Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-05-17


English Life in the Eighteenth Century
Those who are uniuiormed upon the subiec
Of English social life during the reigns of Auni
! and the first three Georges would be astonishet
| to learn what an utterly diSSolute reckless, ant
| drunken life il was. Take for example the liter
| airy men, and, without descending to the "Grul
| street choir" we will find the great maorit,
| much given to what we would call debauchery
| Pope, whose Sickly constitution would not per
| init excuses of this kind, describes himself il
the early part of his career as sitting with tn
Addison cotere until two O'Clock in the morn
| ing, drinking punch and Burgundy amid tn
| fumes of tobacco. Even the model Addison wa
| accustomed to tarry long at his cups, and fuddl
| his brains with generous wine. In Il letter Il
| Lord Bathurst he says: 81 have lately had tn,
| honor to meet nv Lord Ellington at Amsterdam
| where we have drank Mr.. Woods health hun
| bred times in excellent champaign In this in
stance, as in too many others, | fear, he over
stepped the rule which he prescribed in No. 49,
of the Spectator "Were l to prescribe a rule
for drinking" says he, ''it should be formed
upon saying quoted by Sir William Temple
The first glass for myself the second for my
friends, the third for good humor, and the fourth
for mine enemies"
Poor Dick Steele passed his life in alternate
fits of dissipation and repentance. There is a
letter written by him to Mrs. Scarlock, after
ward his second wife, and preserved along with
hundreds of Others which torcibly suggests the
difference in manners between his day and our
own. Ii is dated Saturday night, August 80, 1907
and reads as follows: "Dear, lovely Mrs. Scar
lock, have been in very good company, where
your health, under the character of the woman
loved best, has been often drunk, so may say
that am dead drunk for your sake, which is
more than die for you.
The fine ladies of that day not only smiled
approvingly upon tipping beaux, but OCCASION
ally tppled very little themselves, which they
could do without losing caste In a letter from
prip IN RolinUbrnnL latnd Nav 10 171A hn
says in the postscript, Lady Jersey is just gone
from here. We drank your health together in
lSquebdugh after our tea" Gay, the author of
the "Beggar's OPERA" in letter written at
Tunbridge Wells, gives us curious item of
watering-place gossip. 1--WE have young lady
here" he writes, THAT is very particular in her
desires. | have known some young ladies who,
if ever thew prayed, would ask for some equipage
or title, husband or matadores; but this lady,
who is but seventeen and has 100000 10 her for
tune places all her wishes on good pot of ale.
When her friends for the sake OF her shape and
complexion, would diSsuade her from it, she
answers with the truest sincerity, that by the
loss OF shape and complexion she could only
lose a husband, whereas ale is her passion"
This believe is the only instance on record of
a Young lady who would barter her shape, com
pleXion and chances for husband for all the
other pleasures this world can give.
There is an anecdOte related i'll which GER
tain English bishop figures, which fairly illus
traIes the tremendous drinking capacity Of some
of those eighteenth century wine toperS. Ii is
said that when the bishop was moving from the
deanery of st. Pau's he asked Il learned friend
of his, by the name of Will Hay, how he should
move some especially fine caret, about which he
was anxious. "Pray, my lord bishop" says
Hay, chow much of the wine have you r. Six
dozen" says the bishop. ''lf that is all, replied
Hay, "you have but TO ask me SIX times to din
ner, and will carry it all away myself We
are told that the younger Pitt coming to the
house OF commons, after drinking one bottle OF
port wine at his house, would 90 into Bella
my's with DundaS and help finish couple
more. The duke of York, second son of Geog e
Ill, was such powerful drinker thatsiX bottles
after dinner scarcely made percepnbe change
in his cOuntenance.
In our own great metropolis the lives of its
citizens are not always secure from the attacks
of drunken rutiianS; and the details Of the car
hook tragedy are still fresh in the minds of all.
Unless DIR. johnson greatly eXaggerates, how
ever, the New York of our day Is a model in
this regard compared with the London Of his.
In his imitation of the 3D. Satire of Juvena, writ
ten in 1898, occur these lines;
Prepare for death if here at night you roam,
And sign your will before you sup from home,
Some fiery fop with new commission vain
Who sleeps on brambles till he kills his mani
Some frolic druukard reeling from a feast,
Proyokes broil and stabs you for jest.
An old chronicler writing in 1890 gives us
| picture oil deDaucherN IN England in his time, in
| which we remark the same tendency to magnify
the past and depreciate the present as is eX-
| hibited by so many around us. 1t is come to
pass that nowadays there care very few ieastes
where our men of war are present, but they do
invite and procure all the companie of what
calling soever they be, to carowsing and quaf-
fling, and because they will not be denied their
challenges, they with many new conges, cere-
monies, and reverences, drinke to the health
and prosperitie of princes, to the healthe of
counsellors, and unto the healthe of their
greatest friends, both at home and abroad, in
which exercise they never cease till they be
deade drunke."