Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-01-23
OLD TIME DRINKS.
The Beverages That Delighted England
MANY Years Ago.

Ihe concocters OF drinks who are us
ually brisk and genial at this festive
season have always taken a just pride
in their fertility of invention. The
height of their ambition is to please the
palates Of their customers, and many
of them lie awake o nights thinking of
fit names for new mixtures. Every
once in while a striking title is hit
upon for fancy beverage, and the
fame of the bar and its presiding genius
assumes profitable proportions. In the
work of nomenclature and compound
ing, they are frequently aided by hints
from members of the learned profess
sions. Lawyers, statesmen and phlos-
ophers have not considered it beneath
their dignity to invent and christen bev-
erages which for the time being seem
more satisfying than those that have
gone before" To this day. prominent
members of congress stop at certain
place on the south side Of Pennsylvania
avenue and call for a tJohn Hancock"
which is only to be had at this particu-
lar resort with all it's pristine flavor
and potency.
While Americans are foremost in this
line of art and are prone to sneer at
the paucity Of wit that characterizes
the drink mixers of other lands, the sad
confession must be made that this pre-
eminence results more from the exercise
of the initiative faculty than from inher-
ent originality. And yet it is more hu-
initiating to confess that we borrowed
the practice from England, the country
of all others which now deSpises any
thing but straight or diluted Scotch or
Irish, with an occasional lapse to a "B.
and s.. IN the upper circles, and "shan-
dygaff" in the plebeian pubs. Any one
| who gives thought to the history of
drinking, however, can understand why
the English were pioneers in the art of
ornamental tippling. Even before the
Roman invasion they were potent in
potting." Their beverages at that time,
it is true, were crude and ofttimes
harsh, but they made the most of their
opportunities, and as the island was
overrun by the various brands of in
vaders. mead and metheglin gave way
to all conquering wines and powerful
ales. In other words, as the population
| blended with succeeding races, drinks
and drinking also became mixed, till in
| Shakspere's time the country was in a
perpetual muddle and fuddle, and an
average Englishman was able ''to drink
with facility your Dane dead drunk
and put the bibulous German and the
| Swag- -bellied Hollander under the table
! 'ere the next pottle could be filled"
| Cocktails We're unknown in these
| glorious days and there is no authentic
record of smashes, fizzes, or even high
balls; but there were many other bever-
ages with good mouth-flling names.
| The swaggerers had a favorite tipple
called 'huffcap." 1t was an extra strong
ale, which made its devotees 'huffy,"
prone to bully and sometimes fight.
Women, who went to the tavern as
| boldly, If not quite so openly, as the
men, drank "merry-go-down,' which
was compounded of Spanish wines, with
liberal accessions of sugar a sprinkling
of nutmeg and a pinch of ginger. The
poorer class of religious men took kindly
, to ''lambs WOOL" which was made of
| hot ale, pulp of roasted apples, grated
nutmeg and ginger, with raw sugar fol-
sweetening. Monks, priests and prelates
had a special class of wines appropriate
ly known as "theologicum." They were
| of course, the finest vintages in the
market, for, as one Of the chroniclers OF
the times remarks, the wine merchant
was afraid to serve this class of Gus
toners with anything but the best, lest
his soul should go straight to the devil
Another SANITY drink was bishop,
which subsequently met the poetic
appreciation of Dean Swift, who wrote
Fine oranges,
Well roasted, with sugar and wine in
| cup.
They'll make sweet bishop which
gentlefolks sup.
The old poets were fond of celebrating
their drink in verse. OF sack, who's
J glorious operations We're graphically
described by It's high priest, Falstaff, al
EliZabethan poet wrote:
Sacke will make the merrie minde b,
sad,
So will it make the melancholie glad
If mirthe and sadness doth in sackt
remain,
When I am sad I will take some sackt
again.
But to return to fancy drinks, the
| list of which is by no means exhausted
| One wonderful decoction was made by
boiling a number of herbs, bitter and
sweet, and adding a quantity of the in
fusion to hot ale. This mixture which
was sweet or sour, soporific or eXhila-
rating, according to the luck of the
brewer in gathering his herbs, was
known as bitter sweet" Falstaff 1t
| will be remembered, could not stomach
apple-johns which were sometimes
roasted and dropped into hot spiced ale.
Grabs were preferred for this purpose.
Ale SO treated was a favorite indul-
gence at Christmas time Reference is
made to 1t in the winter song in Loves
Labour's Lost:
| When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,
Then nightly sings the staring owl.
| 1t formed the ingredient of the famous
wassail bowl, as we'll as of the gossip S
bowl, of which Puck says:
And sometimes lurk in a gossip's bowl.
In very likeness of roasted crab,
| And when she drinks against her Inns I
| bob,
And ON her withr'd dewlap pour the ale.
Other popular drinks were maddog
and dragons milk. Their main CON
stituent was ale of different degrees of
age and strength, favored with ginger
and similar hot stuff. Maddog was the
stronger Of the two. 1t was popular
among gentlemen Of Ancient Pistols
| stamp, who usually wanted something
to gulp their throats and put fire into
| their eyes. Topers owe a great deal to
this same maddog. He 1t was that in
troduced the custom, popular In other
lands besides England, Of easing the ef-
fects of overindulgence by taking "a
hair Of the dog that bit you"
The fastidious Briton Of the olden
times was mighty hard to please as to
the qualities Of wine. We find record of
his nicely in this regard as far back as
the twelfth century. An old manuscript
in the British Museum tells us what
wine was most priced "It should be
clear like the tears of a penitent, so
that man may see distinctly to the
bottom of his glass; its color should
represent the greenness of a buffalo S
horn; when drunk it should descend i'm
petuously like thunder; sweet-tasted,
like an almond; creeping, like squir-
rel; leaping, like a roebuck; strong, like
the building of a Cistercian monastery; /;
glitteriEg. like q spark Of fire: subtle.