented the total
abstainers of the age, invented a drink termed Hydromel, made of
honey, spring-water, and ginger; and a cup of this taken at night,
said he, "will cure thee of all troubles,"--thus acknowledging the
stomachic virtues of cups, though some warping of his senses would not
let him believe, to a curable extent, in more potent draughts: being
in charity with him, we hope his was a saving faith; but we have our
doubts of it, he died so young. Another recipe of the same nature was,
"The Ale of health and strength," by the Duchess of St. Albans, which
appears to have been a decoction of all the aromatic herbs in the
garden (whether agreeable or otherwise), boiled up in small beer; and,
thinking this account of its composition is sufficient, we will not
indulge our readers with the various items or proportions. One of the
most amusing descriptions of old English cheer we ever met with is
that of Master Stephen Perlin, a French physician, who was in England
during the reigns of Edward VI. and Mary. He says, writing for the
benefit of his countrymen, "The English, one with the other, are
joyous, and are very fond of music; likewise they are great drinkers.
Now remember, if you please, that in this country they generally use
vessels of silver when they drink wine; and they will say to you
usually at table, 'Goude chere;' and also they will say to you more
than one hundred times, 'Drind oui,' and you will reply to them in
their language, 'Iplaigui.' They drink their beer out of earthenware
pots, of which the handles and the covers are of silver," &c. Worthy
Master Perlin seems hardly to have got on with his spelling of the
English tongue while he was studying our habits; his account, however,
of olden customs is reliable and curious. The custom of pledging and
drinking healths is generally stated to have originated with the
Anglo-Saxons; but, with such decided evidence before us of similar
customs among the Greeks and Romans, we must at any rate refer it to
an earlier period; and indeed we may rationally surmise that, in some
form or other, the custom has existed from time immemorial. In later
times the term "toasting" was employed to designate customs of a
similar import, though the precise date of the application of this
term is uncertain; and although we cannot accept the explanation given
in the 24th number of the 'Tatler,' yet, for its quaintness, we will
quote it:--
"It is said that while a celebrated beauty was indulging in her bath,
one of the crowd of admirers who surrounded her took a glass of the
water in which the fair one was dabbling, and drank her health to the
company, when a gay fellow offered to jump in, saying, 'Though he
liked not the liquor, he would have the _toast_.'" This tale proves
that toasts were put into beverages in those days, or the wag would
not have applied the simile to the fair bather; and in the reign of
Charles II., Earl Rochester writes,
"Make it so large that, fill'd with sack
Up to the swelling brim,
Vast _toasts_ on the delicious lake,
Like ships at sea, may swim."
And in a panegyric on Oxford ale, written by Warton in 1720, we have
the lines--
"My sober evening let the tankard bless,
With _toast_ embrown'd, and fragrant nutmeg fraught,
While the rich draught, with oft-repeated whiffs,
Tobacco mild improves."
Johnson, in his translation of Horace, makes use of the expression in
Ode I. Book IV. thus--
"There jest and feast; make him thine host,
If a fit liver thou dost seek to _toast_;"
and Prior, in the "Camelion," says,
"But if at first he minds his hits,
And drinks champaign among the wits,
Five deep he _toasts_ the towering lasses,
Repeats your verses wrote on glasses."
This last line has reference to the custom pursued in the clubs of the
eighteenth century, of writing verses on the brims of their cups; they
also inscribed on them the names of the favourite ladies whom they
toasted: and Dr. Arbuthnot ascribes the name of the celebrated Kit-Cat
Club to the toasts drank there, rather than to the renowned
pastry-cook, Christopher Kat; for he says,
"From no trim beaux its name it boasts,
Grey statesmen or green wits;
But from its pell-mell pack of toasts,
Of old Cat and young Kits."