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.”